*HP EliteBook 2560p Owners Lounge*

I was curious if anyone else had installed their laptop as UEFI boot. EFI boot is the way that apple computers boot.

The best description of UEFI I've seen is:
Technical Note: UEFI BIOS vs. Legacy BIOS - YouTube

I followed this guide:
Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs

Even though I followed the bios utility to enable upgrade bay boot, it still seems to cause problems on shutdown and reboot.

 

Series-6 chipset Flash Descriptor modification Tool

ME Firmware 7.1.20.1119.zip

This tool appears to be able to modify various parameters of the Series-6 chipset including x2/x4 link width of pci-e ports, PLL settings, perhaps even lock/unlock extreme CPUs. Not 100% sure. Putting it out there for others to see what's possible.

NOTE: For DIY eGPU users, there's really not much value trying x2/x4 as x2 2.0 gives the same sort of performance as x1 2.0 Opt (pci-e compressed). Only real value would be for those that want to run ATiAMD cards instead. x4 2.0 is going to be possible on like 2% of systems with 4 accessible ports. Plus we have no x4 2.0 capable pci-e adapter.

If you want to try it out on your system, open up the location of fptw64.exe in command line with administrator rights and type "fptw64 -d -desc" to try to create a dumpfile with your flash descriptor data. If it does work and you edit it be very careful when you go and try to flash since you can EASILY accidentally erase your BIOS since it is stored on the same chip.

Acknowledgement: thank you to Secret Santa's delivery service for this one

 

Thanks for the suggestion. However HP states that after applying a FW update you cannot go back to previous versions, is there a way to circumvent that?

Update: I looked for bios F.20 but could only find F.21, were there positive reports about sata III and F.21 too?

 

It's interesting you mention not going backwards. A couple weeks ago I downloaded f.25 from hp.com. I noticed it's not there anymore and my hp assistant popped up and asked me to downgrade to f.22

I've been having issues with the upgrade bay drive (boot or just storage). It seems to be the cause of my laptop not shutting down. It'll operate normally until I want to shutdown, restart or standby. It will turn off the screen but not shut down. Sometimes it will even blue screen.

 

I double checked my laptop. Even though I reloaded f.22, it didn't overwrite the f.25 that I already had. So indeed you can't go backwards. This is interesting because the f.25 bios was removed completely from the website. I suppose we'll be getting another update soon.

For anyone who is using a second hard drive caddy. You need to check out this post. I've been troubleshooting my machine not shutting down correctly for weeks. It turns out to be a diagnostic pin on the hard drive caddy. To give you an idea of the extent of my troubleshooting. I've replaced the laptop twice and reloaded the OS dozen of times. Tech support on "shutting down" is a real tough one. I would have never imagined this to be the cause. removing the pin made all my trouble go away.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-.../655065-hp-elitebook-8560p-wont-shutdown.html

 

Just got my 2560p but I may have to get rid of it because of the touchpad/trackpad behavior.

Has anyone else been driven crazy by how double clicking the touchstick left mouse button will often re-enable the trackpad because of that damnable sensor in the top left corner. Just resting my thumb in a natural position to use the touchstick is enough to re-enable the trackpad. Talk about dumb engineering! I can't figure out a way to permanently disable that sensor. Oh well, and I was so looking forward to putting a quad core in this thing but I guess its off to a x220 for me.

 

There's not F.20 for 2560p. However, I just downgraded from f.25 to f.21. Sata III works fine.

 

Hi, my 2530p now got replaced by a 2560p with 8GB RAM and 320 GB HD.

As I upgraded my 2530p earlier with a 300 GB SSD (Intel Series 320, 1.8 inch, 3.3 V with microSATA connector), I wanted to use that SSD now in the 2560p as replacement for the HDD. So I ordered a microSATA-to-SATA adapter from LINDY ( Micro SATA an SATA Adapter fr Micro SATA Device | SATA / SAS | Wechselrahmen, Backplanes & RAID fr Festplatten | Systemkomponenten | LINDY DE) and connected it to the SATA connector in the primary bay but the BIOS of the 2560p did not recognize the SSD ("disk not installed").

So I thought, there is no 3.3Vprovided by the SATA connector of the notebook and acquired another adapter from LINDY with an additional 5V to 3.3V voltage regulator ( http://www.lindy.de/micro-sata-an-sata-adapter-mit-33v-regler-fuer-micro-sata-device/33502.html).

