Solved Problem getting Compaq Notebook to boot

I installed FreeBSD 12.1 from the memstick image onto my old Compaq Presario CQ71-325SG Notebook (Intel Core2Duo T6600, 4GB DDR2) which so far had been running Windows 10 without problems. This notebook has an Insyde BIOS Version F.23 (no UEFI), which is the latest available version and doesn't offer a lot of options to configure other than system date/time and boot device order. The installer boots fine from the memstick and installation of FreeBSD (ZFS on root) went without problems. However the machine will only occasionally boot the installed FreeBSD. Most of the time the boot process gives one of the following errors:
Code:
panic: zfree(0xb9f59000,16781312): corrupt memlist2
--> Press a key on the console to reboot <--
or
Code:
gptzfsboot: error 66 lba 18446744073709551608
gptzfsboot: error 66 lba 1
gptzfsboot: No ZFS pools located, can't boot
Occasionally I also get
Code:
panic: zfree(0xb9f59000,16781312): corrupt memlist1
--> Press a key on the console to reboot <--

I tried reinstalling FreeBSD using different partitioning options (BIOS GPT, BIOS GPT+Active, BIOS GPT+Lenovo Fix, BIOS MBR) as well as manually creating a GPT partition scheme and installing FreeBSD from the shell, but the results are no different.

Any ideas what could be the cause of this problem and how to fix it?
 
Yes, I came across that blog post and the FreeBSD bugzilla entry mentioned therein. I am now using Allan Jude's updated gptzfsboot_hp_debug from comment #37 which seems to reliably boot FreeBSD on this notebook. Would be great if those changes made it into upcoming FreeBSD releases, as using a patched gptzfsboot doesn't exactly seem like a long term solution. Also judging by the length and age of that bugzilla entry apparently many people seem to have similar problems on a variety of different hardware.
 
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