Bios update has bricked computer

I know this is a windows forum but i cannot get any help. HP will not let my post thread because they or windows updated the bios april 29 2022 and i have had nothing but problems since when my computer reboots. Updated computer in May 2022 and all of my windows update restarts have had to have hard resets because i get a 3 long and 2 short code and have to enter bios to get it to get to windows. Now that does nothing. I guess the timing between my ram and bios is out of sync and it is in brick status. I have a hp14-df0018wm computer. I tried replacing the ram with 8 gig 2400mhz ddr4 cl17 it had 4gig 2666mhz ddr4 in it and it did nothing. usb flashing does nothing , Is there a way to get the correct bios back on my system so that it can read properly. I do not know the build number of windows all i know is that it was up to date on everything and that seems to be the problem the a crappy update is put out and all anyone can do is try to silence this.

Please do not post any generic responses and then saying it is solved with it. here the specs

fester_11 said:

Please do not post any generic responses and then saying it is solved with it. here the specs

HP Notebook - 14-df0018wm Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

Looking for upgrade or update information? Trying to find the names of components or programs? This document contains the technical details for this product.

support.hp.com

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What's up with people these days - especially those with minimum posts on Forums saying "Please do not post -- any type of solution".

Why then post here and ask for help, There's people here on these Forums who have a huge amount of experience on these matters and have helped 1000's of people here (or may be more).

The amount of help I've had from these Forums I doubt whether I could have got anywhere else even if I had paid zillions of dollars for courses - and I like to think I'm reasonably intelligent -- a Doctorate / PhD from London's Imperial College isn't a bad thing to have on a CV / Resume.

Just look at the possibilities -- some solutions may work others might not - but if you have a "Bricked computer" I'd have thought ANY solution was worth trying.

I doubt if one could really Brick a computer unless you burnt out its Bios or ROM's -- a lot will supply bootable program which can update BIOS / ROM.

Perhaps some sort of Initial probation for new members - with posts being moderated before being uploaded to general Forums -- although of course more work for the mods who already work hard enough in their own unpaid time and are much appreciated for keeping these Forums such a pleasant place to visit and full of useful and helpful info.

Thanks to all the hard working mods here - even helping Linux Bigots like me in fixing Windows problems.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

What's up with people these days - especially those with minimum posts on Forums saying "Please do not post -- any type of solution".

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Although poorly worded, I'm guessing that they are saying that they searched and none of the suggestions they tried worked.

fester_11, could we possibly start with just a couple points of clarification to get a clear understanding of the state of your system?

1) Can you get into the BIOS setup for your laptop? From most HP laptops you would repeatedly press F10 during startup to enter the BIOS. On some system you may need to press Fn + F10. If you can at least do that, then we know that your computer is not fully "bricked" and there is hope that the issue at hand may still be remedied.

2) If you can get into the BIOS, please try this next. Create a Windows 10 or 11 bootable thumb drive if you do not already have one. Try to boot from that thumb drive. Much like entering the BIOS, you may need to press a hotkey to be able to choose the device to boot from. On an HP laptop this is usually F9 or Fn + F9. You only need to boot up to the first static screen (where Windows asks you for region information). If you can successfully do this, then we have a lot higher confidence in the basic functionality of the laptop. In that case, we could start looking at specific BIOS settings or consider looking at the current Windows installation to see if it is damaged, but let's start with these two tests first.

Sorry I can't help you because I have 3 laptops that recently were given HP BIOS upgrades through the normal windows update and all went very well. Good Luck!