But the BIOS still recognizes no SATA disk.

Can anyone give me a hint what I can do now in order to continue using the Intel 1.8 Series 320 SSD in the EliteBook 2560p?

 

I used the newmodeus 1.8" to 2.5" adapter to get the 1.8" 128GB MDS SSD working properly on the 2560P. See 1.8 to 2.5 Drive Adapter w/ 3.3v support (Micro-SATA to SATA) [1.8-2.5CONVERTER3.3] - $38.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks .

 

Thank you. I will give that a try...

 

Thank you once more. The item you qouted meanwhile was discontinued and replaced by this: 1.8 - 2.5 Drive Adapter 3.3v support (MicroSATA to SATA)Black [SATA-MICROSATA3.3] - $28.95 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

This works fine for me now!

Even with activated BitLocker Encryption the SSD reaches a performance index of 7.5 under Windows 7.

 

i think my nc2400 is dying :-(
it looks like the ram is damaged. if i test it in another machine is ok, in addition any dimm plugged in into the nc2400 seems to be corrupt.

has this already happened to anybody here?

I don't think it's a temperature problem, but I haven't disassembled it yet for cleaning, whereby the cpu-fan is not dirty. but I tought maybe there is either dry heatsink compund or less contact to heatsink?

on around every 7th boot it works flawless for hours, until a bluescreen occurs.
on the other 6 boots it freezes, either already at bios prompt, booting windows, windows welcome screen, after sucessful login, ... you see, random. operating system was already re-imaged, I can exclude driver problems or dead installation ...

maybe someone knows and can help me saving time on troubleshooting.

 

ok, after complete disassembly and cleaning the nearly not dirty fan i had still the same problem.
I think it was because I controlled the fan to be quiet - maybe quiet enough for my ears but little bit too hot now in summer. :-/

so i hoped to fix the problem with reflowing the mainboard in oven ... now it is completely dead. :-/

I have ordered now a new mainboard for the nc2400 - and in same way also a (complete and working) 2510p (as there my ZIF-SSD fits) if i can't fix it by replacing the motherboard, but I think that is faulty now.

>>>Cyber

 

Hi All

I have my 2560p up and running and working like a dream EXCEPT a problem has krept in mith my Logitech travelmate v470 bluetooth mouse.

This mouse worked perfectly with my 2540, but now seems to have some sort of delay between moving the mouse adn the cursor following. I have tried replacing the mouse adn the batteries and played with all of the ouse settings and drivers to no avail. I suspect there is something going on with the bluetooth adapter on the notebook - has anybody had this problem or any suggestion on how to resolve

Thanks

Brenden

 

Bad news: 2570P has no expresscard slot. Instead, the optical drive and VGA connector have been moved to the right side

http://www.slashgear.com/hp-elitebook-2170p-and-2570p-hands-on-08227146/

If you want an expresscard-based eGPU then suggest look at a 2560P instead.

 

I think you're looking at the wrong pictures, as far as i can tell nothing has changed: HP EliteBook 2570p - Engadget Galleries

 

Will the real 2760P please stand up?

HP EliteBook 2570p - Engadget Galleries -> port layout looks identical to a 2560P. Suspect this is just a cut-and-paste of a 2560P picture.

HP EliteBook 2170p and 2570p hands-on - SlashGear -> substantially different port layout and optical drive moved from left to right side. I suspect this is the real 2570P with HP perhaps doing away with the expresscard slot figuring IVB has USB 3.0 native so no need for USB 3.0 expresscards to achieve it.

 

What SlashGear most likely is showing are 2170p + Folio just like they do here 2170p und Folio: HPs Elitebooks schrumpfen trotz der VGA-Schnittstelle - Golem.de (German)

 

Yup.. does look like slashgear are confusing things. Good news then is the 2570P and 2560P chassis looks identical. It may very well mean can do a systemboard swap to get IVB cpu support then.

