USFF/USDT woes

[silverchair]

I no longer have enough place for all consoles I have, so I decided to replace all obsolete ones with a retro console PC build. After a bit of research I bought HP 800 G1 USDT machine, which is really small, has 4 core Haswell CPU with 8 threads and should be ideal for emulation. However, it appears that although most of the emulation is done on CPU side, GPU is still important and I am not having smooth sailing with PS2/PS3 games. So the fact that this PC has MXM 3 type A slot made me really happy. I found really good deals on k610m and M1000m MXM cards on ebay and got them. However I cannot get them utilized properly. What I mean is, they are both recognized, initialized, drivers properly installed and showing as working properly in Windows Device manager. However as soon as I start a game or benchmark - only the internal Intel HD video is being used. According to the HP 800 G1 manual, whenever MXM card is used, the top display port should be utilized. However when I switch display ports, I observe the following:

1) k610m mxm card - the monitor resolution changes to 1280x768 and screen remains black
2) m1000m mxm card - the monitor is never lit.

So to sum up. Both cards are showing properly when Intel HD card is used. Whenever I try to use their designated port, there is nothing in m1000m and a black screen with low resolution in the other. I have tried every possible option in the BIOS in regards to UEFI/LEGACY. Both cards show properly only when the video is in UEFI mode and BIOS is in either full UEFI or CMS (Hybrid). They do not work when legacy is applied.

A little background - both MXM cards came without any VBIOS at all. I had to try several different vbios-es to get them properly recognized and installed as it is currently. The m1000m is with Dell vbios, the k610m is with an HP vbios.

Does anyone have any ideas? A lot of people already got different MXM cards working on this machine, but not these exact models (https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Deskt...raphics-card-upgrade-not-booting/td-p/6860219)

 

[silverchair]

Nobody?

 

[chenbusm]

hi , good afternoon from Shanghai China.

I just HP 800g1 USDT last week, and installed a E3 1275L V3. And just ordered a Fire pro M5100 (basicly a HD 8870M )several minutes before.
I've checked severl posts and forums for MXM -A cards available for HP 800 g1 USDT (8300 USDT) during the past weeks. And results could be different from person to person.

As far as i know, the USDT can well support Fire pro M5100 and Rendon Pro W5170, in according with the readed posts from Chinese Tech websites.
AMD Radeon HD 7650A (MXM) is offically supported by HP. However, performance of 7650A is not very limited, almost the same as intel HD 4000s.
I saw post about sucessful lit for M1000M, but dont know too many details. (havent seen screen shot)

Other cards work for 8300 USDT/ 800G1 USDT with screen shot include K2100M and 965M K1100M M6100,K3100M GTX970M GTX980M.
YES, theguy cut a hole on the side panel of USDT.
Some guy also tried a W7100 (130w) for 8300 USDT, core speed would drop as power is over 100W. Dont knwo if that also work for 800g1 USDT

Moreover, some other posts say WX4150 could lit if vbios were correct, while RX560 (4G) could not work stable, as over heat.

Last but not least, some guy modified BIOS and insalled an modified i7-4950HQ (BGA to LGA), which has better graphic performance. ( You could find such type cpu from TaoBao.com, BTW such cpu could have risks for its stability.)

Ive attached some screen shots for you to review.

 

[silverchair]

Hi @chenbusm Not sure whether there is a question in your post or just statements of what you found. As you can see from the HP forum link I shared in first post, a lot of Maxwell cards started successfully, eventually with correct vbios I was also able to get running all 3 cards I tried: k610m, m1000m and m1200. I've been using it with m1200 for almost an year now and having no problems whatsoever. In fact I upgraded this little machine to the max (16 GB of RAM, 1 TB mSata, 5 TB HDD, ax200 wifi 6 card). So finding a compatible vbios is the solution.

