Frankinbook (My Pro Elitebooks 8570PB)

Completed the placement of two of the six threaded inserts, that were repurposed for mounting the heat sink and cover plate assembly, to the plastic body of the gutted remote.

Being critical in alignment, they are to be fully set proper before adding the next two threaded inserts. The adhesive I use is very messy and sticks to just about anything, which makes it a time consuming process. You have to quickly clean up any residue or it can be difficult to remove, even if it gets on your skin.

The interesting thing in using the adhesive is that it is rubber based. As it starts to cure, you can form it without breaking its bond. Once cured, it is like soft plastic. Very firm yet will have just enough softness to absorb strain without cracking. I do a lot of permenant repairs with threaded inserts, embedded in plastics, since the stuff it is stronger than abs, being not so brittle.

Problem is, it can take a few days to cure, and the thicker the application the longer it takes.

 

Installed the remaining threaded inserts. Found there is no good way to install the 6th insert. Just not enough room near the bottom edge. Did a test just with 2 screws installed, with the 2 that I done earlier. They held well enough, nice and tight. Just one of the inserts needed a bit more curing. I should have tested with the m.2 card installed, at first, as it keeps the inserts from twisting. Each of the 3 far side mounted inserts knurls have been filed flat on opposite sides to allow fitment and keep twist from weakening the hold of the glue. The m.2 card edge is firm and strong enough to keep the insert from walking, while the inserts keep alignment of the card through the length of the slot it resides. I give it the weekend to cure. In the mean time, I will periodically check the remaining inserts for alignment as the glue becomes firm enough to form and shape for the heat sink to rest without obstruction, against the threaded insert and plastic edge, around the opening of the gutted remote.

 

Since i had a wee bit of time and relaxing on my weekend. I figured to post an informative, since right now is a bad bad time to buy. If you waited for stimulus checks and plan on buying now... forget it!

Here is my consumer advisory for 2021 and 2022...

Top reasons not to buy during economic down turns

If you have not bought a new mid range item before March, don't buy until another year or two. Companies will make consumers pay before any noticable improvements are made with their products.

We always try to buy just as economic down turns start to kick in. Here are the top reasons why...

Quality is still part of the product design when produced. Having less work force on the line, is allowing for greater chances of error.

Component availability... if lacking components, quick redesigns with older parts or budget minded components are swapped.

Slow at recovery... mostly design and upgraded features are at least a year behind once down turn has set in.

Cost... no real savings, and most likely your getting less for your money.


Here are some examples, and are known facts amongst social communities.

2008... remember that year? The Obama unemployment crisis. We happened to be looking for a new car, and took advantage of that year. Ending up in getting a top of the line 2009 model cheap. The buyer returned the car under trade-in less than a year of owning. He paid 39k we bought it less than 22k certified by manufacturer, like new and reasonable mileage at 11.5k. Being we bought it in January 2010, the car was built in late 2008, and sold in early 2009. By 2010 sales were slow and we noticed the 2010 models were not as fully equipped as the 2009. Later on in owning, we heard there was components failing on 2010 and 2011 models. Basically a year or two during the down turn did not make good with any big updates or better builds than previously. A lot of lower standards were used by parts suppliers.

Same thing with TVs. We bought a 65" wide screen, top of the line at the time and over $1,500 in cost as discounted. A 2009 model discounted low by demand and pushing new OLED designs for early 2010 release. Again most big ticket purchases were becoming stagnant. It was made late 2008, and the whole model line ended up being discontinued by mid 2009. Some of the late buyers with 2009 builds complained about long term quality. Our TV is still running strong, with only a few repairs, a $50 power supply from storm power surge, and a blue laser diode at $100. Could have had premature failure from same power surge. Nothing like what some had reported with main system boards or picture control boards going bad. Which were costly after warranty.

From years of buying, I noticed its best to buy early when a product is released. Most of the time the early product designs have better quality from line workers, and components are within the design specs by the suppliers. At any given time a supplier may change within design specs or another supplier may be chosen for costs or component demands. If you must buy new, a mid down turn years, be very choosy, and buy early within 3 months of being released. No guarantees on what you get will be exactly what you want. Consumers are at the mercy of the manufacturer.

