EliteBook 8740w Ultimate Upgrade Guide (mSATA mod, GPU upgrade, cooling and etc)

Here's the vBIOS. For those of you who only have one laptop that's able to take a mxm, you can flash the vBIOS under remote desktop
Unzip and put this vBIOS under the atiflash folder and run cmd as admin go to the directory, atiflash -f -p 0 W7170m_8740w.rom

Probably it's a bit useless to post it now as there's nowhere to find sources for W7170m. If any of you can find one, let me know.

I did not try to overclock it yet. Tonga BIOS reader will screw things up (bricked mine once even though I just tried to unlock the power limit and frequency limit). If you do not have a SPI programmer or other means to recover your bricked card, please do not try it.

Also I strongly recommend no overclocking on both CPU and GPU when it's unclear whether there's a total power limit or not

 

Thanks for the vBIOS! BTW any more info about W7170m's compatibility with our machine?

I got as far as 196W, the cooling is my limiting factor.

That's what I wonder as well. There's an OCP circuit for sure. The question is at what point it kicks in? The top config (DC + XM + 5000m) is shipped with 230W instead of 200W after all. At the very least I hope that this limit is set to 230W.

I remember that one. No overcoming?

 

compatibility is quite good frankly, no battery issues, fan controls **seem** to work perfectly fine. I mean, the CPU goes so freaking hot that I can't really tell if the fan is controlled by CPU or GPU.
But in GPU-z the monitoring says fans goes up to ~70% when temp is above 80

have you tried to connect as many external hard drives as possible, let them all running, turn the brightness to highest, let the battery charging and also just turn on whatever you can to see what level you can get to? on my T61, I can get briefly to 110W for this set up

Me too. When CPU is overclocked to 95W, there's very little room for a MXM3.0-B card, even not considering overclocking. And since CPU is now the most bottlenecking factor on 8740w
Besides, when I play WOWs maxed out, power consumption is constantly around 190W, which kind of worries me because I know for sure for a long time things might break

It eventually get to the point when I realised that the GPU is so bottlenecking that the pathetic 128MB vRAM isn't even enough for youtube. Intel graphics is slightly better for 384MB but still nowhere near enough.
For even the web browsing today one need about 1GB
not to mention that on those old cards, the materials are compressed less and takes more size for the same quality and quantity of materials

 

Awesome to hear! What about temps? Also you can use HWInfo to run the fan @100%, but I'm pretty sure that if it runs the standard table @86ºC it kicks to max (~3500rpm). You can see the fan speed in HWInfo, without touching the manual control. You can swap the fan for a ZBook 17 one, it definitely brings improvement, but it's a bit of Dremeling.

No and I don't have the 7970m anymore. The 6970m/M8900 consumes less than that. I was planning to put a desktop cooler on top just to see how much power it can consume, but sold the 7970m before that.

That's why there's this protection. If anything it wont run at full speed, but I doubt that it would fry. Of course don't take it for given.

 

triturbo, thanks for great manual!

Just finished grinding ZBook 17 fan


Got one difficulty
The jack is filled with some kind of glue (?)


(not a vary good pricture to show it)

I cannot remove wire from connector as you descirbed

So, I decided to cut wires and solder them in proper order

But the wires are marked:


Black , blue, green, white
not as our original wires: black, white, yellow, red

So, how to connect them in correct way?

red (original) - yellow(ZBook 17 fan) =+12V
black (original) - black (ZBook 17 fan) = ground
yellow (original) - green (ZBook 17 fan) = tachomenter
white (original) - blue (ZBook 17 fan) = fan control

 

What system did you try to get the 1060 to work in?

 

@nlobp - Don't remember how the colors of ZBook went, but here's the pin-out of both:

8740w / ZBook

1 - 5V / 5V
2 - GND / Tach
3 - Tach / PWM
4 - PWM / GND

@ChanceJackson - 8740w DC

 

Just to confirm, Is the 8740w an eDP model?

 

Well it's DP, it's missing a couple of wires to make it proper eDP, but overall the signal is the same. There's the possibility that these missing wires are breaking the compatibility.

 

Have you sold your card yet?

 

The 7970m? Yes, more than an year ago.

