M8100Y CPU upgrade (IPIBL-LA)

[Ninja_Lurker]

Yes.  I'm also surprised to see the Q8200 worked since it is 45nm which I thought was the choke point here.  Well, I guess the Q6600 is the endpoint for me with there appearing to be nothing faster or better.

Thanks for the help.

[alambrose]

well actually... intel produced a slightly faster Q6700 on the same 65nm platform... but i think it came out after the q6600, and probably around the same time as the faster 45nm platforms... so it is not very well known

[Ninja_Lurker]

Thanks for that piece of information.   I checked into it and it must have been a low run production item (I couldn't find any out there that weren't used).  It also appears to be a good bit more expensive when I did find one.  

Looks like I'm taking the blue pill until I decide to do a whole MoBo and Processor replacement.

[alambrose]

I was thinking of trying the Q8200, as the other poster had mentioned that he was able to run it on his... but I reviewed the intel specs again this morning, and it just doesn't make sense. If the 45nm Q8200 could run, then so should the Q9500... also, from my personal experience, I bought a new Q8400 computer for someone, and decided to try the processor in my M8100y IPIBL-LA motherboard before I gave it to them... as I mentioned in a prior post, the system would not get past the bios POST. So I have to assume that the other poster who mentioned running a Q8200 without problems was mistaken, and it is not worth it for me to take the ~$180.00 risk.

When you buy a complete system as a package, with all of the various sales/discounts/rebates available, it rarely makes sense anymore to upgrade. I could probably unload my M8100y on Ebay or Criagslist for $200-$300, and then buy a comparable Q9500 system (on sale, refurb, or whatever) for $300-$400; making it sort of a bit foolhardy to even consider upgrading the processor in the M8100y to a Q6600 at a cost of around ~$150 for a used cpu on ebay.

The only real advantage of the upgrade is that I get to keep my current system with all of the various tweaks, settings, programs/files, and put off upgrading to a new system for another year or so.

[Ravi411]

Hello again I confirm that Q8200 was working on my IPIBL-LA motherboard.

Indeed Q8200 is 45nm 4MB cache.

Thats why I supposed that Q9400 could work, since it also 45nm but with 8MB cache.

[alambrose]

Thank you for returning and reiterating your original comments. I thought that maybe you had made a mistake.

So if what you say is correct, then it appears that the Q8200 is the endpoint for the IPIBL-LA motherboard... after trying the Q9400, did you switch back to the Q8200, and if so, did the Q8200 still work?

I am asking since you mentioned that you had upgraded the bios to 5.13, and I was wondering if that bios revision still supported the Q8200.

Also do you know the Spec Code of your Q8200? There are only 2 possibilities; SLG9S or SLB5M. I'll bet it was the SLB5M... as that chip has an M1 stepping code; the Q9400 you tried only comes in R0 stepping, and the Q8400 I tried only comes in R0 stepping... So maybe that is the key here...Several of the 45nm chips come in R0 stepping only, but there are a few that don't.

I have another computer now with a Q9550, and the stepping has to be either C1 or E0, so maybe I'll try that in the IPIBL-LA just for the fun of it... I'll let you know if it works.

[moven_up]

I too have come to the same hold up. I have the IPIBL-LA in my Elite M9040n with a E6750 but have been trying to get a new E8500 to work. The system will hang on post showing the correct cpu and memory. Based on all my research I believe this to be a cpu microcode issue. The latest 5.13 bios for this system does not have the latest microcode updates for all the stepping codes of each model cpu.

I haven't given up yet! Still a couple more avenues to pursue.

[alambrose]

I tried my Q9550 with E0 stepping, and it hung on the post like everyone else.

I do believe the problem is in the BIOS, but I doubt we'll ever get a fix. HP & others are nothing more than dollar hungry bastards that build in this "planned obsolescence" in order to get you to purchase a new computer.

I won't be buying any more HP computers as a result of this... I'll build my own as I have in the past. So what if it costs a few bucks more, I'll get a motherboard with a decent amount of upgrade-ability, and avoid this time consuming "customer disservice" that I get from the big box manufacturers.

[moven_up]

The avenue I'm currently pursuing is to copy updated CPU micro code out of a newer AMI bios HP system and insert it into the 5.13 bios for our system. Looks possible but I still have lots of reading to do in order to avoid "bricking" my system.

I'll post my results later, hopefully by the end of the weekend.

[alambrose]

if you get a bios mod that works for the 5.13, let me know... [email removed for privacy]

I was looking at the asus website to see if I could use their bios update utility to flash the ipibl-la with an ipibl-lb bios. The problem is, I can't find an ipibl-lb bios file. All of the HP bios updates are performed through an executable file that first checks to make sure the motherboard is correct; so you can't run the ipibl-lb bios update on the ipibl-la, the program won't allow it.

I don't know if it is possible to extract the bios file from the executable, I don't know how to approach that. And even if I could get the ipibl-lb bios file, I have read in several places that it won't work on the ipibl-la; but I don't think anybody making that statement has actually tried to do it.