BIOS Update for HP Compaq 6910p

[GhX6GZMB]

I possess two of the mentioned laptops (2008/2009 vintage), both were unfortunately born with Win Vista. They are now running Lubuntu 20.04.2.

I'd like to upgrade the BIOS on both machines, but am unsure about how to do this. The HP support site has the updated BIOS files available, but only as .exe files.

Is there a smart way here? Bringing the machines back to Vista is out of the question, but I've wondered if a Wine installation could help?

Any tips and tricks are very welcome.

Thank You.

[CatKiller]

I'd like to upgrade the BIOS on both machines, but am unsure about how to do this. The HP support site has the updated BIOS files available, but only as .exe files.

UEFI can generally read the files needed to update it itself. Stick it on a USB stick (probably formatted with FAT), boot into the setup, and see. HP do sometimes have very peculiar implementations, though.

Bringing the machines back to Vista is out of the question, but I've wondered if a Wine installation could help?

It wouldn't.

[GhX6GZMB]

Thanks, so Wine is out.
But these are not UEFI machines, only BIOS. I can try to run the .exe files on my Win machine to see if they unpack somehow, but am afraid to brick somthing.

Are there other utilities available?

[CelticWarrior]

https://support.hp.com/sk-en/document/c00042629

[GhX6GZMB]

Thank You, but that doesn't work either. Again: these laptops are pure BIOS, no UEFI available. The link to support.hp.com presumes UEFI.
I know these laptops are old, but they have the best keyboards and are damn fast. I'd like to keep them alive.

I've toyed with the idea of a Vista "live boot" DVD, but that won't fly either...

[CatKiller]

I've toyed with the idea of a Vista "live boot" DVD, but that won't fly either...

It wouldn't be Vista that you'd use. If your BIOS is actually incapable of updating itself, which you don't appear to have tried, it would be a DOS boot disk that you'd be making, and the executable that you downloaded would simply be a utility to create one.

[Frogs Hair]

I have a later model of that computer which came with Win 7 and there was HP software that performed the actual bios update. Downloading the .exe was done through the HP update utility in the desktop environment. That may be different on earlier models.

[GhX6GZMB]

If your BIOS is actually incapable of updating itself, which you don't appear to have tried,

Nasty comment and inappropriate. I've tried all combinations of Fx keys, Esc etc. to get to a BIOS menu that will allow an update. No cigar.
The link from Celtic was good, but apparently related to later laptops with UEFI features (yes, I tried it).

there was HP software that performed the actual bios update. Downloading the .exe was done through the HP update utility in the desktop environment.

Yes, well... this is a Lubuntu laptop that does not run HP/Windows software.

[Frogs Hair]

Nasty comment and inappropriate. I've tried all combinations of Fx keys, Esc etc. to get to a BIOS menu that will allow an update. No cigar.
The link from Celtic was good, but apparently related to later laptops with UEFI features (yes, I tried it).



Yes, well... this is a Lubuntu laptop that does not run HP/Windows software.

I'm aware you want to update with an .exe on Linux . I was able to update my bios to the final version while dual booting, but with a supported version of Windows.

[mikewhatever]

You need to use Windows or FreeDos. There is no magic way to run an exe BISO update on Ubuntu. It is not a nasty comment, it is reality.