HP Elitebook 8570W - is it still good ? Hardware modifications

[Daedalus]

3 hours ago, GuitarG said:

What 27 dollars can give you..  now fun begins! 

Nice work for 27$, 8770W? 

What screen did it come with?  now you can try the full size cards. 

 

Oh, Managed to track down a 965M A finally so im almost catching up. 

The 965M card is from a Clevo, should that cause me any issues in working with the HP? i dont think its got whitelist issues?  N16E-GR-A1 is the GTX core. has N16E-GR V2.1 4gb -77-P75DL-D02 on sticker. just wanted confirmation before i order. 

 

[GuitarG]

On 8/11/2025 at 7:52 PM, panda_zzz said:

Waiting for detailed instructions on how to modify it)

 

 

Sure !
 

20 hours ago, Vladka76 said:

@GuitarG Let me clarify: what type of eDP screen? FHD or 4K?
---
I am very glad that you managed to mod the cable.
Excellent and important work!

That was FHD LCD, and thanks!

 

19 hours ago, Daedalus said:

Nice work for 27$, 8770W? 

What screen did it come with?  now you can try the full size cards. 

 

Oh, Managed to track down a 965M A finally so im almost catching up. 

The 965M card is from a Clevo, should that cause me any issues in working with the HP? i dont think its got whitelist issues?  N16E-GR-A1 is the GTX core. has N16E-GR V2.1 4gb -77-P75DL-D02 on sticker. just wanted confirmation before i order. 

 

No, only 8560w. 8770w is very rare "pokemon" in my place. And cost waay too much, like 300-400$.
With MXM cards, if it fits heatsink, then it is matter of correct vbios, which you need to find out yourself, propably. Or look for info in NBRChive (old forum)

---
About eDP Panel! Some good news, some bad. Good is my 4K cable works ! Panel is damaged, though. But I saw backlight working and content (bios logo). 
Bad news is those cable work only without installed GPU drivers. Also UEFI is a must, otherwise LCD won't even turn on.
I experimented on spare HP and I could set up even FHD resolution, but after installing drivers laptop don't even shows internal panel connection. Only external output works.

This is problem I had in my Clevo before, I tried to upgrade screen to 4K and it also worked until installing drivers. Seems like I need to troubleshoot another problem. I heard about EDID, now I need to check out how to program them or something..
So we're halfway to success...
 

[Daedalus]

On 2/20/2023 at 8:10 AM, GuitarG said:

Recently added second fan to cool vga heatsink. I used fan from 17' inch HP 8770w. Will show pictures later! Additional fan is controlled as original fan. There is already big improvement and I'm very happy : ).
I have received Zbook 17 G2 recently with dreamcolor screen. Mine heatsink parts are mainly from zbook 15 because they are almost fully copper. I will test out them both how they compare in torture test with same graphics card.

Are there any pics of the dual fan lead? i saw the fan mod in the now vacant DVD bay as 980M negated DVD port and ability to use. I'm trying to search Ali and google to identify what the fan connector (tiny what looks like JST) port on the mobo to see if a dual splitter lead exists to take from the Fan connector by CPU. Although something make me think the DVD port 5v was used?
Now ive secured a 965M im tempted to run the GPU H/sink mod on the "A" type card to improve the cooling. 

[GuitarG]

14 hours ago, Daedalus said:

Are there any pics of the dual fan lead? i saw the fan mod in the now vacant DVD bay as 980M negated DVD port and ability to use. I'm trying to search Ali and google to identify what the fan connector (tiny what looks like JST) port on the mobo to see if a dual splitter lead exists to take from the Fan connector by CPU. Although something make me think the DVD port 5v was used?
Now ive secured a 965M im tempted to run the GPU H/sink mod on the "A" type card to improve the cooling. 

Yup, there:

With crimping plies you could probably make it into JST, I didn't had one so I just soldered one wire. Remember to solder it after coil, not before, or you will fry PWM fan IC. 5V I used from SATA bay port.