 

Sorry I meant the gtx 1060

 

***Can the Mod add this to the thread below?***

If anyone is interested. I found this so that we can upgrade our stuff to SSD's rather than try to hack up our machines. It is basically a RAID adapter for your machine using SSD's. Our machines are still pretty badass and I am hoping I can get another 5+ years out of mine.

My New Boot Drive:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GSTBXR...lid=2C0KULXH98DMM&coliid=I21261RWHQEF8C&psc=1

Let me know what you guys think.

 

^Could bottle neck your drives if they have high enough random read and write speeds but if you have drives to spare why not? I plan on hacking my ODD connector to hookup a spare mSata drive and then I'm gonna raid it to the one I have connected to the mSata port since both run off Sata 3 and both ports are controlled by the z87 chipset

 

I know about this device for quite some time. It has a couple of issues - you have to get 2 drives; you have to rely on some controller; you wont see performance improvement as our system is capped at SATA-II, even SATA-III systems would still be bottlenecking it. All in all I see no point, just get a regular 2.5" SSD and be done with it. The only scenario that this can be useful is if you do RAID 1, but you'd still have performance penalty, since it goes through another controller, adding latency.

Not mine, I just told you in what system it was tested.

 

Got ya I guess i got confused lol

 

Did you sell yours yet?

 

Hello. I not find a room to present me. I'm Luke from Italy.
For job i repair, power and sell PC. Desktop and Notebook.
I specialized in HP and Dell, expecially Workstation and artist model as HP with Imprint finish.
In this time i have a question:
I must install a Dreamcolor panel on HP EliteBook 8740W.
For me is easy to buy a LCD panel, but:
If i buy the panel of 8730W (Dreamcolor) and his LCD cable with 2 head, is impossible to find a ambient sensor light.
If i buy the panel of 8740W (Dreamcolor 2),is impossible to find his LCD cable and ambient sensor light.
My question:
Is possible to install the 8730W Dreamcolor LCD panel with original 2 head LCD cable on 8740W using the ambient sensor light of 8740W?
Other easy IPS panel 17.1 1920x1200 for 8740W without buy other cable or other spare?
Thanks.

 

8730w's panel is not an IPS panel.
8740w's Dreamcolor2 (DC2) panel requires two unique cables and a "colorboard". Check the first post of this thread, info is around the bottom.
As far as I know there are no other 17'' 16:10 1920x1200 IPS panels (zero, nada), and the cables & color board are next to impossible to find separately, so your best bet is to look for a complete screen assembly, but they're still fairly hard to find, and are usually quite expensive. You might also find a complete laptop for sale with the dreamcolor screen, but.... well, expensive again.

 

If you go that way, you'll be the first to try it, but I think that they are different. In any case you'll need to rewire the motherboard end, as the pinout doesn't match, not to mention the connector itself.

You might be able to drive the DC2 panel at 8bits (using the 8730w DC cable (again - rewiring needed)), just don't take that for granted.

Whatever you chose - Good luck!

 

Hello. In this day i disassemble various 8730W and 8740W and i search all panel of boot model in service manual.
I learn much think!
For start: connector of 8730W LCD is 40 pin, for 8740W LCD is 50 pin, and the connector on motherboard is more large on 8740W.

I post only information of 1920x1200 panel model (WUXGA).

HP 8730W WUXGA:

1920x1200
Samsung LTN17CT02-002
262K color
6bit TN
200 cd/m2
LCD with inverter board (all 8730W is LCD, except Dreamcolor RGB-LED)

Require
LCD standard cable (easy to find)
inverter with ambient sensor light (easy to find)

HP 8730W WUXGA DREAMCOLOR:

WUXGA Dreamcolor:
LG LP171WU5 TL B1
16.7M color
8bit TN
High Color Gamut
Wide View Angle
300 cd/m2
RGB-LED

Require:
LCD with 2 head cable for panel (exist a P/N, not is impossible to find)
Ambient sensor board (exist a P/N, but is impossible to find)

HP 8740W WUXGA:

1920x1200
LG LP171WU7 TL B1
262.000 colors
6bit TN
200 cd/m2
W-LED

or

1920x1200
Samsung TLN170CT12 001
262.000 color
6bit TN
200 cd/m2
W-LED

Require:
LCD standard (exist P/N, easy to find)
Ambient sensor light (exist P/N, easy to find)

