Appendix F System Bios; Updating Or Restoring A Bios - HP t730 Troubleshooting Manual

F System BIOS

Updating or restoring a BIOS

HP Device Manager
HP Device Manager can be used to update the BIOS of a thin client. Customers can use a pre-built BIOS add-on
or can use the standard BIOS upgrade package along with an HP Device Manager File and Registry template.
For more information on HP Device Manager File and Registry templates, review the HP Device Manager User
Guide found at www.hp.com/go/hpdm.
Windows BIOS Flashing
You can use the BIOS Flash Update SoftPaq to restore or upgrade the system BIOS. Several methods for
changing the BIOS firmware stored on your computer are available.
The BIOS executable is a utility designed to flash the System BIOS within a Microsoft Windows environment.
To display the available options for this utility, launch the executable file under the Microsoft Windows
environment.
You can run the BIOS executable with or without the USB storage device. If the system does not have a USB
storage device installed, the BIOS update will perform under the Microsoft Windows environment and
followed by system reboot.
Linux BIOS Flashing
You can use the hp-flash utility and its associated driver to update the BIOS on systems running Linux. After
the driver loads, execute the utility from a command prompt with administrator privileges. The HP ThinPro or
HP Smart Client Linux OS images include the utility for updating the BIOS, but the binary file to flash must be
copied from the DOS Flash folder to the unit. Review the README.txt file for more specific instructions in the
SoftPaq. The Linux Flash folder also contains the files necessary to build the BIOS flash driver module for the
particular kernel being used; the hp-flash utility is not kernel-dependent other than the choice of 32-bit
(i686) and 64-bit (x86_64) flavors.
BitLocker Drive Encryption / BIOS Measurements
If you have Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption (BDE) enabled on your system, we recommend that you
temporarily suspend BDE before updating the BIOS. You should also obtain your BDE recovery password or
recovery PIN before suspending BDE. After the you flash the BIOS, you can resume BDE.
To make a change to BDE, select Start > Control Panel > BitLocker Drive Encryption, click Suspend
Protection or Resume Protection and then click Yes.
As a general rule, updating the BIOS will modify measurement values stored in the Platform Configuration
Registers (PCRs) of the system's security module. Temporarily disable technologies that use these PCR values
to ascertain platform health (BDE is one such example) prior to flashing the BIOS. Once you update the BIOS,
re-enable the functions and restart the system so that you can take new measurements.
BootBlock Emergency Recovery Mode
In the event of a failed BIOS update (for example if power is lost while updating), the System BIOS may
become corrupted. BootBlock Emergency Recovery Mode detects this condition and automatically searches
the root directory of the hard drive and any USB media sources for a compatible binary image. Copy the binary
(.bin) file in the DOS Flash folder to the root of the desired storage device, and then power on the system.
Once the recovery process locates the binary image, it attempts the recovery process. The automatic recovery
continues until it successfully restores or updates the BIOS. If the system has a BIOS Setup password, you may
Updating or restoring a BIOS 43