Updating MXM VGA BIOS with different Vendor

I have a HP ZBook 17 G4 and recently I've got a very good deal on Quadro P5000 Mobile MXM. The only problem is the vendor of the card which is Dell. I have an external monitor connected via DisplayPort. I've already installed the card and everything is OK on Hybrid Mode. I have audio through the DP cable and performance is fine. But on Discrete Mode, the laptop's monitor turn black. I can see a shade of white window when I drag one into that monitor, but no back-lit. The DisplayPort and HDMI are OK, but there is no audio. After a lot of research, I figured the BIOS version of the VGA is 86.04.3A.00.25 (Jul, 25, 2016) but the version my laptop expects (found in system information) is 86.04.67.00.0A. Version 86.04.3A.00.25 is also on the board of the card. The old card of my laptop is Quadro P3000 on version 86.04.67.00.08 (Jan 11, 2017) which matches the version my laptop expects, but the version on the board is 86.04.3A.00.14. So this card was updated to match the laptop. My question is, if I get the BIOS version 86.04.67.00.0A, would I be able to update the BIOS without bricking the card?
If no, how to find that specific BIOS?

 

Is there anyone in this forum who has HP ZBook 17 G4 and Quadro P5000?

 

@Ali K. I tried to help in the techpowerup thread as much as I could. Anyway, can you share where you've got that card from, cause I don't see them being offered in the usual places.

 

Thanks a lot @silverchairbg . I've already resolved my problem! I was very busy lately and couldn't update this thread.

If your laptop manual show one card as compatible, that card IS compatible, no matter what brand that card is, Dell, HP, Fujitsu, Lenovo, etc. (That's my assumption tho). The only difference that make them not interchangeable is their BIOS. The BIOS is made by the laptop manufacturer. Although the card seems to fit and somewhat working on your laptop, it's not fully compatible. Because every laptop is different from the other and each one has its own way of using that component. For example, the P5000 with dell BIOS supports up to 5 monitors, but HP one only supports up to 3. These minor changes can lead to conflict between the component and the laptop.
Component BIOS is not that large. In case of this card, it was 224KB. In order for the laptop to white/black list a component, it has to have the same copy of that BIOS. That's why the laptop BIOS update is usually around 7MB to 12MB. I had to find a way to pull that specific version out of the system BIOS, and after 2 weeks of research I finally made it!
For those who need to do the same thing, I have a good news for them. Apparently HP does not encrypt their SoftPaq files, so you can extract them via 7-zip or WinRAR. After that, you will have a .bin file. Then with the help of VBiosFinder project, I was able to extract that bin file. It was a very tedious process as it required linux bash and a moderate knowledge of linux (Which I didn't have). You can download Ubuntu and enable Windows Subsystem for Linux from the windows features. VBiosFinder project has a couple of requirements and for me, that was a headache. Eventually, VBiosFinder gives you only Video BIOS and gives you all Video BIOS your laptop supports. Then you can use BIOS Flashing Tools to easily flash your card!

 

@Ali K. Thank you for this! I have some linux experience, so I've got VBiosFinder running quite easily and it extracted 9 .rom files from the ZBook 15 G4 BIOS file. However all of them are really small in size 110-160 KB, the one for your P5000 was 160 KB, the one for M2200 which I need is 110 KB. The original vbios the M2200 came with from the ebay seller is 182 KB, the one available in techpowerup DB is 180 KB. So it's a drastic difference in size and I was very hesitant to flash it. I found the courage and flashed it successfully, however after restart, now even external monitors would not power on. Judging by sounds, Windows loads fine, so I know the card is not dead, I just now have to learn how to reflash it with previous vbios BLINDLY.

 

Sorry to hear that. About the BIOS size, you are right. The VBIOS from Dell was 224KB and HP one was 160KB. I had the same feeling. But since my laptop came with a P3000, I checked the size of VBIOS on that card and it matched the one I extracted from system BIOS file (I ran a hash compare and both yielded the same hash) That was the green light for me. I’m sure that must not be the case, but have you double checked the device id? For flashing, I had to switch to Discrete Mode. Have you done the same? Did the version inside the VBIOS file matched the version in the Advanced System Information of your laptop BIOS (F10)? I also suggest you update your System BIOS to the latest if you haven’t already. Try switching to Safe Mode, it usually disable the VGA driver.

 

@Ali K. My case has different nuances than yours in these aspects:
1) I have Zbook 15 G2 model with 3k display (UHD+), which appears to be a rare model. I wanted to upgrade it to a newer video card and found that this is quite possible based on few successful threads here and also successful videos in youtube.
2) My Zbook does not have Optimus and options in bios to switch between integrated and discreet. It runs entirely from the discrete NVIDIA card.
3) The card I want to upgrade to M2200 is not officially shipped with G2, it is shipped with Zbook G4 generation. The card worked with external monitor, so I thought I only needed to get the correct HP bios like you to get the laptop display running as well

After I hit the screen issue, I found that all successful upgrades were on laptops with hybrid graphics, which does not apply to my case.

 

Oh that's a bummer. Actually what you did was a bit dangerous since the BIOS was not for your laptop. I had a Elitebook 8770w which had similar situation like yours. I put a Dell K5000M in it and it worked perfectly as it was supported by my laptop. Later on, I put a GTX 980M in it and it still worked perfectly. I guess I was lucky back then.
I hope you manage to flash your VGA back to normal.

 

@Ali K. I must extend my deepest gratitude to you man! It appears that the HP bios was correct after all and I just needed to switch the UEFI setting in the bios to Hybrid instead of native. Once this was done, the video card worked like a charm. Now it works both on the laptop display and on external monitor through the docking station. Big kudos to you for sharing how you solved your problem, which allowed me to solve mine.