That German link does show a 2170P having a backlit keyboard and being very similar in dimension to a 2560P/2570P keyboard. Might present a retrofit opportunity for 2560P owners

 

Hi All,
New to post and to Elitebook 2560p. I'm trying to create RAID1 backup drive using eSATA port, however Intel Rapid Storage Utility does nof offer this option. I noticed the BIOS offers RAID option under 'SATA Device Mode' (currently set to AHCI), however when trying to change, I get a warning that the OS may need to be re-installed if setting is changed. Any way to get RAID w/o re-installing Windows?
OS= WinXP Pro, Bios=F22
Thanks!

 

HP 2570p Specs:
HP EliteBook 2570p Notebook PC specifications - HP Small & Medium Business products

 

I wonder why the 2170p wont offer expresscard but it will offer a smartcard reader. I thought those were put in the same area. It would have been the perfect 2530p replacemente. SSD upgrade for me then!

 

i recently upgraded my RAM from 4GB to 8GB on my elitebook 2560... however my laptop produce more heat than before... is there anything wrong with the system... pls adv how do rectify this? Thks...

 

What kind of RAM (make, model & speed) did you put in?
Did you mix different types of RAM?

 

Update: added 2560P schematic to first post.

 

I'm getting quadcore for my 2560p. I guess it's Ivy Bridge non capable so I´m getting this: INTEL i7 2860QM 3.6GHz quad QS mobile CPU processor for 65 chipset laptop monkey | eBay

Using Artic Cooling MX-4 is enough for solving temperature problems?

Pd: Srry for my english

 

Ivy Bridge CPU retrofit for 2560P?

.. maybe not. Depending on who wants to acquire and test a 2570P 8MB bios on our systems. Same method below may be a method we could get RAID-0 support by flashing a 8460P bios on our systems. I'll be curious to see if the i7-2860QM (QS) chip works with the 2560P as all other quad updates of 2560P units in this thread used final release Intel OEM chips.

ME 8.x firmware on Series-6 system to allow Ivy Bridge CPU support?

Khenglish claims here that our chipset supports Sandy Bridge CPUs so long as the bios is updated with ME 8.x firmware. To get that on a Series-6 system would require say flashing a 2570P/8570P/8470P 8MB bios file and seeing if it works. We've seen some example HP DV6-7xxx Series-7 systems being released with Sandy Bridge CPUs so the CPUs themselves must be electrically pin-compatible.

Holding [WIN+up_arrow+down_arrow] keys on powerup unlocks the flash descriptor on SB HP notebooks. There will be a red bios message about SPI and AC/DC to indicate this has been successful. This makes it possible to save the whole 8MB bios image using ME_Firmware_7.1.20.1119.zip utilities (fptw64.exe). The same utility can be used to flash the whole 8MB file back to the bios eprom or even just say the ME 8.x component by using the -F or -ME switches shown in the spoiler:

Spoiler

Code:

C:\ME Firmware 7.1.20.1119\mb_driver_intel_me_6series\CPT_1.5M_7.1.20.1119\T
ools\System Tools\Flash Programming Tool\Windows64>fptw64.exe

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 7.1.20.1119
Copyright (c) 2007-2011, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

FPTw64.exe [-H|?] [-VER] [-EXP] [-VERBOSE] [-Y] [-P] [-LIST] [-I]
           [-F] [-ERASE] [-VERIFY] [-D] [-DESC] [-BIOS] [-ME] [-GBE]
           [-PDR] [-C] [-B] [-E] [-ADDRESS|A] [-LENGTH|L] [-FOVS] [-EX]
           [-U] [-O] [-IN] [-N] [-ID] [-V] [-LOCK] [-DUMPLOCK]
           [-PSKFILE] [-CLOSEMNF] [-GRESET] [-SPIBAR] [-R] [-VARS] [-COMMIT]
           [-COMPARE] [-HASHED]

