Alternative download for BIOS update for my HP laptop? (HP link doesn't work)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Laptop: HP 255 G6
OS: Windows 10

I have had troubles with updating this laptop for a long time, it always fails with an error code that indicates a hardware problem. When I tried to boot from a thumb drive to make a clean install, the screen went all weird (like an old CRT screen with only showing noise), so I’ve googled the problem and it’s a known issue with that machine, and the recommendation is to update the BIOS firmware. So I went to the HP site, found the latest file for that update (with a very recent date of 05-23-2023), but unfortunately the download link doesn’t work and only produces an XML file with entries like “item not found” and “error code 404”, so obviously the location of the file is down. There’s no way to report this on the HP website. I badly need this file because without that BIOS update, my laptop is a brick with no means to update it. Of course I googled for an alternative site with the file, but as you might expect, searching for “HP driver download” or such is a magnet for shady sites that only offer mal- or bloatware. I found nothing reputable that way.

Does anybody know how I can find that BIOS firmware update file anywhere else?

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Are these instructions relevant:

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Yes, good advice on that site, but the resolution that worked there is what I already found on other sites:

The problem now is that I’m stuck at this point, because I can’t download the BIOS file from HP.

ETA: maybe that really is helping, I’ll look into the HP Diagnostics Tool I hadn’t tried yet.

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Sorry all, the issue resolved only a short time later, and the BIOS file now is available on hp.com again. I’m now in the process of updating the BIOS (I’m typing this on a different machine).

ETA: BIOS update was successful. Let’s see if I can update Windows now.

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Nope, no dice, even after the BIOS update, the computer still won’t boot from the thumb drive, sigh. I’ve done this stuff for 30 years professionally and encountered all kinds of weird troubles, but this is the machine from hell. It hates me.

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As a last resort, I created a WinPE iso , burned it to a DVD and booted from that. That worked, and I could start a clean Win11 install from a thumb drive from there. Installing now, wish me luck…

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Good luck !