Regards

 

[chenbusm]

hi, good evening from Shanghai China. my post is just statement about what ive seen from other forum. hopefully could be reference, maybe could be helpful. btw, i Just receiv my M5100, expecting to see how it could work.

i think what you mentioned is correct, vbios is the core issue.

Best Regards

 

[Kamainae]

Sorry to necro this post, but silverchair would you be so kind as to indicate me wich bios did you use for the Quadro M1000M?
I am putting toguether a G1 udst and the card is refusing to cooperate with me.
Thanks in advance.

 

[silverchair]

@Kamainae I sold that card years ago, it was a dell vbios maybe 82.07.8F.00.1A. If this does not work try the other one, neither bricks the card, so you can safely try either. Just FYI, I still have the HP 800 G1 USDT but upgraded the video card to 1050 Ti since, it works with the MSI vbios I got it with out of the box. It really makes a huge difference.

 

[Kamainae]

Thanks, I have that exact bios. I will try the card as is when it arrives, if it does not work then I´ll try with the dell one.
A 1050 ti Would be really nice, but it is prohibitively expensive in my corner of the world right now.
Thanks again.

 

[silverchair]

@Kamainae how do you know there is an issue if you're still waiting for it My advise would be to use the bottom DP port to flash nvbioses and troubleshoot. It's been a while, so can't remember whether this one ever worked on the top DP or always through the integrated port.

 

[Kamainae]

@Kamainae how do you know there is an issue if you're still waiting for it My advise would be to use the bottom DP port to flash nvbioses and troubleshoot. It's been a while, so can't remember whether this one ever worked on the top DP or always through the integrated port.

Some time ago I purchased a second hand M1000M through a local listing, and when i tried it and failed to get it working the seller took it back. The other day found one for cheap on Ebay and got the itch to try this time to finally get it working and change the 5450 that currently have working. This is the frankenudst as of now.

 

[silverchair]

The m1000m would be great update over the 5450, but still not relevant for anything current as it's limited by the 2GB of VRAM. You might also need to get the original heatsink for this machine, the one you have is from old Compaq machines.

 

[Trov]

Howdy, how are you cooling your 1050 Ti MXM setup?
I happened to get an Aetina 1050 MXM card for a great price and it is working and booting with my 800 G1 USDT. But, I don't have a proper heatsink on it (just pasted a southbridge cooler from an old motherboard to make sure the card doesn't immediately kill itself) and it seams that the rear fan does not automatically speed up based on GPU temp. Even if I got a proper heatsink I suspect that would be a big hurdle.

Also have a Quadro T2000 MXM from a Z2 Mini but that is not booting, will be trying different VBIOS. Funny that the MSI VBIOS 1050 works but the HP VBIOS T2000 does not work in the HP computer.

This ancient Quadro 3000 kit for a server looks like a good cheap way to get a nice and tall MXM heatsink with way more fins compared to the ones the HP USDT shipped with. But I am skeptical that even this will be sufficient if the fan stays at idle speed.

HPE HP 667762-B21 Nvidia Quadro MXM 3000M 2GB PCI-E Graphics Card | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for HPE HP 667762-B21 Nvidia Quadro MXM 3000M 2GB PCI-E Graphics Card at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[silverchair]

@Trov On mine both the front and rear fans ramp up when the temps go up, that is why they are 4 pin fans - they are controlled by the motherboard temp sensors. Anyway I'm using the default heatsink HP-679351-001 but I've done quite a few modifications to it and to the case in order cool properly.
1) Some dremel work on the hdd cage to fit a 40x20 fan so I get a push-pool cooling which has great effect. I'm using a Y-splitter to power that 2nd fan.
2) Above was not enough to cool without the GPU throttling itself, so I've added pieces of various heatsinks I had handy to the main heatsink with Thermal adhesive (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254210937615)
3) I undervolted the video card with the astounding (to me) 160mV without affecting its core or memory frequency

After these mods the max temps I get when stress testing it is 84 degrees Celsius. It never gets above 72 when playing actual games/emulation. And you can also see by the images below that it's cornered in a cabinet, if tested outside of it, temps never go above 70.