-H|?                 Displays help screen.
-VER                 Displays version information.
-EXP                 Displays example usage of this tool.
-VERBOSE <file>      Display the debug information of the tool.
-Y                   Do NOT prompt when a warning occurs.
-P <file>            Specifies a flash part definition file to use.
-LIST                List all SPI devices supported.
-I                   Displays information about the flash image.
-F <file>            Load binary file into flash.
-ERASE               Erase the contents of flash.
-VERIFY <file>       Compare binary file to flash.
-D <file>            Dump flash contents to file or "STDOUT".
-DESC                Load/verify/dump Descriptor region.
-BIOS                Load/verify/dump BIOS region.
-ME                  Load/verify/dump ME region.
-GBE                 Load/verify/dump GbE region.
-PDR                 Load/verify/dump PDR region.
- Press any key to continue -
-C                   Erase entire flash part.
-B                   Check to see if the flash part is erased.
-E                   Do NOT erase area before writing to flash.
-ADDRESS|A <address> Flash address to load/verify/dump file.
-LENGTH|L <length>   Number of bytes to load/verify/dump.
-FOVS                Displays list of FOVs supported.
-EX                  Extract variables from SPI flash to a text file.
-U                   Update Variable.
-O <file>            Output param file.
-IN <file>           Input param file.
-N <name>            Name of variable.
-ID <id>             Id of the FOV to be updated.
-V <value>           Value for variable.
-LOCK [PDR]          Sets SPI flash region access to Intel recommended values
-DUMPLOCK            Dumps the current lock settings to screen.
-PSKFILE <file>      PSK key file name.
-CLOSEMNF [NO] [PDR] End of Manufacturing. Details on NO & PDR use -exp option
-GRESET [NO]         Global reset drives GPIO30 low unless "NO" is provided.
-SPIBAR              Display the SPI BAR.
-R <name>            Read a variable.
-VARS                Display supported variables.
-COMMIT              Commit updates to FOVs requiring a FW reset.
-COMPARE <file>      Compare variable with expected value filled in a text file

- Press any key to continue -
-HASHED              Display a variable (from read command) in hashed format.

I can't confirm if this is a 100% sure way of doing a recovery process other than saying the HP flash utility only flashes the 3MB bios component so it never touches/upgrades the SB ME 7.x firmware component.

If these theories are correct then our Series-6 systems could be made IVB CPU compatible relatively easily by flashing the newer ME 8.x firmware using the fptw64.exe tool.

REF: Flashing F.01 bios to a 2560P (experimental).

2560P has a debug port with SPI/BIOS pins - good for the MX25L6406E eprom recovery



Above: 2560P bios and debug port systemboard schematic snippet plus physical locations relative to the RAM slots

The 2560P schematic shows the debug port has SPI/BIOS pins on it. I've confirmed that exists as pads on the systemboard. Meaning then those pins would be an excellent place to attach test leads that run to an eprom burner to grab a 8MB bios image and/or reflash the bios chip or even consider mounting a socketted header to house the eprom chip. Having a standby eprom burner would be highly recommended if experimenting with different bios versions.

The 2560P bios chip, MX25L6406E (datasheet), is right next to the RAM slots. Apparently the 8460P bios chip is socketted too - a good one to consider duplicating using an eprom burner. A 8460P is also an Inventec built system so likely uses the same architecture.

Other way of doing it: 2570P system board swap

HP 2570P vid below looks like it's the exact same chassis as the 2560P, including the expresscard slot. Might mean a systemboard swap would be the easiest way to get Ivy Bridge CPU support. I believe one of the USB ports then becomes a USB 3.0, the only additional benefit to the faster CPU+iGPU. Then just need to change the 2560P LCD sticker to say 2570P

<param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/8wrpFUoOUsE?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/8wrpFUoOUsE?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width='640' height="360"></object>

 

@nando4 That would be awesome.

I hope the 2570p has a better panel than the 2560p. Should be easy to switch them.

On ebay some chinese-dealer sells the i7-2620m for just 130€ (condition: new). Do you think it is some kind of faked processor? Would be a cheap upgrade since I only got the i5-2410m.

 

Moved 2570P vid up a few posts to Ivy Bridge CPU retrofit.

 

Hi guys! I want to replace my 2530p because I hate the noisy fan under linux and windows. Hows the 2560p fan noise (linux and windows if possible)? Any complaints in this regard. I have used the 2540p and its noisy too and was wondering if the new one is better because it might have a bigger cooling system. (the laptop itself is bigger)

 

repasting the CPU and undervolting a L9xxx 2530P will see the fan hardly engage. If it still does you can adjust the fan trip points using setPLL's HPfan so the fan only engages on very high temps.

The 2560P overall runs very cool with low temps. I only notice a bit of a wosh fan noise on bootup which peters off during use. Do note however that a 2560P is noticably larger and heavier than a 2530P. If wanting 2530P sizing/dimensions then you may want to look at a X220 instead but there you'd sacrifice upgrade potential (soldered CPU, no ODD), worse build, appearance and warranty.

