TL;DRHP’s auto-installed BIOS update is bricking ZBook Ultra and EliteBook X laptops. Reverting requires a specific HP USB-C dongle.
HP customers are reporting that BIOS updates pushed through Windows Update are rendering premium laptops unbootable. The affected devices include the ZBook Ultra G1a, a mobile workstation that costs upwards of £4,000, and the EliteBook X G1a. The updates were flagged as critical, meaning they were applied automatically with no user intervention required.
Complaints have been accumulating across HP forums and Reddit for several months. Symptoms include devices freezing during boot, spikes in fan noise, and Blue Screens of Death. The broken BIOS versions for the ZBook Ultra G1a are 01.04.03 and 01.04.05. For the EliteBook X G1a, the problematic versions are 01.03.11 and 01.05.00.
Once the update has completed, reverting is difficult. Users have reported some success using network BIOS downgrade functionality, but only with an HP USB-C to Ethernet dongle. The BIOS does allow users to prevent the operating system from initiating updates, but that setting is only useful before the update has been applied.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!This is not HP’s first BIOS bricking incident. In 2024, a similar update left some ProBook laptops irretrievably bricked. Customers faced hardware repair bills for damage caused by the manufacturer’s own firmware. The pattern suggests a systemic quality assurance problem with HP’s firmware update pipeline.
