HP EliteBook 8770w and 970M 6GB and 980M 8GB - they work!

I think in both ways you’ve had a short circuit, mate...

 

Not entirely sure what you mean.....the k3000 x worked...so I left it on the k3000....The M5000m x worked .....so I left it on the M5000m. I can't imagine hardly anyone would have done it differently....... so I'm a bit confused.

 

Hello all, new here, and enjoying all this great information on the 8770w you have compiled over the years.

This is my current setup:
HP EliteBook 8770w
i7-3630QM
24GB of Ram
500GB SSD
1TB SSD
FirePro M4000
200W PSU

I was getting ready to take my 8770w apart recently to reapply thermal compound to the cpu and gpu, as I have never done it since getting this new in 2013! But have been experiencing overheating issues lately, so figured it was about time. Then figured since I have to take it apart anyway, why not explore the option of upgrading the video card, something I have been wanting to do for a while now.

So in my research, I happened upon this thread and read through it in it's entirety in preparation for this upgrade. After reading through the thread I have summed up the following:

• We no longer need to modify the inf files since the cards are now recognized by the latests drivers
• The bracket from the FirePro M4000 card can be reused for the GTX970M/GTX980M cards
• We need to purchase the compatible cpu/gpu dual pipe heatsink and fan for GTX9x0M cards if your 8770w came with an M4000 originally
  • Heatsink Part# 696435-001(this came with the fan when I ordered it. YMMV)
  • Fan Part# 688762-001(or ZBook 17 fan Part#735373-001 if you are willing to mod it)
• The Prema vbios is great if you can get it, but not required to get your card up and running
• The 230W PSU is recommended if you plan to run the GTX 980M
  • Dell XM3C3 320/330W PSU is also an option
    

Also, after reading through other peoples experiences, I decided to go with the GTX 970M since it had a lower power draw and lower temps. At the end of the day, I have been rocking the M4000 for all these years and it has served my occasional gaming needs, so the GTX 970M will be more than sufficient to keep this laptop going for a few more years.

When I go to apply the thermal compound, I plan on using the IC Graphite Thermal Pad's instead of thermal grease as recommended earlier in this thread. That being said, I was curious if anyone needed to use any additional/external cooling when running the GTX 970M? I was looking at the external cooler Verklarung recommended in post #94:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...0m-8gb-they-work.786791/page-10#post-10525254

but then remembered he was running the GTX 980M in his setup, so not sure if I will really need that for my setup with the GTX 970M. Any input on this is appreciated.

Also I am assuming that my 200W PSU will be sufficient enough to accommodate my cpu and gpu with the following power consumptions:
i7-3630QM (36-45 Watts)
GTX 970M (81-100 Watts)
That would work out to a 58-72% load

Please let me know if I missed anything, or stated something incorrectly. Thanks!

 

Check my signature
GTX 980M works fine for me for 3 years now. Power draw and temps are fine
39 degrees idle
about 80-ish degrees full throttle for 1 hour

I use 230W HP charger.
Dell 320W charger is not an option - it's way waaaay too bulky.

I'm now researching P5000M but I don't know if it's gonna work.

 

People have gotten the 1070 to work with DC, if you don't need Quadro Features or +8GB VRAM its the way to go

 

Haven't checked this thread for some time... In the original order:

1. Not sure how it works for people using GeForce-branded GPUs, but with Quadro that has HP BIOS you certainly don't need to modify anything.
2. AFAIK, this is not true. Brackets for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs are physically different.

P.S. Shameless plug. I am happy to sell my DreamColour 8770w as it's not really used anyway, pretty maxed-out config:

Everything has latest firmware, repasted with Noctua NT-H1 and left in a drawer.
Screenshot attached. PM me if you are interested.

 

With quadros above K-series you will get black screen on 8770W if you use it with HP vBios. With K3100/K4100/K5100m most probably too. The only cards which would work with HP vBios on 8770W are K3000/4000/5000m
Dell vBios is a must for Maxwell and Pascal series Quadros.

 

So you are running fining without any additional/external cooling?

 

I was looking at the 980M and then 1070 at one point, but these were the best prices I could find:

$260 for the GTX 980M
$500 for the GTX 1070

Ended up getting the GTX 970M 6GB for $170 as I thought that worked out pretty good from a price/performance standpoint. The temperature/power consumption was also a deciding factor of course, but the price definitely pushed this decision as well.

Also not sure which power consumption numbers to officially go by. This is what eurocom lists for each MXM 3.0b card:

GTX 970M - 75 Watts
GTX 980M - 100 Watts
GTX 1070 - 115 Watts

If I find a good enough deal on a 1070 though, I may consider replacing the 970M, as I saw that mirage_bg got great performance from his upgrade without outrageous temperatures, would probably have to consider upgrading my 200W PSU as well if I went this route.