 

I might wait for the 2170p. I hear IB ULV were the ones with most advantages with the new process (tri-gate). I already tried undervolting but my temps didn't improve that much (my cpu is mostly on idle).

Do you guys know if the IB mobile cpus have the same TIM (thermal interphase material) problem as the desktop ones?

 

2170P looks like a nice chassis but I'll alert you to some not so desirable features. Per the 2170P specifications: Those being (1) no expresscard slot (2) the 48Whr 6-cell prismatic battery and (3) the ULV CPU.

The Folio 13 is heavier but does get a 60Whr 6-cell. I'd forgo both and get a X220/X230 for a richer feature at similar weight which may be at a similar pricepoint. Saw someone pick up a X220 for $650 here. That's a great price.

---

Fitting an additional SSD or HDD to a 2560P/2570P using an optical bay caddy[/URL]

In this post I will give a step-by-step account of how to add a second HDD or SSD using a 9.5mm SATA optical bay caddy in place of the optical drive.

REF: (1) http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-ssd-hdd-storage-using-optical-bay-caddy.html
(2) fitting an ebay caddy with matched faceplate (SimoxTav)

Pre-Requisites:

1. a optical bay caddy. I used a newmodeus one: 2nd HDD / SSD Caddy for HP Elitebook 2560p [OBHD9-SATA-SATA-BU9] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks . You can buy it ones on ebay too for a cheaper price, but they ship from China/HK so take a long time to arrive. Those vendors stipulate faulty items must be returned with return shipping rates from say Australia often being more than the item is worth. So if buying an ebay item hope it works or otherwise it becomes a throwaway item.


2. A 9.5mm SATA SSD or HDD


3. Tools: phillips and flat head screwdrivers

Here is the Pictorial :
Click on each of the image below to see a larger image (in a new window)

Step 01 - Ready to Dismantle the Laptop

Yada yada < require more info here >

Total time taken from start to finish (including taking photos..etc) - 30 mins!
So, there you go.. you now have a second HDD in your HP 2560P/2570P.. hope this pictorial helps!

 

I bought 2x4GB 1866MHz RAM from Corsair, but it only runs at 1333MHz. Is there something I can do?

 

no Only if you manage to overclock, but this is not possible afaik.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/8156844-post51.html - if you're unlucky it only ever worked with the very first bios version and you might not be able to downgrade that far "Business notebooks with a BIOS version of F.20 or higher cannot be flashed to a version that is lower than F.20." ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...01489-current-hp-business-bios-releases.html).

 

I have F.21, since it seems to be the only version that runs with SATA3.

I also tried the Kingston 1866MHz-Kit today. Also runs with 1333MHz... only difference: it has slightly different timings.

//Changing to F.22 does not provide an improvement. Looks like I should stay at 1333MHz RAM.

 

Flashing F.01 bios to a 2560P (experimental)

We've seen examples that a 2560P can make full use of 1866Mhz RAM so it looks like HP have removed that feature in the F.20 or newer bios versions. Maybe a drawcard to upgrade to a Ivy Bridge system? Plus HP are preventing us from flashing the older bios versions to get that feature back. Or so they would like us to believe. I've prepared a package that may workaround this but please note it's experimental. I'm pretty confident this process would be 100% successful but need to highlight there is risk of bricking your system:

Disclaimer: While I've used this package to successfully save a full F.01 8MB bios image from a 2560P I did not dare to do the next step of writing it to a 2560P SPI eprom. So are there any takers willing to try that next step? If you are successful then please report it in this thread. If not, please PM me so I can note it didn't work so as to not lead any others down a path that potentially bricks their system.

Here's how you would to do a full 8MB F.01 2560P bios flash:

1. Download and run (extract) contents of 2560P_F01_full_flash.exe (4.99MB). It contains the F.01 2560P bios image provided by Atavism here.

2. Shutdown the system. Press and hold WIN+[left arrow]+[right arrow] then press the power button. A bios message will indicate the SPI flash descriptor is unlocked. Proceed to boot Win7.