HP 8740W WUXGA DRAMCOLOR 2:

1920x1200
LG LP171WU8 TL B1
1 Bilion colors
10bit IPS
High Color Gamut
Wide View Angle
210 cd/m2
RGB-LED

Require (is unique model of 8730W or 8740W i not disassembly or view at live, for me is a mistery and i say the info for a picture and datasheets captured from internet of 8740W Dreamcolor 2 real):

LCD 3 head (connet 50pin + 20pin of panel to color management board) (not exist P/N but only a code on cable, impossible to find today)
Color Managment Board (not exist P/N, impossible to find today)
Cable to Color Managment Board to Motherboard (not exist P/N, impossible to find today)
LCD cover different for lock the color managment board

My customer i need of a PC with Intel Core i7 generation, 17" 16:10 monitor aspect ratio and high gamut color and high brightness.

Dreamcolor 2 not have high brightness but 1bilion color 10 bit RGB-LED are stunning to view, but is impossible to find.

When, i decided to sell to him this PC:

Dell Precision M6500 Covet Orange
RGB-LED Edge to Edge (LG LP171WU5 as 8730W Dreamcolor!)
Intel Core i7 820QM (upgradable to Intel Core i7 940XM)
16GB RAM DDR3-10600S (upgradable to 32GB PC3-12800S)
SSD 512GB
Backlit Keyboard
Webcam 3MP

Extra feature not present in 8740W:

2 slot SATA for HDD/SSD (only 1 for 8740W)
1 slot mSATA (not present in 8740W)
Wireless SmartCard reader
PC Card Type I and Type II reader
1394 FireWire 6 pin (with 4 pin in 8740W)
Support WPAN module (i not secure if work too on 8740W)
Have 2 fan for (8740W only 1)


Extra feature present only in 8730W and 8740W:

Is beautyfull!
M6500 not have a beauty and carisma of 8730W and 8740W. Too a material for me is nice in 8730W and 8740W.

But is possible only 17.0/17.1 inch Notebook in the world with IPS panel is HP EliteBook 8740W Dreamcolor 2?
Lenovo W710? Nothing?

 

If your customer could live with a 16:9 display, there are many better options - just about any precision or elitebook with a 17'' display and a 2nd gen or newer (sandy bridge +) i7 should be way better. An exotic option would be transplanting the dreamcolor display in an 8760w - AFAIK the connector are the same, and somebody has tested it and it works... the display chassis will have to be modified though. Another thought is that some precisions (maybe even the 6700) might also be able to accept the 8740w - I'd read somewhere in this forum that they use basically the same colorboard (i.e. an eDP connector, a custom connector might be needed). Still, both options will be quite bespoke.

 

Yes, i propose to my customer a HP EliteBook 8770W Dreamcolor 3 at equal price of 8740W or M6500 but not accepted!
He prefer 16:10 to 16:9. Only solution "easy to find" is Dell M6500 RGB-LED. Is too easy to built. LCD and cable is easy to find.
Today 8740W and M6500 and W701 have at today after about 6/7 years high price because the 16:10 is best to work thank a 16:9 format.
I, for example i prefer the 16:10.
I love my HDX18 16:9, but i prefer a proportion of 16:10 of 8730W and 8740W or M6500 expecially if have RGB-LED panel!

 

Umm... what was the price of the 8770w, and is it still available? specs?
...also, the 8770w has the same display connector as the 8760w, right?

At any rate, he should've gotten it

 

Some week ago i was available a HP 8770W Dreamcolor very heavy with i7 Extreme Edition, SSD + HDD and other important features.
HP 8760W and 8770W is very similiar. Change CPU generation, support uffically RAM PC3-12800S (but works at the time of 8740W). At cold in this moment i not think other difference, but secure is present.
The PN of Display Assembly are different of 8760W and 8770W.
I suppose the Dreamcolor of 8770W are little different than 8760W Dreamcolor.

 

As already stated - it is one and only. There are no 16:10 IPS Windows laptops with anything larger than 12", the 8740w DC is the only exception. There are retina Macs, but these are only 15.4" and they have their own set of issues.

