Thanks for your help; however, I was able to restore the BIOS, so the laptop is functioning just fine now. I will not attempt to update the BIOS again without assistance. My question is why did the HP Support Assistant suggest that I update the BIOS in the first place? I lacked the knowledge to make a decision about whether to update or not. Oh well, all's well that ends well, I guess.
Thanks again for the help.
McTavish2012