3. Run flash_2560P_F01.bat. It will save your original bios as original.bin before prompting you to write the 2560P_F01.bin image (8MB) to your SPI eprom. The batch file contents are in the spoiler:

Spoiler

Code:

@echo off
echo ====================================
echo HP 2560P FULL F.01 flash bios write
echo ====================================
echo.
echo Here we do a full save of your original bios as original.rom, then write the
echo 2560P_F01.rom (8MB) to your bios eprom chip. This may be required to overcome
echo certain limits HP are placing in their bios, eg:
echo.
echo    - no ability to downgrade bios below F.20
echo    - bios F.20 doesn't have 1866Mhz RAM support whereas older bios does.
echo.
echo. The Intel ME 7.x utils are used to do this read/write of the SPI flash eprom.
echo.
echo Step 1. Take a backup image of the original bios as original.rom
if exist original.rom goto already_exists
echo For this to work you must boot with WIN+[left_arrow]+[right_arrow] to unlock
echo the SPI descriptor. A little red message will appear on startup  in the left
echo to indicate this was successful.
pause
fptw64 -D original.rom
echo.
echo Step 2. Write 2560P F.01 (8MB) bios image to the 2560P SPI eprom.
pause
fptw64 -F 2560P_F01.rom
echo.
echo Step 3) Lock the SPI descriptor by shutting down the system, removing AC+DC, restart.
echo At this point you will have the image's serial and model details as well. Use the
echo HP DMIFIT 1.4d utilities to correct that back to you system's details.
pause
echo.
goto end

:already_exists
echo.
echo original.rom already exists as a previous backup. Please check it's contents and
echo delete it if you wish to take another backup image.
echo.

:end

4. Note: ensure you enable the modem in the F.01 bios as otherwise it will cause reboots to take a very long time. This was one of the fixes in a newer 2560P bios.

5. I note in the enclosed readme.txt some more details:

Code:

Run flash_2560P_F01.bat which will prompt you with further instructions.

Can also use the ME 7.x fitc.exe utility (download the whole Intel ME 7.x utilities
to access it from [url=http://www.mediafire.com/file/9doj7hp8kem5b1x/ME_Firmware_7.1.20.1119.zip]ME Firmware 7.1.20.1119.zip[/url]) to decompose the 8MB bios file
into the following components:

3,145,728 BIOS Region.bin
    4,096 Flash Descriptor.bin
    8,192 GbE Region.bin
4,399,104 ME Region.bin
      256 OEM Section.bin

Unlocking full CPU potential

Interested users may wish to see if they can then hack those decomposed contents like the M18x users did at M18x A03 Bios Modifying via Da_G's Method of Hex/Registers Editing to unlock/undervolt/overvolt the CPU for lower power consumption and/or overclocking purposes.

Acknowledgements: Atavism for supplying the F.01 image here that was re-integrated into this package to make it a F.01 rather than F.02 release.

 

Actually F.02 also seems to have 1866 support removed (at least vnwhite's report I quoted in the linked post implies that), I'm running F.01 and never bothered to "upgrade". But I guess if you manage to install F.02 you can downgrade to 01 easily?

 

I believe F.02 allows downgrade to F.01 but cannot verify it. We'll need to see if firefoxxx is willing to try the above flash process so can identify if indeed we to downgrade all the way back to F.01 for 1866Mhz RAM support.

 

Hm, that doesn't work for me. I can activate the SPI, but after reading my bios I get "Error 280: Failed to disable write protection for the BIOS space!".

 

With an unlocked SPI descriptor, this is what I get when I save my original bios. If yours fails on this step then try holding WIN+[left arrow]+[right arrow] when powering on your system to unlock the SPI descriptor.

Code:

C:\2560P_F01_full_flash\>fptw64.exe -D mybios.rom

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 7.1.20.1119
Copyright (c) 2007-2011, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Platform: Intel(R) QM67 Express Chipset Revision: B2
Reading HSFSTS register... Flash Descriptor: Valid

    --- Flash Devices Found ---
    MX25L6405D    ID:0xC22017    Size: 8192KB (65536Kb)


- Reading Flash [0x800000] 8192KB of 8192KB - 100% complete.
Writing flash contents to file "mybios.rom"...

Memory Dump Complete
FPT Operation Passed

The next step to load the F.01 bios does a 'fptw64 -F 2560P_F01.rom' which I'm not going to do on my system. If you are daring, what does yours do when you try that?