 

In regards to the bracket, I saw that ododdit in post #65 mentioned he reused his bracket from the old GPU, his old GPU being the AMD FirePro M4000. So I assumed it could be done. Maybe he had to mod it for it to work? Now wondering what other users who upgraded from the M4000 to a GTX9x0M experienced?

 

Wanted to clarify this for anyone looking, Dell and HP vBios both work fine with an M5000M. My 8770w currently has an HP vbios M5000M from a Zbook, no issues at all other than the usual inf mods needed for driver installation (I think that is necessary on any Maxwell Quadro though).

 

Did you find some difference in performance between HP and Dell’s vBioses?

 

Nope, just kept the one with the better asic quality. Neither one was great though (sadly)... didn't you have a golden chip with some crazy asic number?

 

What’s your card’s ASIC quality number?

 

71%

The other one I had was just below 70 / upper 60's if I remember right. You would think Nvidia would cherry pick the Quadros a bit more considering the cost, but apparently not. For comparison, I still have a spare desktop GTX 980 reference that was in the upper 80's for ASIC quality.

 

My previous M5000M was a golden unit - 77.3% Asic and needed only 0.985V to work at 1200Mhz core, never exceeded 67-68C on full load. With Prema vbios I managed to get it work at 1400Mhz 1.087V, but at the time I didn’t have my current cooling mod and it was going as high as 89-90C under load.

 

Nice, those are some excellent numbers. To keep my fan from being a nuisance, I have to keep it under 1100, basically 980m performance. I can run a slightly higher OC with the fan screaming but temps start creeping up before I ever get to 1200.

 

OK, plans have slightly changed now. I was set on going with my GTX 970m upgrade, but just scored a deal on a GTX 1060 MXM 3.0b card. From my understanding I will need to upgrade to a dreamcolor display in order for it work with my 8770w.

@SamuelL421 now that I am researching the dreamcolor option to accommodate this card, I have seen your name come up on some recent posts in regards to sourcing the parts from taobao.com. Did you ever take the plunge?

 

No, I've thought about it a lot but never ordered anything. I'm happy with the performance I've got with a M5000M and rely on my 8770w too much lately to risk dissecting again right now. I've taken to watching ebay for 8770w dreamcolor displays and parts, but I haven't seen any turn up on there in over a year - mostly just crazy people trying to sell 8770w DC's for more than DC zbooks that several generations newer.

 

What driver versions?
Since early 2019 I lost the ability to change my 980m voltage, tried a lot of driver versions, no program will change its voltage

 

Only modded vbios will allow you to change the voltage (only overvolt is supported, for undervolt you need to change the values in the vbios.rom file and to reflash it)

 

I have a modded vBIOS(from Svet), it worked in the past, but since early 2018 that over-volt is ignored
Even then, if I crank the power limit slider the GPU can draw up to 130W, but stay in the 72-75ºC range.

 

Have you tried Prema‘s vBios?

 

There is no easy way to get one of Prema vBIOS.

 

I agree!

 

deleted

 

Are prema mods still something you can buy / obtain?

I had several (from techinferno) for much older cards but didn't know this was still a thing.

 

Which mod do you need?

 

Just PM me. I try to help whenever time permits...

 

Will do , thank you for the offer!

I've got a backlog of projects I have to attend to within the next month or so but I hope to mod my M5000M at some point.

 

So I can answer this myself now, and confirm that you can remove the xbracket from the M4000 and reuse it on the GTX9x0M cards. Used a blow dryer to loosen the adhesive and then just pulled it off of the M4000.

Also, I mentioned before that I might go a different direction since acquiring a GTX1060 MXM 3.0b card, but will need to perform the dreamcolor screen upgrade to take advantage of it.

So in the mean time I went ahead and installed the GTX970M and cannot believe how easy it was! Did not have to mess with vbios, and Windows 10 automatically pulled in the nvidia drivers for the card once detected, although I know its not the latest available from nvidia. So will happily run with this for now until I get the dreamcolor project completed.

Thanks for all the info you guys have provided so far in this thread!

 

Glad I found this thread today...I need some help from you more knowledgeable folks!

I just installed a used 770m card that I purchased off Ebay to replace the old Quadro 3000m in my Elitebook 8760w.

It works fine EXCEPT it will not send a video signal to an external monitor via the DisplayPort or the VGA out. I've tried different screens, different cables and I keep getting a No Signal message. Windows 10 does not recognize a second monitor plugged in either.

I am not sure if it is a bad GPU card or if there are BIOS or driver modifications that are required.
I am using the latest useable 770m drivers version 425.31 from Nvidia.

Any idea on how to troubleshoot this?