@Lwerewolf said that you could modify the display chassis to fit the 8740w's display. I think that there's room to keep the camera, but even if there isn't, it's a small price to pay to get a 16:10 display in a more recent machine. You can 3D print a new bezel afterwards.

Check on the first page

 

As far as the extra features go, the only noteworthy one is the separate dual heatsink/fan solution IMO... but you don't get GPU expandability due to the proprietary format, so not sure if it's that nice

 

I meant that I've fixed two of the issues pointed and I'm working on the third

 

Hello. Yes, i read the upgrade of mSata, second fan before i register to this forum. But i say the difference in stock PC.
I prefer the 8740w than M6500 though the M6500 have some feature.
8740W have carisma.

 

It does indeed. Among the slimmest fully modular 17" laptops, nice design and the best display ever (even today).

BTW the above statement about 16:10 IPSes is not entirely true. There are 20" monsters that rock desktop IPS panels with WSXGA+ (1680x1050) resolution, but they are a bit dated and again these were desktop panels.

 

Yes, HP 8730w and 8740W is best built and elegant Mobile Workstation ever. I love the capacitive board panel above the keyboad (on HDX18 and HDX9000 are amazing).
In 8730W and 8740W the Magnesium alloy and Alliminium cover all PC. Is two wonderful Notebook. And expecially 8730W very slim.
I not is a lover of very slim and light PC (my all PCs confirm it, expecially XPS 710), but is necessary a grace design with decorative elements, and in HP 8740W in present, but remans professional and squared design but with care to detail.
Dell M6500 is more simply of design, but RGB-LED Edge to Edge is very beauty with glass. The defect of M6500 is the palmrest. Very plasticously and simply.
Lenovo W701.... Lenovo is all ugly! Is a very brick. Zero Art.

But i have a answer.
Not exist RGB-LED TN panel compatible with 8740W without modify original 1 head cable? I not disassembly the RGB-LED of M6400 or Dell M6500 and i now know the type of cable or eventually color management board.
Same question of Lenovo W700 and W701. Never disassembled.

 

I'm not a fan of slim and light as well, I just said that 8740w is pretty solid and powerful for its size, the magnesium chassis helps a great deal for both, especially given that the display alone accounts for 12mm. What I'm saying - I don't mind if it's slim and light YET powerful and modular, I HATE slim and light if it's on the account of the components inside (soldered RAM, "awesome" right).

You could use DELL cables, since they are much more common. The thing is, the data wires are most likely coaxial (pretty common for DELL cables) and they are a bit more tedious to deal with. You'll have to cut and solder HP bottom end since, the DELL one is different. I doubt that you'll find any parts for W70x, these are rarer than HP DC related parts.

 

Also I am not a fan of thin PC.
I seek high quality, sophisticated design, attention to detail and I really appreciate also artistic details.
On a workstation the most important thing in design is to show that it is a professional product.
The brushed aluminum 8730W and 8740W is very nice. And it is very beautiful the base of magnesium alloy chassis with all those rooms, air vents, drawings for the screws, for second battery inputs and dockng station.

You would be able to manufacture a cable to:
LG LP171WU5 TL B1 (HP 8730W) or LG PL171WU5 TL A4 (Dell M6400 / M6500)
compatible with HP 8740W?
Possibly buy it.

 

I've made custom cables before, but they were for me and I'm well aware of the possible negative outcome - frying something, or at the very least not working*. Then comes the price of such cable and currently I have no spare money to dive into such project. That's why these things are best if done by yourself. Sorry that I have to decline. Best of luck!

* Not sure how our BIOS would deal with 8bit RGB LED display (possible fix would be a DELL 2800m/3800m vBIOS flashed on our 2800m/3800m).

 

I just installed a k4000m. It works perfectly right out of the box. This card is on the list of working GPU'S. Now you can add it as tested.

 

HP K3000m works too, with the TN panel anyways.. Was driving the 8740w dreamcolor in the 8770w chassis too, so I guess it's ok.

 

Just a few updates, based on my latest findings, and a few experiments with some other cards.

1. There's no working fan control for W7170m, maybe there is fan controls but some one might need to modify the tables, as of now there's no way one can do this due to the lack of tools. But the good news is that if you are running an i7 920xm or i7 940xm, the CPU is more than hot enough to keep the GPU at a acceptable temperature. Only time I managed to get GPU to throttle is when litemining at intensity 16 and forcing CPU to run on minium clocks. I have not tested i7 840qm or any of the dual core CPUs
In one sentence, fan control doesn't work but there's no need for manual fan control (if you are running on i7 940xm or i7 920xm).