 

Had to redo my layout on the threaded inserts. Changed from 6 to 4, being used.

I have started on drilling the metal cover plate, to allow the screw heads to have a counter sink appearance, even though they are flat. The cover plate will give a nicer finish while covering the heat sink. Making both heat sink and cover plate combine as one.

Also another issue popped up. The remaining order of my parts seems to have been lost. No tracking from sorting location. Its going to make a delay on finalizing my BIOS overide mod, since the lost shipment has the required adapter and CAT12 WWAN.

I did manage to find some antennas. So I will get around attempting my antenna mod once more, while replacing the nicely cut one, my cat had determined was bad. HA!

Once I have fully completed the custom m.2 express adapter card, for its function and finish. I will modify the express card ejecter housing to hold the mini pci-e to m.2 b+m adapter in place, for when my custom m.2 express card adapter is inserted.

Mounting it to the system board will be easy and does not require much adjustment, considering I had already verified proper fitment earlier.

The mini pci-e to m.2 b+m adapter will be converted into a cable end. I may be able to use the original LVDS cable for repurposing, along with its display panel connector. The display panel connector, can be mounted near cpu socket, for ease of disconnection between the custom m.2 express card tray assembly, and to keep the short length magnet wire nicely sorted. Because the display panel socket is thin, it should have room to clear the underside of the heat sink assembly.

 

I have finished creating proper holes and mods to the heat sink and cover plate to my custom m.2 express card adapter. Right now the two parts are being glued in a compressed state while aligned. Will probably take the week to cure, since there is not much space open to the air to cure quickly.

 

It's easier to get a bootleg mini PCIE AX200 card, then you don't need minipcie to m.2 a/e adapter or antenna adapters for wifi card. AX210 only adds more channels compared to AX200, they are identical otherwise, so there's arguably no point jumping through hoops to have it.

Good luck!

 

Yes, there are some cards still made for mini Pci-e. As for modding, the adapter makes it a simple no touch cards or system board, if WWAN is truly unlocked. Also, the adapters are for upgrades. AX is fairly new, so i expect after 2 years, there will be a more robust option to choose from, which will not fit mini PCI-e slots.

 

Good news, my order minus the CAT12 WWAN will be reshipped. The WWAN was a one item only deal, so I will have to look for another. They will refund once the new shipment is delivered. They think there is delays with postal service, else the refund would be done firstly.

I managed to start on making the mini pci-e to m.2 adapter integral to the express card ejecter tray. Should not be too difficult in securing to make proper insertion alignment... even though there is hardly anything to mount to, by visual observation. Just need to add plates to extend a wee bit and mount to.

The gutted remote heat sink and cover was tacky enough to finalize any tolerance changes. Had to file here and there to level the mounted threaded inserts as proper stand offs, to keep from overly stressing the fitment.

The m.2 stick seats proper and is held nicely. Tight enough to keep in place under thermal expansion and contraction.

Will place small dots of silver thermal paste on the NVME controller and memory chips. Not much, as to see the pattern the foot print leaves when heat sink is fully tightened. May need to adjust a wee bit, but the paste should fill the wee gaps.

Not sure if there is room for double sided NVME sticks. I did add a bottom heat sink plate, though my 500GB stick fits just right.

 

I was able to finish up the express card tray modification to allow a proper alignment and fit for the m.2 card adapter.

The m.2 card adapter slides nicely into place with a light snappy click. The tray and connector are snug yet do not cause bind, as to fiddle around in finding alignment. Pretty much self aligning once the card is slid in.

I will reverse the mounting fasteners to allow for better clearance and grind down the extra length of thread, so the threaded inserts when placed on the other side, can rest on the system board, when using mylar sheet protection under them.

Here is the assembly, about ready to mount in place.

 

After another test fitting, now that the m.2 card adapter and express card tray are properly functional... i found a wee more tweaking is in order.