 

I never used my DP out but I did notice the same issue after I installed an M5000M in my 8770w - stopped working completely. I searched at the time but couldn’t find any info the issue. Maybe someone else has some insight on this? ( @mirage_bg) ?

 

Actually my DP port worked without problems while I had M5000M.
Only docked it had problems to output sound.
On the other hand when I had GTX 980m, DP was struggling to work with some drivers, but worked fine with others.
I do recommend to test 386.xx, 388.xx, 390.xx and see if any of them will make the DP port working.

 

I have a dock that I haven't used since I installed the M5000M, I'll have to see if this works for me. Other than that, maybe vbios is the issue here too? The 8770w evidently doesn't care for the HP vbios on my card from a zbook.

 

@mirage_bg where can I find those driver versions?

 

https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/132263/en-us

Here you are the link

 

Thanks...but I am confused...those drivers are for the Quadro series...I changed my GPU to 770m.

 

Oh, sorry, my fault, here you are:

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/geforce-388-71-whql-driver-download.html

 

OK, I tried it...no luck...Win10 still not detecting I've connected an external display.

What else can I try?

Could it be a bad card?

 

No, the card is fine.
If you want you can experiment with different vBioses

 

Do you think it would make any difference if I did a clean re-install of Windows 10?
I also found out about a program call Display Driver Uninstaller to make sure all previous drivers including the Quadro 3000m are wiped and then do another clean install of one of the 770m drivers.

mirage_bg why did you specifically recommend versions 386.xx, 388.xx, 390.xx to try out?

 

no, reinstalling the windows won't make any difference.
Your best bet would be to try different vBioses if 388.xx won't make your DP port working.
My previous GTX 980m was working perfectly with DP and 388.00, 388.13 drivers

 

Can you tell me which vbioses to try and where to download them?

One new development: I went into msconfig and under General tab, I set the Startup selection to Normal startup instead of Selective startup and was able to get video output to the analog VGA out but still no Displayport. Perhaps there is some other setting I need to find that will enable the Displayport?

 

Here you are, just be careful:

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios...=GTX+770M&interface=&memType=&memSize=&since=

 

On GPU-z, it shows my subvendor ID is "HP"...
Which vBIOS would you suggest is most likely going to work without crapping out my 8760w? The Clevo?

 

I haven’t used 770M and I can’t give you a proper advise, you have to test differente vbioses to see which one would restore the functionality of the DP port.
Try Clevo and Dell vbios.
They all will be recognized as HP in gpu-z as you have modified the .inf file.

 

well I soon will be taking my third dip into 8770w land and here's some lessons learned. If putting in another gpu I'm going to add a bit of thermal pad to the back of the card.....I've had two just die and the only explanation could be a dead short......even a small square at the center of the x bracket could have prevented this. Second these things are *great* to hackintosh (If anyone's interested there.) Third there is nothing quite as fun as when you can make all this stuff work.

 

I agree with you, it's a common mistake, uncorrect thermal pads placement/not cooled mosfet resulting in deadly short

 

Ok, I am back. I have been having stability issues with my GTX970M lately and I figured it was related to the latest Windows 10 1909 updates. The screen has been going black and never coming back until I reboot. And often reboots to a black screen. However, I have since reinstalled windows several times, trying older images each time, and disabling updates, but still unstable. Also tried the following nvidia drivers which successfully installed after modding the nvcvi.inf file, but I still get the black screen issues:

347.26
352.63
359.06
385.12
388.13
390.65
390.77
417.71
445.87
446.14

I also let windows update install version 353.62, but still unstable.

GTX 970M Hardware ID:
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D8&SUBSYS_176C103C

Theses are the strings I have been using in my files:
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D8.176C.103C% = Section029, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D8&SUBSYS_176C103C
NVIDIA_DEV.13D8.176C.103C = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M

MSI VBIOS Version: 84.04.26.00.0b

I know folks have stated previously that modding of the inf file is no longer necessary, and that the latest drivers would install without doing this, but this is not the case for me now. I also used DDU in safe mode to clean up the installs as well, between each attempt.

I would also like to try Prema's VBIOS for the GTX970M to see if that would help with stability. I know @Prema 's mods are donationware and not to be shared, so is there somewhere where we can officially make requests? I already sent him a message but just wanted to know if there was something already setup to facilitate requests.

One interesting thing to add is that I dual boot this with Archlinux and have no issues with the screen going black. But I use nouveau open source drivers in linux instead of the proprietary nvidia drivers. Also windows is stable if I use the "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter" so I am not sure if I am dealing with a faulty card or maybe something just needs to be tweaked to make it more stable when using the nvidia drivers.

Any help or guidance anyone can give to get this resolved would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.