2. You should not overclock anything if you wanna install w7170m.
I broke a quad core mobo, can't say for sure but while gaming the total power draw is close to 200W, which is the borderline.
I have not tried to undervolt GPU due to the lack of time. the vBIOS of W7170m is EXACTLY the same as that on a Alienware 17 R2. I actually extracted the vBIOS module, hoping that flashing the vBIOS of R9 m390x will enable overclocking/undervolting for me. But that's a big NO.

3. Firepro M6000m from Dell M6700 does NOT work. I managed to get it to boot to HP logo. But a BSoD came up as soon as it entered the system.

4. Quadro k4000m is a piece of cake, just driver mod.

5. GTX 970m and GTX 980m works fine. I modify the drivers using the quadro 5000m slot. There's options to choose color depth (8bpc or 10 bpc) in nVIDIA control panel. The default is on 8, but if you choose 10 there will be no greyscale problem.

I can upload pictures or the inf files later.

(Please notice that I used the ordinary version of GTX 980m and GTX 970m, NOT the G-sync version.)

6. Absolutely NO f***ing luck in GTX 1060m. Which is quite disappointing. The cause of black screens is the GOP modules for UEFI boot-ups. So I went ahead and completely deleted the GOP part of GTX 1060m. the vBIOS downsized from 256KB to ~190KB. And yet, still black screens.

Since that GTX 980m and GTX 970m are working fine, the only two possible explainations are
a. LVDS output. It is possible that 8740w used an active converter to convert eDP signals to LVDS for DC panel. In that case, it's very likely that the driver sees an LVDS interface, it will refuse to recognize the monitor and output anything.
b. G-sync. The g-sync and non g-sync cards even have different hardware IDs. And I'm pretty sure that my GTX1060 is from a MSI laptop which has G-sync

Planning to get my hand on one of those Quadro P5000m before summer. Though I doubt it will work on 8740w, it will confirm which of the two above is actually responsible


===================================================

All tests done on 8740w with DreamColor and windows 7 x64

Not yet. I dumped it into my Clevo P150em. If you want, the card's for $600 via paypal

 

Thx but I have already picked up a zotac en1070

 

Have you tried it on 8740w?

 

As for Card recommendations, I'd vote for Quadro K4000m. or K3000m or stay with the original M7820
those run cool, are cheap, compatibility is good, has good potential for overclocking. And does leave decent power allowance for CPU overlcocking.
Anything better will be severely bottlenecked by CPU or create a more severe bottleneck in CPU or bottlenecked by your wallet

 

How did you install 8740w's DC on 8770w?? :O
Can you please share more on that?

 

Probably with a crowbar and Silly Putty. A beautiful job!

 

Nope I'm modifying a Zbook 15 g1 to accommodate the card it's been quite the journey

 

So the fan is controlled only by the CPU temps? That's interesting and kinda the opposite of what it was up until now (older AMDs). Anyway, more often than not the CPU is the loaded one, so it's still better than manual fan control all the time. With the M8900 I've set an alarm @85ºC so if some process runs in background I can hear when the temps are going to skyrocket and change the fan speed accordingly - rather tedious.

Is there something fried? I think that it can withstand more than that. Of course VRM cooling would greatly improve this.

Thank you for this, I was looking for a rerun ever since @artpra made quite a few posts on the matter about 8770w DC (continues on the next page).

Interesting take about a/ but I'm more inclined to b/, so:

It lacks G-SYNC, so that's a start.

Here's the post, there are more afterwards.

 

Plastic connectors are the same the 8770w lacks an ambient light sensor board though. If you plug in the ALS board from the 8740w, the display defaults to full brightness. If you don't, it'd minimum brightness. You can still control it via the MDM. I have a feeling that an 8770w dreamcolor mb->colorboard cable will fix that, but haven't bothered looking for one just yet.
The panel itself fits if you grind out everything up to the top plastic wall. The antennas fit behind it, but wifi reception becomes a bit directional - custom work is required for better results. The mic/camera board can be put at the bottom with a bit of dremeling. The stock cover can be partially reused, after some grinding. If you bend the hinges and drill holes in the right places, you can use the stock hinges as a makeshift solution. Some of the display's ribbon cables will have to be bent - they won't fit straight due to the different colorboard mounting position.

