@aakkam22 & ElderN: thanks for your prompt replies.
Let me repeat a key point again: 'I Not an IT pro', so I will take each question/answer one by one:
1. 'Have you thought about installing Windows 7 with SP1 integrated (slipstreamed) into the image?'
I don't know how you can install a Win update wihtout the OS already installed.
I don't know what it means to integrate/'slipstream' SP1 'into the image'
After each inexplicable OEM HD failure, I backed-up the system onto an external HD.
I read every Win 7 'Help' guide on back-up techniques and 'creating a system image', but I don't think I was ever able to do this successfully.
2. 'you can look up your current product key and then use it to download/activate a Win7 SP1'
Win 7 Pro came preinstalled on this ProBook: neither the 'HP Operating System DVD-Windows 7 Professional' disk or the paper sleeve have any identifying 'product key'.
In Control Panel, under 'system' the last spec is 'windows activation': 'windows is activated' and 'Product ID: 00371-OEM-8992671-00008': I don't know if this number corresponds to the 'product key'.
If this is the product key, then I assume that if I follow the instructions here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7
that I can somehow find and download the SP1 Update 'disc image file (ISO file)' as you describe, then 'use it to download/activate a Win7 SP1 iso that matches the version and bit you have now'? Please explain how this process differs in any way from each
of the dozens of attempts at downloading SP1 (and the 'system update readiness tool 'hotfix') described above?
@ElderN is describing this process as a 'clean install' (?)
After each of the 3 HD failures noted above, when I was starting with a blank HDD, wasn't the process of Win 7 using the HP disk in effect a 'clean install'?
This was followed by download of the 'HP Application and Driver Recovery DVD' to install drivers and software originally installed on the unit.
After the last such installation, I spent the next few days insuring that each and every driver was the most up to date, as per the ProBook 4530s 'Drivers & Softwar' page still maintained by HP:
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=5060882&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=4059
- many of the drivers were updated versions of the ones on the original disk.
3. 'What Intel graphics do you have? You can check from Device Manager under the "Display Adapters" category.'
I answered this question in my first post: using the latest version of HP Support Assistant, under 'Video Specifications': 'Graphic Device 1: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family, Version: 8.15.10.2559 (10/21/2011)'
4. 'If you already have graphics drivers installed and working fine, then you can ignore the one WU is offering you.'
Neither HP (via Support Assistant) nor Windows Update has sent me any Graphics Driver Update in the last ~ 2 years, I have regularly gone through all drivers listed on the HP support page listed above, but there have been no new applicable driver replacements
since then.
I've spent untold days attempting to solve this issue, to the extent of my abilities.
I have found HP forum support threads reporting that this driver does not 'run just fine': all further comments on those threads have been locked.
I found a Microsoft TechNet page dealing with this issue, with user comments from 2011 to 2015, none of which offer any solution with reasonable difficulty - I would ask the moderators to please review this, as THIS IS MY PROBLEM:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/asiasupp/2011/06/19/the-error-0x80070490element-not-found-when-you-are-installing-a-service-pack-or-update/
5. @ElderN: 'For Windows 10 does it matter that for that model the HP WWW site says: 'HP is not testing or developing Windows 10 drivers for these PC products: if you choose to use Windows 10 some features, applications, and connected devices might not
work as expected.''
Without any special expertise, this is the EXACT, bottom-line issue I identified as the make-or-break issue here:
'If I understand the problem correctly, even if Win 7 was uninstalled, and Win 10 installed, without HP providing a correct driver for the SPECIFIC Intel installed graphics device (hardware) on this SPECIFIC laptop,there is NO guarantee that Win 10 will
run correctly. Is this assumption correct?'
What you are essentially confirming is: 'no, there is NO guarantee that Win 10 will run correctly with the current Intel Graphics Device (hardware) and 'latest' HP Driver for THIS device on THIS unit here:
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=5060882&swItemId=ob_103472_1&swEnvOid=4059#
I currently have posted the same question at the top to the Intel User Forum Graphics subgroup: after 48 hours have gotten no answers.
@Aakkam22 & ElderN: I am grateful for you attention to this matter, thanks.