GRRRRRRRRRRRRer stick windows where the sun don't shine [sorry this is a rant]

[Brickwizard]

OK so my HP pro-desk 400 G1 packed up, so i orders and received at midday today a pro-desk 400 G3 [4 years younger] [it came with a fresh W10 install] no problem, booted in jiggling F10 for bios to set my preferences and noted the bios has not been updated since new [there was a new one around Nov 2019] so knowing with HP you can only upgrade the bios with windows I thought what the hell i will boot W10, well after just over an hour windows finally installed to the registration page [now bearing in mind i have has a windows account since the late 1990''s when I was a registered beta tester] I tried to set up windows and log in, that has failed miserably first attempt to register as a business account failed, next attempt home, failed, ok student, your e-mail does not look like a student/collage account...ok i will put up with the BIOS, so back i go and change all the boot parameters to NVMe [which came from my old one] it sees it, I have told it to boot from it on several occasions and the sodding thing still boots to windows.. Next stop try USB boot if that works nuke windows and try again, but first a drink not tea this time.......... to be continued

 

[Brickwizard]

Took a different rout, took out the 3.5 "HDD found an old reducing kit and fitted my 500gb SSD redundant from my laptop,
fitted the NVMe on its PCI adaptor [this only had the OS on it,] so banged in a USB with LMDE7 re-installed to NVMe, and we are up and running, just need to install my preferred apps all my previous files are saved elsewhere. so now back to work.

 

[Condobloke]

I know I shouldn't laugh in the midst of such pain !....but that at least shows windows can screw with the best of us !!

Congrats on getting the better of it.

 

[Trml]

That was a quick delivery.

I had a browse how BIOS updates are supposed to work with HP. The firmware support for Linux's fwupd by vendors expands quickly, particularly for UEFI.

HP are listed to offer updates with fwupd: https://fwupd.org/lvfs/vendors/#hp-ws
Try to install fwupd and execute

fwupdmgr refresh
fwupdmgr get-devices 
fwupdmgr get-updates

to see if the BIOS is included. These commands only sync the available firmware, no automatic install but it is easily done if an update is listed. (We discussed the fwupd service if you are inclined to dive into that).

If you need to use W10, you should still be able to get it running with a local account, as long as the recovery partition is still on the HDD.
Yet, other HP users say something like freedos may be sufficient to install a new bios also. The latest BIOS for that machine revision appears to be https://support.hp.com/us-en/search?q=pro-desk 400 g3 bios

 

[KGIII]

Unless this is a very recent change, you should be able to download the BIOS update and then copy it to an exFAT-formatted USB. It should then recognize it during the boot process, or you may need to tell it to boot to USB in the one-time boot menu.

 

[Brickwizard]

I will make a storage box for the W 10 HDD and file it with about 8 others for that Just in case moment
this post is coming to you from my new to me, and its flying, all i need to do over the next few days [i'm not rushing] is install the rest of the apps, I have done Annonsurf and ungoggled chrome thats enough for today

 

[Brickwizard]

you should be able to download the BIOS update and then copy it to an exFAT-formatted USB.

Yes, I thought that, but no need to rush, I would rather get all my bits reinstalled and my printer so I can print off Chris's crib sheet, and its time for me to start making the festive cards for friends and family,

 

[Brickwizard]

If you need to use W10,

I have used windows once in the last 20 plus years, and that was in the spring when we changed our car, and needed to use Windows 10 or11 only to download the updates, and write the installation file, I did contact the makers and the answer was basically tough, all our dealers and garages use windows..

 

[deb_user]

I have Windows 11 installed in a VM on my Thinkpad. Every now and then I fire it up and let it run for a few hours to update, then shut it down again. I can't find any use for it, after trying. The Thinkpad came with Windows installed, and I just swapped in an SSD with Linux installed on it and it worked. I put the Windows SSD away for awhile, but wiped it and use it for external storage. I do regular system backups to external SSD with timeshift, and I can restore everything to a newly installed system in a few minutes.