Review of HP Probooks 445 G7 and 455 G7 bricked with BIOS update

[German]Hewlett Packard (HP) has released a broken BIOS version 01.17.00 that turns notebooks of the HP Probook 445 G7 and 455 G7 models from 2020 into expensive paperweights. An affected reader has subsequently contacted us again and described some advice on how to return the broken devices to the manufacturer for repair.

BIOS update bricks notebooks

In June 2024, blog reader Chris contacted me due to a problem for owners of HP notebooks. In his company environment, the HP Support Assistant suggested a firmware update of the BIOS for notebooks. This BIOS 01.17.00.Update is supposed to close a critical vulnerability, which was also listed as a critical update by the Support Assistant.

Anyone who followed this suggestion was in for a nasty surprise. The BIOS version 01.17.00 bricked the HP Probook 445 G7 and HP Probook 455 G7 notebooks during the update. The following error picture then appears: "When switching on, the keyboard lighting still comes on and the fan turns up. The notebook does not even make it to the BIOS beep."

Tips from support forums don't help – the devices are broken. I had covered the details in the blog post BIOS-Update 01.17.00 bricks HP Probooks 445 G7 and 455 G7. There I also linked to Internet sites with reports from other affected people.

It does not look good for those affected. HP Probook 445 G7 and 455 G7 notebooks are from 2020 – so they are no longer covered by the two-year warranty. And a warranty only applies to consumers – not to companies and business cases. You can find out whether an HP manufacturer's warranty is still valid by checking the device data on the HP website "Product Warranty Check".

Lengthy repair attempts

The affected reader who contacted me and provided me with the information for the above article has since reached an agreement with HP. He wrote to me that after "several attempts", HP had replaced the mainboard of the notebook that had been damaged by the BIOS update at their expense. The device is working again!

However, the whole thing took time and nerves. In the first run, HP sent a service provider to replace the mainboard on site for the first time. After that, the laptop ran again, but was unstable as hell. The device crashed several times during almost every boot before it even made it to Windows, the reader noted. The service provider then announced that he would replace the mainboard again because he suspected that the mainboard was defective somewhere. However, the service provider only came to the appointment with a new SSD and new RAM and said that he had not received a new mainboard from HP. The service provider tested the device with a new SSD and RAM, but as expected, this didn't help (the components hadn't caused any problems before).

Before the service provider showed up a third time at the customer's premises, HP Complaints Management got in touch to inquire about the status (according to the reader, there was an inquiry every few days, HP Complaints Management was indeed very committed). After describing the facts and status, the decision was made to have the defective device repaired by the manufacturer. The service provider who wanted to attempt the repair for the third time was not informed. The "home visit" was prevented by the customer canceling the service provider. It works at HP!

HP then created a pick-up order via UPS, writes the reader. The UPS employee then came as agreed, but had neither a box nor a pick-up slip with him and said that there was nothing in the order. He then came 2 more times over the next few days with the same result. Ongoing. "So HP had created a pick-up order, but neither I nor UPS had received the pick-up slip," wrote the reader.

During the next phone call with HP, the problem was described, whereupon HP set up another pick-up order. At the next appointment, UPS actually had the box and the pick-up slip with them, so he was finally able to take the laptop with him.

At this point, I'm personally looking forward to complaints management being handled by AI in the future and the LLM hallucinating and possibly triggering an order of 30 laptops for the customer.

But hey, everything turned out fine for the reader at the end of the day. According to the reader, the repair and return of the device went pretty quickly. The whole thing only took about a week and HP actually replaced the mainboard again. This time, the repair seems to have been successful and the device is running stably. The reader wrote on August 19, 2024: "We finally finished the process today, after more than 2 months, 2 on-site repairs, 4 pick-up attempts and probably 20 phone calls with HP complaint management. In the end, it would have been a lot cheaper for everyone involved if they had just given me a new device."

What those affected should try

The reader gives those affected the following advice on how to deal with HP and its support with regard to the broken device:

• Contact HP support and describe the problem (laptop defective after update to BIOS 01.17.00)
• Refer to the corresponding statement from HP on Tom's Hardware
• If the support team refuse a repair due to expired warranty and suggests a chargeable repair (they don't seem to be well informed about the facts): Do not agree to this, but insist on an escalation to the complaint management (they seem to know much better)
• Insist on the mainboard being replaced (this is the only thing that will solve the problem)

Those affected should be prepared for a lot of "back and forth", but be persistent, says the reader. And the final tip if the repair has worked: After the repair, deactivate the option for automatic BIOS updates in the BIOS via the Windows Updater – so that this doesn't happen again.

At this point, I would like to thank the reader for the addendum, which he concluded with the following comment: "I hope that HP learns something from this, but I'm afraid not. In any case, I will take much longer with my BIOS updates in future. I don't need the fun again." Perhaps it will help others affected.