BIOS update saga - the end

[Anton Shterenlikht]

I can't find my original thread, so
starting a new one.

So I bought a spare laptop disk,
installed freedos on it, made
a usb memstick with HP BIOS updating
executable, and booted from it, only
to stop at:

"The BIOS on your notebook PC can not be updated.
Refer to HP Customer Advisory C01457784"

So I found this customer advisory
and there it is: "WinBond customers
cannot update the BIOS" [1].

So not only I am stuck with a broken
BIOS, but I can't update to a fixed
one either (nevermind the wasted hours
spent following HP instructions on
how to update the BIOS on my laptop!).

I quickly found another thread 
where somebody claims that HP asked
for nearly 400 euros to update the
motherboard, "to be able to update the BIOS!" [2].

I was angry at HP for this initially,
then I started laughing. This is a ridiculous
situation.

Anyway, now I'm wondering - I wanted
to buy an HP laptop because I've used
quite a lot of Compaq/HP server gear and
it generally is/was of excellent quality.
And the manuals still are of very high quality too.
So I wonder, am I just unlucky,
or did I want a good quality too cheaply?

Anton

[1] http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=125&prodSeriesId=3368540&prodTypeId=321957&objectID=c01457784

[2] http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-HP-ProBook-EliteBook/6715s-black-screen-problem/td-p/915244/page/5#.UJRCK1JvmnI