About modification, there is a little hope left. I think HP may had whitelist of panels that will work in that laptop 😞 and it's in encrypted bios. So I will try one last idea, coreboot 8560w and check then if work. But I don't get my hopes high because even coreboot uses some propertiary manufacturer code for it to even work. 
And even if it works, then no Windows booting, only Linux.

[Daedalus]

3 hours ago, GuitarG said:

Yup, there:

With crimping plies you could probably make it into JST, I didn't had one so I just soldered one wire. Remember to solder it after coil, not before, or you will fry PWM fan IC. 5V I used from SATA bay port.

About modification, there is a little hope left. I think HP may had whitelist of panels that will work in that laptop 😞 and it's in encrypted bios. So I will try one last idea, coreboot 8560w and check then if work. But I don't get my hopes high because even coreboot uses some propertiary manufacturer code for it to even work. 
And even if it works, then no Windows booting, only Linux.

thanks for that, yep that was the earlier pages i was referring to which showed the fan without chassis sat in the DVD bay i couldnt quite see from the pics the cable feed from fans hence the ask 🙂 . i can see various Aliexpress splitter leads for desktop machines but the tiny tiny JST on laptops is sooo much smaller. i could mod the current fan but would be happier with  a splitter as it reduces the risk of frying fan IC. however Both fans will only be seen as one. obviously cant be set at different speeds as they are one fan port. To create a splitter isnt impossible for us awesome soldering  skills, just finding the connectors to create a solution. Even taking the 5v line from DVD port give power but PWM control is only via CPU fan so both will rotate the same RPM (i think). 
 

 

[Vladka76]

On 8/20/2025 at 9:31 AM, GuitarG said:

About modification, there is a little hope left. I think HP may had whitelist of panels that will work in that laptop 😞 and it's in encrypted bios.

What if you try to change the ID in the EDID of the new screen by inserting the ID of one of the native (stock) compatible screens?
I read here that EDID is a simple EEPROM like 24C02:
Illustrated manual (in Russian, I'm sorry)

Perhaps this will be useful for you.

[GuitarG]

7 hours ago, Vladka76 said:

What if you try to change the ID in the EDID of the new screen by inserting the ID of one of the native (stock) compatible screens?
I read here that EDID is a simple EEPROM like 24C02:
Illustrated manual (in Russian, I'm sorry)

Perhaps this will be useful for you.

Well, Dreamcolor is LVDS screen, on DC cable there is pin 11 and 12 connected, those are LVDS EDID cables. They go straight to DC LCD. So at the end of the day, every panel in 8570w is LVDS. EDID hexcode for LVDS and eDP are vastly different, even in length. And they are two totally different technologies. 

So I think only way could be to find out with coreboot rom. But since it uses a lot of original HP code, it still may not work. Unfortunately.
 

[Vladka76]

5 hours ago, GuitarG said:

Well, Dreamcolor is LVDS screen, on DC cable there is pin 11 and 12 connected, those are LVDS EDID cables. They go straight to DC LCD. So at the end of the day, every panel in 8570w is LVDS. EDID hexcode for LVDS and eDP are vastly different, even in length. And they are two totally different technologies. 

So I think only way could be to find out with coreboot rom. But since it uses a lot of original HP code, it still may not work. Unfortunately.
 

Sounds like a funeral march for all hopes... 😥
And if you replace the screen ID in the EDID firmware editor (like in "my" manual), and not via hex codes? 😧

[gluon]

For what it's worth, here's something from the MXM 3.1 spec doc.

 

[GuitarG]

On 8/22/2025 at 2:39 AM, Vladka76 said:

What if you try to change the ID in the EDID of the new screen by inserting the ID of one of the native (stock) compatible screens?
I read here that EDID is a simple EEPROM like 24C02:
Illustrated manual (in Russian, I'm sorry)

Perhaps this will be useful for you.

Well, it would be hard, because we can program it only physically. And in eDP flash chip is strongly connected to main LCD IC, meaning there is no way to program it without connecting to main IC. On every eDP LCD I have I checked for i2c pads, but no luck. 

Also I found another case of such problem. 