The MDM communicates with the display/colorboard/whatever via i2c, it's fairly easy to sniff the traffic if you install the linux version. Potential for reverse engineering is there.

Sorry for the lack of progress, I barely use the machine nowadays (desktop & surface ^_^)

 

As I posted few pages ago I changed FX3800 to K3100M .
And I plan to buy and connect 4K (3840x2160) monitor for use with 8740w.
But in specs is information that max resolution for 8740w is 2560x1440 (or 1600). I assume that this were for FX-series.

As on nVidia website states - K3100M is capable to display up to 3840x2160 per monitor through DP v1.2 cable.

So I have question: this 4K resolution will work with inserted K3100M OR maybe there will be some "suppression" of resolution to maximum 2560 because of older version of DP connectors between MXM3 and chasis?

I ask about both: DP connector on laptop and Advanced Docking Station (2x DP and 2x DVI).

Anyone?

 

On theory, it should work. Practice is another matter - @Lwerewolf tried a 4K display with his 780m and it didn't work properly.

 

OK, I'll check this in few days, I'm waiting for 4K TV to arrive.

But I have another question:
what is name of WWAN connector under RAM cover? Is this PCI-Express MiniCard connector?
What kind of mini cards can I connect to it?

I ask, because I'm looking to alternatives to connect 4K monitor to 8740w if DP will not work in 4K.
I researching now about something named eGPU - so I'm curious that this would work as alternative.

 

Hey all. Sorry if I managed to overlook the answer to my question but for what its worth I've spent the past few hours reading this thread and trying to research it before wasting your time with little to no success.

I have the elitebook 8730w I've seen it referenced a lot in this thread but from what I've seen the main focus of this thread is the 8740w. Of the listed mods (graphics card upgrade specifically) are they interchangeable between both models? I know the 8730 does have the MXM 3b card design and if what I've read is remotely reliable it would be physically possible to swap out a K3100,k4100, or a k5000 for the factory installed Fx3700m. And with what you all have linked here the software/bios in the 8740 is compatible with either of the three. And while I cannot recall the exact specs for the other two the k3100 has the same 75w power consumption as the Fx3700 I was looking to upgrade to it so that I would have the higher performance without having to go extreme with mods to support the jump.

In short will the elitebook 8730w be able to run the quadro k3100 graphics card? If the bios/software will support it maintaining the 75w I would be able to use the factory psu and cooling correct?

Once again I am sorry if I overlooked or misunderstood. This is the first laptop mod I'll have ever attempted but have worked with desktops a bit so I am comfortable with the work to be done but before buying more parts and tearing this thing apart I was curious if someone could either tell me for sure it works or save me the trouble altogether.

Thanks.
Kevin

 

Hi, I want to share my experience. I recently bought an Firepro W7170M from RMSMajestic for my Alienware 17 2014 which had a Core i7 4710MQ and a R9 M290X 4GB and it worked fine. Both cards had identical layouts so the only modification that I had to do was to remove the bracket from the M290X and put it on the W7170M. So everything works perfectly except two things.

1) If you disable Enduro by pressing the Fn + Graphic Switch command, once you reboot the PC will no longer post, so you will have to remove the AMD GPU and turn it on with no GPU on it, it will boot fine with the Intel IGP, then remove AMD drivers and then shut down the PC.

2) You will have to use HWINFO64 or similar fan to create a profile and keep the GPU fan running according to the threshold.

I installed the gaming drivers and will install the Radeon PRO control panel but the GPU will be recognized as an R9 M390X. The performance gains on games is around 20-30% which is very good, on some tessellation heavy areas, it is nearly 2-3 times faster, on pixel bound areas around 60% faster.

The GPU uses slightly less power at idle and Enduro works fine, sometimes it would turn on the GPU by itself forcing you to have to launch the HWINFO64 to keep the GPU temps under control even if its not doing nothing. Is just a matter of paying attention to sensor temps. Overall I am a happy camper!!