Mine has i7-4790s CPU, so it was getting pretty hot and throttling as well under stress tests, so I solved that by undervolting 120mV without affecting frequency and boost and some dremel work on the top cover of the machine and placing a 7mm silicon thermal pads to channel the CPU heatsink heat to the machine chassis:


As for your Quadro 3000 idea, I had it as well, but that heatsink looks much bigger than it is in real life. I bought it back then (so you don't have to LOL):

In fact here is a proper image from ebay as well: https://www.ebay.com/itm/332627854225

I would be very interested to see if you can get the T2000 Quadro up and running on that machine. Not sure whether you would be able to find a different VBIOS for it as currently only HP seem to be making MXM Type A graphics, everyone else is either using proprietary format (Dell, Asus) or soldering chips directly on motherboard (MSI, Lenovo)

Anyway to sum up, the performance of this little beast of a machine with a 4 core 8 thread CPU and the 1050 Ti is amazing and with all new games starting to include FSR options, there isn't currently anything that cannot be played on it.

 

[g3llings]

I have an 8200 usdt that I have been trying to get the m2000m working in. Glad to hear someone got the m1000m working since it is the same chip. I have read that the m1200m/m2200m work, this is the first I've seen someone got the m1000m working. I'm struggling to find a working vbios, everything shows video but gets code 43 under windows.

@Kamainae let me know if you were able to get the m1000m working. I have someone trying to modify the m2000m vbios output table and would like to know which m1000m vbios may be a good candidate to copy from.

Edit: I have been using an lga 775 cooler which fits and cools great, I have also upgraded to Noctua fans.

 

[silverchair]

@g3llings I can't remember which vbios I've got the m1000m working with, but it was one from the vbios database here. So try flashing them one by one, eventually one should work. I think the upper displayport never got image, I was using the bottom one i.e. the m1000m was routing through the integrated one. Using the windows feature to select which app is run with which graphics adapter, I've set my games/apps I needed to run on the quadro 1 by 1 from there. Not ideal but it was working.

P.S. How did you get the Noctua upgrade working (even connectors are different)? I've also tried this, but the HP connectors on the motherboard are proprietary and therefor the 2 additional pins were unknown. I used a splitter that fits that HP connector just to try the Noctua, but it was behaving super weird e.g. they were not speeding up based on GPU temp. I gave up and returned them. The push-pull setup I've got now is working ideally, although not at all quiet as it would probably be with Noctua.

 

[g3llings]

@silverchair I will have to try using the vga port maybe... 8200 usdt only has 1 display port, not 2 like the 8300 usdt. I have tried all of the m2000m vbios from here with no luck. I get display but code 43 for every one using the DP connector.

The noctua fans plug directly into the 8200 usdt motherboard. It's a standard 4 pin connector, although the plastic tab did have to be trimmed slightly for the new fan connector.

 

[silverchair]

@silverchair I will have to try using the vga port maybe... 8200 usdt only has 1 display port, not 2 like the 8300 usdt. I have tried all of the m2000m vbios from here with no luck. I get display but code 43 for every one using the DP connector.

The noctua fans plug directly into the 8200 usdt motherboard. It's a standard 4 pin connector, although the plastic tab did have to be trimmed slightly for the new fan connector.

Not sure whether it's a typo on your end, but you should be trying m1000m vbios, not m2000m (be it same chip or not). As for the noctua, are these 3 pin or 4 pin models that you installed (see only 3 on the front fan)?

 

[g3llings]

Not sure whether it's a typo on your end, but you should be trying m1000m vbios, not m2000m (be it same chip or not). As for the noctua, are these 3 pin or 4 pin models that you installed (see only 3 on the front fan)?