As for the notebook bottom base, the enlarging of smart card slot iw coming out nicely. About 75% complete. A lot of hand filing and cutting bits carefully.

Found a way to keep the mounting foot pad untouched to the bottom base. I shifted the card tray forward a wee bit. Following the boundry of the system board outline for the smart card tray.

The shift makes the adapter protrude about 4 mm out from the side. Not bad enough to catch when sliding the notebook in carry bag or sleeve. I had it fit flush against the side with my original plan. Unfortunately the connector mounting to the m.2 stick was a bit larger than expected and became more of an obstruction than planned. I could remove the mounting foot completely as it is not required, but I feel having the wee protrusion will make removal of the card adapter easier, since there is no eject mechanism. The snug fit is more difficult to pull from trying to slide out with finger tip grip from the bottom side only, where there is a nice open protrusion.

 

Finished, mostly, with the bottom base mods, for the custom m.2 x4 express card mod.

Modded the express card eject tray, by removing all the eject components and trimmed any protrusion that caused unnecessary interface with bottom cover.

Just about ready to adjust mounting points for clearance and final assembly to the system board.

It really needed to have some protrusion from the side, instead of the planned flush with side fitment. Without a direct grip to pull straight out, it is a wee difficult, to say the least to remove. In fact practically impossible to dislodge indirectly with messing about.

Awaiting on the WWAN m.2 adapter. It may take a few weeks. Don't know until then.

Will temporarily get the notebook operational, once I replace the bad (cut) wifi antenna cable. It will be for checking display function with the proper LVDS cable, and to install May 2021 Windows 10 iso image.

 

Good news... found another set of Altec Lansing speakers. They seem to be better quality that the ones that I started with. Oddly they have the same part number. I will work on them to fit, soon after I am completed with the M.2 express card mod.

I need to make a small addon bracket so there are 4 hold down points, instead of the two that are securing it to the system board.

The only reason for it, is for strengthening, if by chance a good bump hits the protrustion.

Here are some pictures of how its coming along. Note there are no screws installed to the base and top cover. So fitment is proper without any obstruction. If the mod did not have clearance, the bottom base would not fit proper.

Also I will make a finishing plate to cover the gap, shown in the picture of the slot opening seen from below.

 

Had to tear apart my work on the custom m.2 express card mounting. Mostly because the need for the addition of the extra mounting. Had to clean up the incremental mods that were done and make them as one. At this point, I am cleaning and adjusting, for proper placement for the 2 new holes, before reassembly.

I had enough time to do the speaker mod, mostly. All the work in making a special chamber, earlier in my mods, was for not. Had to break apart what I did and minimize. Now both speakers are fully enclosed without a shared chamber.

I doubt it will make much difference, especially since hp has the speakers too close to each other and the original design for the chamber was not very good as it was originally.

If there is any improvement, it will be directly related to the speakers them selves. Being bigger and better designed than the originals, they should produce better sound.

Mostly the speaker mod is for the fact there is no room anymore for the chamber. Rather install the best option than to hack away at the oem speakers to make them fit.

 

Crazy stuff, man, just saying. When can we expect to see the whole thing in its full glory?

 

Thanks for your interest. I am not sure yet. I started with a mix of spare parts for service replacement. Mix matching as I go, in finding similarities between various models and years.

I am awaiting on the mini pci-e WWAN m.2 adapter, to wire up the two adapter cards as a plug in to defeat bios check with 3rd party wifi cards. I soon will have the custom m.2 x4 express card slot fully mounted for creating a pigtail connection from the adapter to wire up from the socket using a small multi pin connector.

It will take time to create all the wired connections. But I will be starting it last, as I want everything else to function as planned.

I assume once the pig tail is created for the express card assembly, i should be able to do the custom wiring from the CPU socket to the connector for the pigtail connection. Basically it doubles the work, but allows the notebook to be serviceable and keeps everything almost OEM clean.

