I'm having a tough time with my HP Victus laptop where the BIOS and startup menus flash quickly but then disappear. I've tried various keys like ESC and F10, but nothing seems to work when the menus appear. I even attempted a full BIOS recovery and did a battery/EC reset, but I'm still unable to keep the menus open.
I created several UEFI Windows 11 installer USB drives and tried different USB ports, but when I boot from the USB, the installer starts and then randomly exits or reboots, losing all my progress. The internal keyboard seems fine in Windows, but during the POST, it looks like the firmware just auto-continues without recognizing my key presses.
I've already tried the following: complete EC/battery reset, CMOS reset, BIOS recovery update, using an external keyboard, and multiple USB ports. It seems impossible to reliably enter the BIOS or Boot Menu, and every attempt to install Windows ends in an automatic reboot. Has anyone else faced this issue on a Victus model? Are there any firmware patches, cloud recovery options, or tips to get around this quick POST behavior?
1 Answer
You might want to try booting into a Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) that has BOOTICE. This tool can give you an option to boot directly into UEFI settings on your next reboot. If you're interested, I can share a link to my WinPE version that you can flash to a USB. Then you can launch BOOTICE from the Start Menu under Disk Management. That might help access the settings that are currently giving you trouble.
I remember when Windows was installed, I could access UEFI through the Settings > System > Recovery menu, but it would close almost instantly. It's super frustrating not having enough time to read any of the options!