Have you tried to unplug it and take out the battery and memory?
MS is really taking a leap of fate with those BIOS updates.

f buttons do not work, tried the load the april 29 update on usb and did nothing , means not reading or i did something wrong somehow. Power reset does not work. All you do get is 3 flash 2 flash on the caps lock , escape does not work, delete does not work, took apart computer looking for cmos battery seems to be none had it all apart, which means it runs off the main battery. Had main battery out when all apart for hours , discharged capacitor at this time by holding down power button. my way of thinking is this that the 5 or so power resets that i did reverted the bios to the one that was ihstalled with windows 10 s mode a couple of years ago. Also i had noticed that for less than a second a system failure screen would pop up while i was using the computer once in a blue moon , of course it pop up so fast that i could not read it but system continued to operate until this last windows update and i had to restart the computer. It was only when i had to restart the computer that i had problem with computer and had to do hard resets, which was about 5 times since early may. Have seen a lot of post on hp website that moderate gave generic answer of everything i tried and then said it was solved when they just said what was on youtube. So my only option seems to be bois replacement or something about find out the model of motherboard and go through the steps of putting a working bios back on it and run a complete scan of the system instead of the quick one that i ran a couple weeks ago and look for errors.

if it words are ran together too much for you to understand i can write it out longer. lot info in one paragraph.

this is how i got around the 3 flash problem 5 times or so . do a power reset then hit escape on the next start up and enter bios and choose normal start up . so i was entering bios to get to windows.

computer has windows 11, for like 8 months or so not windows 10 s mode that came with it. This computer is not able to have windows 11 it is to old hence i cannot post system for you just a link to hp spec.

I can see you've already looked for the cmos battery. Something that used to work on old netbooks was putting both ends of paperclip against two copper triangles (probably irrelevant with your laptop sorry) but that used to just clear a bios password I think. And/or reset the bios.

I couldn't quite follow everything but can you boot into a Windows 10 usb as suggested above? If the bios has actually bricked it then not sure there is much to be done - as you've tried reflashing the bios. Other than trying reflashing again with the latest version.

hsehestedt said:

fester_11, could we possibly start with just a couple points of clarification to get a clear understanding of the state of your system?

1) Can you get into the BIOS setup for your laptop? From most HP laptops you would repeatedly press F10 during startup to enter the BIOS. On some system you may need to press Fn + F10. If you can at least do that, then we know that your computer is not fully "bricked" and there is hope that the issue at hand may still be remedied.

2) If you can get into the BIOS, please try this next. Create a Windows 10 or 11 bootable thumb drive if you do not already have one. Try to boot from that thumb drive. Much like entering the BIOS, you may need to press a hotkey to be able to choose the device to boot from. On an HP laptop this is usually F9 or Fn + F9. You only need to boot up to the first static screen (where Windows asks you for region information). If you can successfully do this, then we have a lot higher confidence in the basic functionality of the laptop. In that case, we could start looking at specific BIOS settings or consider looking at the current Windows installation to see if it is damaged, but let's start with these two tests first.

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I just read back and he says the escape and function buttons aren't working, so it probably isn't possible to boot into Windows 10 that way. But you could go into the bios and set the usb as the first bootable device - that should work so you can boot from Windows 10 and run some tests.

bricked means you cannot enter the bios , i have seen where some computers you can jump the board for a reset i will investigate that when look up the motherboard and try to follow motherboard directions from them if i can find who them are.. I got this idea from they are having problems with having problem with the new ddr5 ram being out of sync with the bios.

it basically says one of the usb ports can be used to reprogram the bios from the manufacture of the board, who originally put it on there and only one port.

if u look up 3 long 2 short one of the problems is the ram and bios communication problem, they suggest to replace the ram first to see if ur ram is bad , which i did.

i was also thinking of reflashing with the older version first

fester_11 said:

i was also thinking of reflashing with the older version first

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Way to go - post here for advice, then totally ignore advice or answer people trying to help.

Even the above statement is kind of telling. Virtually all pcs do not allow you to reflash to an older version.

That is the last thing I would do until I have exhausted other options.

i stated already that i flashed it
with the new version or at least i tried it did not work. so i was going to try to use the original windows 11 version from last year before i tear into the system again on a good note i can plug in my battery pack for my cell phone / radio and charge it .That at least works.