Does HP ProBook 4730s have UEFI or BIOS?

Question

Sometimes I read that HP ProBook 4730s has UEFI and other times I hear it only has a BIOS. So which one does it have? As I understand it, UEFI is a replacement for BIOS, not an improvement nor addition.

AIDA64 somehow confirms in the System Drivers section that no UEFI is running.

UEFI Microsoft UEFI Driver UEFI.sys 10.0.10240.16384 Kernel Driver Stopped

I just enabled the UEFI Boot Mode in UEFI, but there is no sys/firmware/efi anyway, just acpi,dmi and memmap. Here are some screenshots from my notebook.

Solution

The terminology is often overlooked (which it shouldn't really be by now, but there we go.) Often the UEFI is referred to as the BIOS, when really it should be called the UEFI or at least the system firmware.

According to this source, your machine has a UEFI firmware:

HP Commercial Notebook PCs - Basic Input Output System (BIOS) Updates (EDK2 UEFI firmware)

• ...
• HP ProBook 4720s Notebook PC
• HP ProBook 4730s Notebook PC
• HP ProBook 4740s Notebook PC
• ...

As pointed out by @MustafaAKTAŞ - this page with your firmware updates shows as UEFI.

You can also find out in your OS - In Windows:

1. Type msinfo32 in either your Search bar in the Start Menu, or in the Run dialog - Win + R.
2. Look for BIOS Mode in the list on the right:

I can't test this, but apparently the following BASH script will tell you in Linux:

#!/bin/bash
[ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo UEFI || echo BIOS

Effectively, if the file /sys/firmware/efi exists, you're in UEFI, otherwise in BIOS mode.

Note that even with a UEFI BIOS, you can often run in Legacy Mode, which will likely report that you have BIOS rather than UEFI.

Comments

[Thalys]

Just to add, in this day and age of malware being written for firmware, its a VERY VERY good idea to stick to the official updates for things like this

[user1459339]

@JourneymanGeek How likely it is the F.60 version of FW is infected? I presume one would have to modify the binary to infect the file, presuming there is no opensource UEFI. That would be difficult, wouldn't it? Moreover, the UEFI is working like a charm. I would expect infected UEFI to be buggy. I would also expect the malware to be detected by Virustotal. Not certainly, but probably. Nevertheless, what can one do in 500Kbs of low-level code?

[conquistador]

Official support page too states this laptop has a UEFI firmware : h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/… Also note to OP : 3rd party driver download locations aren't recommended as long as there are official solutions :)

[user1459339]

It is incredibly hard to find the latest FW for this model. The latest version (F.­60 Rev.­A - according to driverscollection.com) does not even exist on any of the links you provided. According to @Jonno 's link the latest version is F.50 from 2014, but F.60 is from 2015. I think I have seen it on some official webpage,though, so it shant be malware. I run Ubuntu, so maybe I could give fwupd (fwupd.org) a try, what do you think?

[user1459339]

Also note all of these UEFI firmwares are more then 5 years old, while their BIOS counterparts (labeled F.21,F.50,F.60) are pretty recent, which makes me wonder.

[Jonno]

@user1459339 What makes you want to update it? Don't forget - if you manage to write a UEFI/BIOS that isn't correct, you'll likely make your machine unusable.

[user1459339]

@Jonno I am already running the F.60 BIOS without any problem. The thing is I need to have the latest UEFI BIOS to test how it is supported by the new Qubes OS 3.1 rc2. For that I need to be sure I am running the latest UEFI to avoid any potential bias or bugs. Also I need all the support there is for virtualization (VT-x, VT-d, TXT). There is an option for legacy BIOS or UEFI boot or something like that. The thing is the Qubes 2 has been running with UEFI boot even though it should not have been supported (according to the release notes). So it seems legacy BIOS kicked in somehow.

[Rod Smith]

Chances are the "BIOS" updates are actually EFIs. Unfortunately, most manufacturers refer to their EFIs as "BIOSes." I suspect they do this because most people at least recognize the acronym "BIOS," and advice and procedures for "BIOS updates" or "using the BIOS setup utility" are well-documented and similar for EFIs. Thus, using the term "BIOS" instead of the more correct "EFI" (or "UEFI," which is EFI 2.x) is easy. Unfortunately, it also causes confusion in the long term because it drags in BIOS knowledge and assumptions that are flat-out wrong for EFI.

[user1459339]

@Jonno I can not close the question yet, because I just found there is no /sys/firmware/efi on my Ubuntu 15.10. This is even though I just enabled the UEFI Boot Mode (it was disabled). There was a warning that UEFI is still experimental. Please see my question for more info and screenshots from UEFI.

[Jonno]

@user1459339 I believe, if you had UEFI boot disabled before, it'll have installed Ubuntu in Legacy (MBR) mode. As such, even with UEFI boot enabled, it'll only be able to boot in MBR mode (See the instructions here to convert from Legacy to UEFI boot). My assumption is that it would fail booting in UEFI and revert to Legacy, so still report to Ubuntu you are not using EFI. The very fact you even have that tickbox means you have UEFI, not BIOS.

[Jonno]

@user1459339 Booting in UEFI mode is only possible from a UEFI. The link in my last comment might help clear up some terminology for you also.