Our organization recently bought several HP ProBook 4 G1a 16 laptops, model BP7Y7UA. As part of our normal deployment process, we wiped the factory installation and installed Windows 11 from a standard ISO using Rufus. The installation itself completes normally, but halfway through the first Windows Update run, the systems become unstable. Task Manager stops refreshing, wired networking drops even though the adapter remains visible, some applications open but will not close, others refuse to launch, and pressing the Windows key can crash Explorer. After rebooting, the machines often return only a black screen with a cursor.
I have tried a newly downloaded ISO, the Media Creation Tool, and several different USB drives, with the same result. The failures appear to begin when Windows Update installs drivers or patches. Other ProBook 4 G1a units with a different configuration, model BP7Y2UA, have not shown the problem. Has anyone seen this with the BP7Y7UA, particularly its Ryzen 7 250 processor, Radeon 780M graphics, and touchscreen?
4 Answers
As a temporary deployment workaround, keep the laptop offline while laying down Windows, bypass the initial online setup requirement, and install the approved BIOS, chipset, graphics, and network packages manually. Once the machine is stable, reconnect it and apply updates in small groups so the problematic package can be identified. A model-specific image may also be safer than using the same image for every ProBook.
I would check the BIOS and firmware before wiping the factory image. Boot the original installation, use the vendor support utility to install only the BIOS and firmware updates, reboot and let those finish, then perform the clean Windows installation. A similar issue on another business laptop series stopped happening after the firmware was updated first.
The model difference may be important. The BP7Y7UA uses the Ryzen 7 250 with Radeon 780M graphics, while the BP7Y2UA uses a Ryzen 5 230 with Radeon 760M. This looks very much like Windows Update is replacing the working graphics or chipset driver with a bad version. Try installing Windows while disconnected from the network, boot into Safe Mode if necessary, remove the AMD display drivers with AMD Cleanup Utility, and then install the current drivers manually from AMD or HP before reconnecting.
That lines up with what we are seeing: the machines work until Windows Update starts applying drivers. We are going to test the offline installation and manual AMD driver process on one unit.
We have seen related symptoms on several HP systems where driver updates complete according to update history but reinstall themselves on every reboot. Networking disappears even though the adapters remain present in Device Manager. In our case, stopping the hardware-assistance utility and avoiding its driver updates prevented the issue. It is worth checking Event Viewer and setup logs after a failure to identify which display, chipset, or network driver was installed immediately beforehand.
That is close to our current process. The key seems to be preventing Windows from automatically pulling the AMD driver before the approved package is installed.