ira_tech IR

HP desktop BIOS update stuck at the same percentage for an hour

Started the BIOS update from HP Support Assistant on my Pavilion desktop and it's been frozen on the progress bar for over an hour. Fans running, screen on. Scared to pull the plug and brick the board. What should I do?
bios update stuck
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kiranb Nov 04, 2026
ira_tech
Don't pull the plug yet. Is the progress bar inside a Windows window from Support Assistant, or a black screen with a bar? If it's a Windows window, open Task Manager and see whether the updater is using any CPU or disk. No activity for ages means it hung before the flash even started, and the BIOS is still intact, so closing it and restarting is low risk. A black screen flash must never be interrupted, give it another hour at least. If the worst happens, HP desktops have a recovery: power off, hold Win + B, press power for a few seconds, release Win + B when it beeps, and it reloads from the backup copy.
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