 

Yes, saving the BIOS file works, but...

Code:

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 7.1.20.1119
Copyright (c) 2007-2011, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Platform: Intel(R) QM67 Express Chipset Revision: B2
Reading HSFSTS register... Flash Descriptor: Valid

    --- Flash Devices Found ---
    MX25L6405D    ID:0xC22017    Size: 8192KB (65536Kb)


Error 280: Failed to disable write protection for the BIOS space!

I don't see why a original 2560p F.02 bios should brick my system, but what if it does? How can I restore the bios then?

 

Disabling the write protection for the bios space is a problem as it means you cannot write over the bios component.

To answer your question, if you brick your system then need a recovery process. When you flash a new HP-supplied 2560P bios to your system, the HP HPQFlash utility asks if you want to make a backup to a USB drive. I'd suggest do that. To try to recover that bios requires holding [four arrows] or [WIN+B] on powerup.

If that doesn't recovery your bios then need to physically flash the eprom directly or via the SPI debug pins with a known good image. This is discussed in Ivy Bridge CPU retrofit for 2560P? Can try the F.01 bios image provided in 2560P_F01_full_flash.exe as the source bios file.

 

@Atavism - can you please save and upload your 2560P's F.01 bios image as described above. Firefoxxx may end up needing it.

EDIT: Changed the previous package contents from F.02 to Atavism's F.01.

 

Does mediafire require an account now? I uploaded the file here File-Upload.net - 2560P_F01.zip - pretty terrible hoster though. One needs to click on the small "download" button in the middle below filesize, date and download counter.

 

While I'm very happy with my X220, I wonder if I would have gotten this HP had I known it existed. I guess if I could have gotten it for around the same price (b&n deal). Having HDD + ODD + potentially mSATA AND WWAN at the same time + CPU upgradeability (4 cores! can be an actual desktop replacement) is really awesome. I'll have to read this thread to find out more about reliability/the keyboard/how good the trackpoint and touchpad are, but this looks like a great machine. Enjoy it!

One thing that's probably already been pointed out already, but I'll make a fuss aobut anyway: in the first post it says the the X220 is limited to 7mm HDDs; this is simply not true. There are four small plastic tabs near the edge of the HDD socket, and if they are filed down, a standard 9.5mm HDD will fit without issue. I'm running a 1TB Spinpoint M8 in mine.

 

Performance: running 1600, 1866 or 2133Mhz DDR3 RAM in a 2560p

Seeing ResidualVoltage's 2133Mhz RAM running on his M18xR1 here inspired me to look closer to what the possibilities of faster RAM are with a 2560P. The steps and findings below, released quickly in case ppl were thinking of upgrading to an Ivy Bridge systems for the faster HD4000 iGPU.

1. F.01 bios allows faster RAM all the way up to CL=13 (CAS) to be used. F.02 bios would only use 1333Mhz RAM entries as shown. I assume this is the same for F.02 and newer versions.

2. I was able to rollback from F.02 to F.01. Having F.20 or newer on your 2560P requires more drastic steps to get to F.01 as HP have prevented rollback to versions prior to F.20. See Flashing F.01 bios to a 2560P for a proposed method.

3. I had two 4GB 1333MHz RAM Samsung sticks to test. The first was a HP stick whose max stable point was somewhere b/w 1866Mhz and 2133Mhz. The second a Kingston 'cheapie' that couldn't even run 1600Mhz with any stability. So the bulk of my testing was in a slower single-channel configuration with my faster HP Samsung RAM.

I used Thaiphoon Burner to add ResidualVoltage's slowest 2133Mhz Samsung profiles from here to my RAM. Needed to do a disable UAC and boot with signed driver disabled (F8) to get Thaiphoon Burner working. Also need to run the freeware version of setfsb to enable the SMBUS controller so that Thaiphoon can then read/write the RAM module.

