Question Weird letters in BIOS. Motherboard not recognizing model ID, serial number etc.

Oct 25, 2019
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Laptop HP Notebook 15-ba001no - (about 3-4 years old).

The laptop belongs to my mother, and she has experienced slowing of the computer, shut downs and multiple blue screens of death since last spring.

I took a look and saw this as I started the computer.
poW1i6fVj


Then looked at BIOS and saw this.
poBCvky1j



Also, the BIOS looks as if it had been recently updated, which is actually the case, surprisingly, knowing my mother wouldn´t have the skills or knowledge to do anything like that. Infact, HP has an assistant software, which can install BIOS updates: there was one install gone wrong a while ago, yet installed automatically correctly afterwards. I also installed new BIOS update through flash but it didn´t help. Also removed CMOS.

I´ve run HP diagnostic tool and there were no errors. Battery calibration is needed though, and I tried to calibrate it, but in the middle of calibration the operation stopped: there was message that said the be power cord needed to be hooked to the laptop, although it was on the whole time. I also updated programs and windows 10, cleaned junk, installed gpu drivers, and ran several virus scanners without any problems.

Now, after cleaning the computer and updating everything possible, there has not been any problems. I think there was a problem with the graphics card drivers, which could possibly explain the BSOD. Another thing I noticed is that when I take the power cord off, computer usually shuts down - its done it multiple times now with around 60% power left, and this leads me believe the battery is one problem, at least.

All in all, the motherboard could still maybe be ok, but other issues, especially the weird ID problems related to BIOS, shutdowns due to battery and possible BSODs because of graphigs card drivers could simply be a coincidence. What could cause the mobo and BIOS, not to recognize those numbers/information is what baffles me the most, and also is there anything more I could do to find the cause, not to mention the solution for the ID problems.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
You have a BIOS update pending. You're currently on F.36 while the latest BIOS version on HP's support site for the laptop is F.37. The gibberish shown on the screenshot leads me to believe that your BIOS is corrupt and/or malware might've gotten to your BIOS file.

As for you slowing down, malware can do that and it's also possible that your storage device is giving up after all these years if it's an HDD. If an SSD, well, we can roll it back to the OS being corrupt or a malware infestation.
 
Oct 25, 2019
10
0
10
You have a BIOS update pending. You're currently on F.36 while the latest BIOS version on HP's support site for the laptop is F.37. The gibberish shown on the screenshot leads me to believe that your BIOS is corrupt and/or malware might've gotten to your BIOS file.

As for you slowing down, malware can do that and it's also possible that your storage device is giving up after all these years if it's an HDD. If an SSD, well, we can roll it back to the OS being corrupt or a malware infestation.
Hey Lutfij,

Thank you for the quick response.

I installed a new BIOS, the F.37, and it didn´t help. Sounds like it has been corrupted somehow for certain, yes. Is there any way to get the info back? Could corrupt OS cause the gibberish?

The laptop doesn´t have slowing problems anymore after cleaning and updating, the battery problem is still there, and I haven´t encountered those BSODs yet. They could have been due to failed graphics card driver installs. Hard to know for sure of course. Could faulty battery or something like that cause the gibberish/ID problems?