The adapter I am waiting on is in transit, but could be a few weeks. I have had odd timing issues with USPS, and some items seem to go in circles at times. Once I obtain it, I should be assembling the notebook within a short time. I rather make sure the adapters can be modded together, rather than to find out not so, after assembly. As to make it less work to pull the main board for modding as a last resort.

The speaker mod, for example, would have required me to disassemble, if i had found the Altec Lansing speakers a bit later.

I guess between June and July, for the finish of my mods. Though this is a wee just for fun thing, no time constraints.

Hope that clarifies things, even though I am not putting a lot of effort in any speedy completions. Especially with fine wiring, where you can end up starting from scratch if you cross a wire or loose track of which side that was last worked on.

 

Here is the m.2 express card tray, now with 4 mounting points, instead of 2.



Here is the speaker mod and another mod with bios battery that was done last night. No more pig tail battery replacements, ever!



Also, a while back i was asked about why bluetooth has limited range and connectivity in Win10. I never thought about a root cause, other than driver. Now I have a feeling it is the design of the notebook chassis. Bluetooth is embedded inside a shielded barrier of Magnesium. The only open area is directly in front down at an angle, being a plastic door. One can remove the door and pull out the bluetooth module, just enough to allow the antenna end to be outside of the chassis. It may correct some of the issues.

 

I just about forgot! I will be converting the powered USB 2.0 connector to powered USB 3.0.

I thought I could attempt to create a poor man's Thunderbolt with a 24 pin USB C connector, but the SD card reader is in the way on the opposite side. If it were a 8570W system board, it would be a non issue. Though, it would require a duplexer switch to adjust all the USB connections to Display Port connections.

Since I cannot remove the USB 2.0 PCB connector, I decided to gut the connector shell, while in place and swap out the contact assembly. If you have not already noticed, I am pretty good at gutting components. Ha!

On with the M.2 adapter connection... I decided to give up using LVDS cable and connector to be part of the custom M.2 Express Card adapter interface. Instead, I decided to use HP's own method of interfacing the USB ports to the W series. Though what I found was not from the Elite Book or Pro Book line.

I removed the connector from the PCB and attached it to the cable. Pictured at the bottom... Since the connector is a single row 20 pin variant of a LVDS connector, I find it a better option for low profile use.

Once carefully unwrapped, I can remove the pins and create twisted pairs, along with shielding them proper for isolation.

I may use two connectors, one for M.2 and the other for adding the two unused USB 3.0 ports from North Bridge. One for upgrading the Powered USB 2.0 port and the other for WWAN mini PCI-e, upgrade.

So far all of my mods but the Powered USB 3.0 mod, can be reversed back to oem, without much to notice. Just need a replacement bottom base, since mine is modded to allow for the custom m.2 Express Card slot.

 

I am going back to my plan of a custom LVDS cable. The only clear area to mount a connector for my m.2 express card mod, requires the connection to face straight up at 90°. All the flat single row connectors are at 0°. As I am trying to make the connection clean and accessable, so i am left with only one very limited option.

Problem is my limited parts resources has been sent to recycling, never to be seen again. I will try to find what i can, to create the necessary cable.

In the mean time... proof late builds are not what they seem.

Below are two identical cables, until dissected. Same part number, just one is a late build.

Top had already been in the middle of being customized. Until i needed more wires, I had no clue to the changes which suprised me when I looked at the bottom cable. Notr the lack of shielding and ground wires for the jacket. Which I had removed on the top picture.

 

Since I am contemplating how to address the lack of connector availability, to provide a means to wire up the North Bridge conections, to the m.2 express card mode interface, I took some time to gut the powered USB 2.0 connector. I also carefully removed the insides of a USB 3.1 to USB C adapter and fitted within the OEM USB 2.0 shell. Pictures below... note I had left the connections that are soldered to the pcb as to show that I am not doing any photo retouching to con anyone with the mod I am performing. They will be replaced with a connection to connect to the existing pcb on the USB 3.1 connector. I will trim off the USB C mounting pads, and use the open area to glue a low profile SMT 4 pin connector on top and a low profile SMT 6 pin connector on the bottom.