Benchmark results

Code:

RAM:SPD/MODULES/TIMINGS/THP | 'winsat mem' | RE5 dx9-720p | 3dmk06 1280x720
----------------------------+--------------+--------------+---------------------
[URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/341/hwinfo13334gb.jpg/"]1333 1x4GB  09-09-09-24[/URL]     | 9520         | [URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/546/re513334gb.jpg/"]24.9[/URL]         | [URL="http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16704363"]3883[/URL]
[URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/208/hwinfo16004gb.jpg/"]1600 1x4GB  13-13-13-24[/URL]     | 11150 (+17%) | [URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/99/re516004gb.jpg/"]27.5[/URL] (+10%)  | [URL="http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16705769"]4195[/URL] (+8%)
[URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/210/1600cl84gb.jpg/"]1600 1x4GB  08-08-08-24[/URL] [URL="http://www.mediafire.com/file/ovttjy6wkjoqvfg/Corsair_CMSX8GX3M2A1866C10-1600-8-8-8-24.thp"]thp[/URL] | 11480 (+21%) | 28.0 (+12%)  | [URL="http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16707858"]4325[/URL] (+11%)
[URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/836/hwinfo18664gb.jpg/"]1866 1x4GB  13-13-13-35[/URL]     | 12942 (+36%) | [URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/843/re518664gb.jpg/"]29.7[/URL] (+19%)  | [URL="http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16705599"]4527[/URL] (+17%)
[URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/837/hwinfo1866cl10.jpg/"]1866 1x4GB  10-10-10-27[/URL] [URL="http://www.mediafire.com/file/i3rwarzcl6vmgpp/Corsair_CMSX8GX3M2A1866C10-1866-10-10-10-27.thp"]thp[/URL] | 13190 (+39%) | 30.3 (+22%)  | [URL="http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16707965"]4592[/URL] (+18%)
[URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/205/hwinfo21334gb.jpg/"]2133 1x4GB  13-13-13-37[/URL]     | 14708 (+54%) | **** (+30%?) | **** (+24%?)
----------------------------+--------------+--------------+---------------------
[URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/10/hwinfo13338gb.jpg/"]1333 2x4GB  09-09-09-24[/URL]     | 15580        | [URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/560/re513338gb.jpg/"]34.0[/URL]         | [URL="http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16704613"]5119[/URL]
1600 2x4GB  13-13-13-27     | 16045 (+3%)  | ****         | ****  
1866 2x8GB  10-10-10-27     | see Atavism's 5.5% improvement [URL="http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-business-class-notebooks/586353-hp-elitebook-2560p-owners-lounge-22.html#post8591555"]here[/URL]
----------------------------+--------------+--------------+---------------------

**** = RAM wasn't good enough to complete a run without BSODing
thp  = profile used. Works with older [URL="http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/59257d1292119067-pll-pinmod-overclocking-methods-examples-thphn63.zip"]Thaiphoon Burner demo version[/URL]. 

Conclusion

We see running 1866Mhz or 2133Mhz RAM and F.01 bios improved *single-channel* performance anywhere from 17-54%, a huge 'free' performance boost. Dual-channel results weren't anywhere near as impressive, 5.5% to (approx) 10%. This suggests the HD3000 iGPU is memory bandwidth starved in a single-channel config which RAM overclocking helps with. The better solution is to run dual-channel. I'd guestimate that dual-channel 1866/2133 would see minimal memory starvation and instead the HD3000's processing power would be a bottleneck.

Is it worth the trouble of going from > F.20 to F.01 + RAM mods to get 5-10% more dual-channel performance? You can decide but I'd say it's an enthusiasts mod or one for someone to do if they only want to overclock their single-channel RAM (why?) to provide near dual-channel bandwidth levels. A mod to consider on a 2570P whose faster HD4000 may need more memory bandwidth to extract max performance.

REF: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...extreme-boost-1600-2133-beyond-jedec-xmp.html
HD4000's 50-100% performance improvement over a HD3000 ( source).

 

Nice work. I want to run my memory at 1866, too.

As I already posted I can't flash the BIOS, since unlocking the SPI flash descriptor lets me save my bios, but doesn't let me write something. Is it possible to disable this write protection? Because I didn't found anything in the BIOS.

 

The bios chip is shown in Ivy Bridge CPU retrofit for 2560P?. Notice it has a WP# pin3 that I believe should be high but you may want to double check and rewire it to high (3.3V) to remove the hardware write protection. The extreme option is to have the chip removed, any write protection cleared and flashed with a candidate F.01 image using a USB SPI programmer.

EDIT: comments about CL=9 are inaccurate. F.02 or newer runs 1333Mhz only.