[AstroMan]

Not every screen (and information in the eeprom, edid) is compatible with every GPU (vbios and how it interprets edid).
It's similar to eDP implementation on some screens, it should be standardized but it sometimes isn't. I know, basic explanation.

There is a thread here https://www.thinkpad.cn/thread-2000319-1-1.html that mentions the use of 4K screen (with modded cable), however, from my experience in the past, the way they got it going is with the use of a Dell AMD Firepro W5170M from Dell 7510.
That gpu (i'm not sure which vbios version) has vbios configured (reads edid from screens correctly) in such way as to allow both AUO B156ZAN03.0 and BOE NE156QUM-N66. Both are 4K eDP screens.
This gpu working in the machine is confirmed here too https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/342967-guidehp-elitebook-8x70p8x70w-hackintosh-with-uefi-only/.
W5170M will work only with eDP screens, so it's like one needs another. Alternatively DC screen (which from my understanding pretends to be eDP).


I have shuffled mxm gpus and vbioses around in Alienwares and Clevos to know enough that vbios dictates even which screen is compatible. That's why Clevo GTX 980m with flashed vbios from MSI or Asus will sometimes not start (black screen, no image) and you have to restart it (via power button) like 5 times, just so 6th time after a strobe it will show bios screen. Under PEG and 1080p 120Hz screen.

Editing vbios... is ambitious. Editing EEPROM in a screen without permanently bricking the screen... sounds expensive.

I highly highly highly doubt every gpu (in vbios sense) is compatible with every screen, at least from my experience. So from what I see, the 4K mod with mentioned above screens seems to be most probable with M5170M or its big brother if you want MXM-A for now.

With T530 its slightly different as you have the "vbios" for HD4000 (which is either standalone or working under optimus - still shuffling image from dgpu) is the actual bios image itself, the same way it's for Firepro M4000 in 8570w (but not for nvidia, those have their own memory chips onboard for vbios).

I want this mod to succeed, please correct me if I'm wrong.
______________________________________________________________
edit: there might be as well be road blocks in stock bios, everythings possible.

[Vladka76]

I will give as an example my upgrade of the video card to 8770W (maybe someone will find this information useful):
- stock screen - CMN1732 (N173FGE-LA3 from Innolux (17.3', 1600x900, TN, LVDS 40pins));
- stock video card - AMD Firepro M4000 without VBIOS chip.
I replaced the Firepro card with a new Quadro M3000M with stock VBIOS version 84.04.9B.00.14 (Dell), she was intended for installation in a Dell 7710|7720.
I knew there might be several problems, but I was lucky:
- automatic fan speed control - Ok,
- brightness adjustment from the keyboard - Ok,
- working in non-UEFI mode (and booting from MBR!) - Ok,
- after installing the latest driver for GeForce 9xxM (with "patch") - the image did not disappear.
No visible problems were found, so I decided not to touch VBIOS (although I was ready for it). 😃

[Daedalus]

12 hours ago, Vladka76 said:

I will give as an example my upgrade of the video card to 8770W (maybe someone will find this information useful):
- stock screen - CMN1732 (N173FGE-LA3 from Innolux (17.3', 1600x900, TN, LVDS 40pins));
- stock video card - AMD Firepro M4000 without VBIOS chip.
I replaced the Firepro card with a new Quadro M3000M with stock VBIOS version 84.04.9B.00.14 (Dell), she was intended for installation in a Dell 7710|7720.
I knew there might be several problems, but I was lucky:
- automatic fan speed control - Ok,
- brightness adjustment from the keyboard - Ok,
- working in non-UEFI mode (and booting from MBR!) - Ok,
- after installing the latest driver for GeForce 9xxM (with "patch") - the image did not disappear.
No visible problems were found, so I decided not to touch VBIOS (although I was ready for it). 😃

was the driver update done post or pre card install? i see some users have backlight issues until drivers are done.

I have the latest 965M nvidia driver and also NVFlash files for it, so hoping for some level of success wen i drop the 965M card in. 

I know its not going to be as simple as drop the card in like some YT vids seem to show. 

 

On a different note, did anyone get the MSATA ssd card to boot via bios edits??