Zbook 15 G3 retrofit G4 motherboard

[clea]

Hi, the mod in the topic came to my mind after getting my hands on bricked Zbook 15 G3. The motherboard from G4 not only looks very similar, but it in fact fits in the chassis. And it's working. Everything is connected and booting up. The only issue with that is the Quadro M2000M driver. No matter what I throw at it, this damn thing does not cooperate. OS is Windows 10. GPU reports itself as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. HP NVIDIA drivers from Zbook G3 and G4 are not doing the trick. HP driver assistant detects the laptop as Elitebook 😀 

Are there any other options besides doing the INF mod?

[loopster]

Have you tried inf-modding with this?
https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-nvcleanstall/

[clea]

Yeah, tried that tool and the driver is installed, but after the restart, the Device Manager reports the GPU disabled. Tried multiple M2000M driver templates with no success. Disabled driver signature enforcement but that did not help either. I'm wondering whether it's due to the non-standard device identifier.  

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13B0&SUBSYS_8275103C 

Is a non standard ID for the M2000M. The 8275 seems to be the system identifier of Zbook G4, very little info on the Internet about this combination. Either that card is crooked, or the BIOS has been corrupted... I really don't know 🙂

[loopster]

Bios corruption seems very unlikely to me.

For a quick check, you could always try a popular linux distro in live or as an install (maybe even switching nouveau to nvidia drivers).

... or a different Bios

Quadro_M2000M_82.07.9B.00.02-HP.ROM Quadro_M2000M_82.07.8F.00.1B-Dell.ROM

[clea]

Ok, so it is finally working 🎉 Thanks @loopster for providing the HP vBIOS file. And this is what happened:

1. Booted Fedora Live. dmesg showed that nouveau had trouble initializing the card:

nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Invalid PCI ROM header signature: expecting 0xaa55 got 0xfb00

And then nouveau dumped core. 

2. Unloaded nouveau and tried nvflash to backup the current vBIOS:

root@localhost-live:/home/liveuser/Downloads/nvflash_5.660_linux#  modprobe -r nouveau
root@localhost-live:/home/liveuser/Downloads/nvflash_5.660_linux# ./nvflash --save bios.rom
NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.660.0)
Copyright (C) 1993-2020, NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.
Adapter: Quadro M2000M        (10DE,13B0,103C,8275) H:--:NRM  S:00,B:01,D:00,F:00
EEPROM ID (EF,3012) : WBond W25X20A 2.7-3.6V 2048Kx1S, page
Build GUID            : Blank
IFR Subsystem ID      : Blank
Subsystem Vendor ID   : 0x0000
Subsystem ID          : 0x0000
Version               : Unavailable (Invalid) (Disabled Image)
... blank and zeroes etc.

Looks like the vBIOS got damaged or erased 🤔 

3. Proceeded to flash a new vBIOS:

root@localhost-live:/home/liveuser/Downloads/nvflash_5.660_linux# ./nvflash VBIOS.rom 
NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.660.0)
Copyright (C) 1993-2020, NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.

Checking for matches between display adapter(s) and image(s)...
Adapter: Quadro M2000M        (10DE,13B0,103C,8275) H:--:NRM  S:00,B:01,D:00,F:00

EEPROM ID (EF,3012) : WBond W25X20A 2.7-3.6V 2048Kx1S, page

NOTE: EEPROM appears to be erased:
NOTE: Skipping PCI Subsystem ID and board ID checks.
NOTE: Only correct GPU checked.
NOTE: EEPROM does not contain board ID, skipping board ID check.

Current      - Version:Unavailable (Invalid) ID:0000:0000:0000:0000
               
Replace with - Version:82.07.9B.00.02 ID:10DE:13B0:103C:810A
               GM107 Board - 27570504 (Normal Board)

Update display adapter firmware?
Press 'y' to confirm (any other key to abort):  y
EEPROM ID (EF,3012) : WBond W25X20A 2.7-3.6V 2048Kx1S, page

WARNING: Adapter does not have a preservation table,
unable to preserve board settings.
Storing updated firmware image...

Erasing EEPROM...

[==============================================>   ] 92  %
Verifying update...

Update successful.

4. After restart... success! Both Linux and Windows recognized the card correctly. GPU-Z and NVIDIA Panel are correctly reporting GPU's capabilities.

Still needed a modified INF to get that 10DE:13B0:103C:810A ID recognized but nvcleaninstall took care of that.

Unanswered mystery of the universe: why the card's EEPROM contained 0xFF all the way? Flash chips are not supposed to just self-erase themselves while in storage.😕

[loopster]

Maybe the previous owner mucked up the card with a modded bios?