 

I found an old xga+ cable for a wide screen laptop, and a few more interface boards, but nothing like what i expected from the small hoard kept in isolation for the past decade or so. Still limited by connector availiblity. So, with what few bits I have I will have to plan a wee bit of consolidation, in making the most of what I have.

In the mean time, I am to receive my WWAN card and its mini PCI-e adapter. Very soon, I will start on finalizing the WiFi and WWAN upgrades, wire up all needed connections to interface a cutom North Bridge connection, and start assembling. The North Bridge wiring up can be done with the notebook fully assembled. That is why I have been critical about a clean and well laid out customization.

I hope to have the Notebook assembled and upgraded to mid May Win10, with bugs and all, to test the completed mods without the North Bridge mods. Once I verify all is well, i will attack the USB 3.0 updates from the custom North Bridge connection. It should be the quickest to complete, before finalizing hardware mods with adding PCI-e x4 channels to the m.2 Express Card interface.

The rest of the mods will be OS oriented, with Sony BluRay firmware hack, and hopefully testing the Samsung EVO 860 NVME drive, and cloning the OS for booting with m.2 express card.

Initial testing on base build, the boot from power on to Windows, was about 4 seconds after bios init sequence. This is with Windows caching fully enabled with 8GB of RAM. Once NVME is active, I will disable Windows cache and hope I get about 15 seconds boot up times. My modded Tiger Lake Dell once booted around 3 seconds with cache enabled and now gets 8 seconds without cache. The big difference is my Dell is fully loaded, this notebook will only have os and a few utilities, for speed comparisons.

 

Got my Sierra Wireless EM7565 and adapter in, finally!

I did not bother with getting an adapter with SIM built in. The system board has built in functionality, plus have an USB WWAN adapter and an express card to mini PCI-e adapter with SIM capabilty. So dual SIM can be done plug and play.

Found a better battery holder for my wee BIOS battery mod. The white plastic is not so nice looking, plus its cheaply made, even though it fits proper with the opening. The new one has better contacts and hold down, thinner and graphite black coloured bakelite. Higher temp rating over the white plastic of the other I had chosen.

I will wire the m.2 adapters up for installation of the WiFi and WWAN and get a move on with assembly. Oh I forgot... the connector I am to use has been glued at the wires, to keep them from being damaged from stress. Since there are 40 wires, its going to take a bit more time, to use a heated razer knife and work away the glue to remove each pin for reuse.

 

I was able to disassemble the xga+ cable for wires. The double row wire head connector as made of brittle plastic, not nylon like most. So it was impossible to reuse. I had a few 20 pin single row connectors, so I got a wee idea to combine two of the 20 pin single row smt connectors as one, for upright connections, even though they are to mount flat, making them easier to place and access.

As for the powered USB 3.0 conversion, I will wire it up directly to the system board, instead of using connectors. Mainly because I have a lack of components to re-purpose.

The only small connector I have will be used on the PCI-e adapter for WWAN. Mostly for ease of service. It will allow the adapter connection to USB 3.0 for WWAN device operation.

I have hit a bump in the road. While messing with the two PCI-e adapters, the cheap adapter for WWAN had a solder pad lift from the edge connection. It did not take much and I assume I will have to be extra careful with soldering more connections for USB 3.0.

I will attempt to fix by creating a new connection pad to wire a connection on the card edge. From there I could wire up the connector on the adapter, soldering magnet wire on the pin.

All the connections can be done together as a single job.

If the pad is too much of a problem I can order another... probably a more robust one with SIM, even though I wont need the funtion. I may need to remove the sim adapter, because of the lack of room with card space, if needed to order a new adapter.

As for the WiFi, it is fine and I sealed the wire connection from being moved by stress.

 

Its been slow as of late. Managed to sort out the lifted trace for perst on the cheap m.2 adapter for the WWAN.

Ran into a wee problem. I don't have fine enough magnet wire to use in jumpering from cpu socket to my connectors. Its going to make my efforts a lot slower.