My card is an m2000m. I was saying I'm glad to see the m1000m working because until now everyone has said it does not work, but it is the same gm107 so my m2000m should also be able to work with the correct vbios. My fans are the 4pin PWM version.

 

[Kamainae]

Finally I found a M2000M 4gb and it is working flawlessly with the dell Vbios (make sure that in the hp bios you have selected the opition for vga bios rom only UEFI):

Dell Quadro M2000M VBIOS

4 GB GDDR5, 1098 MHz GPU, 1253 MHz Memory

www.techpowerup.com

The card is quite hot, I had to drill some holes in the side panel and put an 70mm fan to cool the MXM directly, but is working. The only thing that does not work is an active Displayport adapter to hdmi that I was using, with the adapter connected the system don´t boot the fan spins and the light turns on but never make it to the bios screen.
Other than that its working well.

 

[g3llings]

Finally I found a M2000M 4gb and it is working flawlessly with the dell Vbios (make sure that in the hp bios you have selected the opition for vga bios rom only UEFI):

Dell Quadro M2000M VBIOS

4 GB GDDR5, 1098 MHz GPU, 1253 MHz Memory

www.techpowerup.com

The card is quite hot, I had to drill some holes in the side panel and put an 70mm fan to cool the MXM directly, but is working. The only thing that does not work is an active Displayport adapter to hdmi that I was using, with the adapter connected the system don´t boot the fan spins and the light turns on but never make it to the bios screen.
Other than that its working well.

I have tried this rom with no luck. It displays fine, but has code 43 in device manager. This must be a difference between the 8200 usdt and 8300 usdt. I am using the card in Linux with the lga 775 cooler and staying under 50c in gaming.

Are you on Windows 10 UEFI? Which driver version are you running?

 

[Kamainae]

I am using the latest driver 526.47, directly from nvidia website.
My card had the hp vbios and with that I did not have output, I used remote desktop to connect and to flash the dell Vbios and reboot the machine, in the reboot the pc started to beep and I had to remove the mxm card, enter the bios and select option vrom UEFI to get the system to boot.
I am using windows 11 and nobara linux, in both works great.

 

[g3llings]

I am using the latest driver 526.47, directly from nvidia website.
My card had the hp vbios and with that I did not have output, I used remote desktop to connect and to flash the dell Vbios and reboot the machine, in the reboot the pc started to beep and I had to remove the mxm card, enter the bios and select option vrom UEFI to get the system to boot.
I am using windows 11 and nobara linux, in both works great.

Awesome, glad it's working for you! Mine was a Dell card, that's the stock vbios for mine. It runs in Linux but is stuck at P5 state. I have tried Windows 8-11 and get code 43 each time. I have read that the HP cards may have an extra resistor on them. Maybe that's the difference.

 

[Kamainae]

Do you want detailed photos of my card pcb to compare and find this "elusive resistor"?

 

[g3llings]

Do you want detailed photos of my card pcb to compare and find this "elusive resistor"?

I would be interested to see, but I do not have the skill to solder one on if there is a difference. I have put some work in the last few days and am running modded Skyrim SE (including SMIM + Flora Overhaul with 1k textures) at 30-40fps @1080p, 50+ fps @ 720p. I just ordered an e3-1270 CPU because I am currently running a 2600s and am CPU limited in some games like borderlands. It seems like a great 720p machine for the $200 I've got into it. I also installed a 2nd hdd in the optical drive bay for more storage. Will run some more tests on other games.

Also, if you are interested, I have attached my overclocked vbios which runs 1346mhz @ stock voltage. It is based off the Dell vbios so it should work for you.

Turns out my card is stuck at max 540mhz in Linux. I have tried a couple different drivers and some other mods to the vbios with no luck. The strange thing is this card works perfectly in my iMac 2011 on both MacOS and Windows 10.

 

[silverchair]

@g3llings What tool did you use to modify the vbios and does it allow for undervolt (not underclock)?