I dug a wee deeper, and found that PEG x16 runs at PCI-e 3.0, which will be most excellent for my m.2 upgrade mod. This is if I can verify unused channels on the PEG bus, with internal Intel 4000 graphics.

I hope that I have 8 channels unused for PEG so once I do the final wiring for the m.2 express card mod, I will have another 4 channels to use for making my existing express card into another m.2 express card mod, for dual m.2 express card capabilities. It would allow the possiblity of making the dual m.2 3.0 x4 into pci-e 3.0 x8, for an external pci-e dock.

As for powered usb 3.0 mod, its almost done. Just have to tap into the docking station port, where there is a USB 3.0 provision.

I dug into finding a wee more about them docking stations. The pre 2012 Advanced Docking Station is not as robust as the previous version. Which also shows with the newer post 2012 notebooks. Their docking port use less pins and because of it less options on the station.

I could tap into the extra pci-e channel for the pre 2012 docking station's express card slot, and use it for a third internal mini pci-e.

Though like the USB 3.0 the extra mini PCI-e would cause port failures when used on the docking station if the mods are populated. The powered USB 3.0 mod shouldnt be a problem, since the need of USB would be used on the docking station, not necessarily on the notebook. Because there is so little room left within the 15" notebook, in creating an extra pci-e slot, would require modding my existing SATA6 ssd mod even further, to shift it off center even more so, to create more room with in the drive bay location.

 

Before I start on the system board wiring and custom cable for my m.2 express card mod. I took a few photos.

The top is a compariason of the oem heat sink with the DV6 next to it. No, the DV6 heat sink is not made by NASA. Ha!

Outside of it being larger with longer heat radiating fins, its 99.8% copper. I added the thick copper sheeting to add 2% more effectiveness. It was wrapped completely around the heat sink and formed to keep snug and fit within the confines of the chasis.

Middle picture is a mod that is hidden. Some may think it is normal. Think again... there is no integrated graphics heat sink made with a copper pickup pad. I added it because I don't care for thick putty squares to disperse heat. Since I have made the critical component to the heat exchange more effective for the higher wattage CPU, I decided to help the IGfx too.

Lastly the bottom shows two simi hidden mods. The very top, you may see a wee flat cable that looks OEM. It is for the powered USB 3.0 mod. It will be trimmed and soldered to the system board directly, at the docking station port.

Down along the RAM is my hidden disable for BIOS whitelist detect. It runs along the memory, staring from the mini PCI-e card adapters.

When the bottom cover is in place, non of the mods are visible. Only the twisted pair that looks like the modem cable is partially shown, and is easily camouflaged, in looking like its part of the connection for the modem.

 

Updating further on progress... replaced the popped component from my early start, with a pin out mixup snafu.

Soldered in some USB3.0 connections from the docking station port. Need to correct one connection, as it was done off center from the pad. I think i may have touched the wire when soldering an adjacent connection. None the less it tests fine, just too close for comfort for me. Once all connections are done, i will cover the soldered pins and magnet wire with a green tinted clear enamel trace cover pen. It will protect the area and the wires well enough for long term stress.

It took me a bit of time, as I had to rethink a plan for the limited connector availability I had on hand. Also I wanted to make direct connections instead of an unnecessary connection point. It turns out for the type of mod, it will alleviate issues with random maintenance and shock from being jarred. If it were in an area where things will always be stationary, the wires from the modified USB port, would be directly soldered to the pins, of the docking station.

Modified the bottom base once more... cut away some of the antenna wire routing area at the Wifi / WWAN card opening, to allow full maintenance of the cards and their adapters, without removing the bottom base. HP made the whole area including mounting standoffs a bit confined for future upgrades. Now that all that is sorted, I see no issues with upgrading, later on in the notebook service life.

Below is a photo of where I stopped on my wiring on the docking station port. Once the offcenter wire is adjusted, I will finish the last two connections and add a mini connector to the wire ends, for mounting in an open area, free from causing obstruction when assembled.