HP Compaq 8200 Elite Windows 10, how to update BIOS?

[Hainricho]

Hello!

The story goes like this: I bought myself a HP Compaq 8200, couldn't get my videocard i installed to work in it. Sent it to get installed by a proffessional, they got it to work and explained that the BIOS just needed to be updated. Well now i ran into the exact same problem, but i can't update the BIOS, because my operating system (Windows 10) isn't shown in the "Version" list, and the link under it says this: " If you do not see the version of your operating system (OS) listed, HP does not have any downloadable software or drivers for your product." The guy who got the video card to work had to get the BIOS update from somewhere, right?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

On your model (I have two 8200 Elites running on W10 Pro 64 bit), you can update the BIOS without being in Windows.

HP released a BIOS update v02.29 that when using W10 caused the PC to hang on restart for over two minutes.

Anyone that installed it was stuck and couldn't roll back the BIOS update.

I am running my 2 PC's on BIOS v02.28 and they work perfectly.  I have a nVidia GeForce 1030 in one and a 730 in the other.

I did not have to update the BIOS beyond v02.28 when installing either of these cards.

I am very leery of installing 2.32 because I have not gotten any feedback from anyone that says there are no problems with this update, such as hanging on restart.

So...going back to updating the BIOS.

Get a usb flash drive and format it in the FAT 32 file system.

Download whatever BIOS version you want...2.32 or 2.28.   All the available BIOS update files are at the bottom of the Revision History section.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/swdetails/hp-compaq-8200-elite-convertible-minitowe...

Run the file.   An information page will open.  You will see several headings for updating the BIOS.

You want the instruction under the Startup Menu / F10 Setup BIOS Flashing section.

You will see a blue link at the bottom of that section labeled View Contents of DOS Flash Folder.

Click on that link and the folder with the BIOS update files will open.

Copy all of the files in that folder to your USB flash drive.  Just the files, not the folder.

Restart the PC, tap the ESC key to get the menu of options.

Select the F10 system setup option.

Select the File tab>Flash System ROM command, and then select the USB flash drive.

The PC should now 'see' the BIOS update files on the flash drive.

Follow the onscreen prompts to update the BIOS.

Easy as pie.

[Hainricho]

Hi again!

Thank you, i could update my BIOS that way but it sadly didnt fix the problem. This is really frustrating because it's the second time this has happened since i bought the GPU and im not looking forwards to getting it fixed at the same place again.

I read that your PC has a gt 730 in it, did you have any problems when installing it?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

What model graphics card did you install?

As I wrote yesterday, I have the nVidia GeForce 1030 in mine with BIOS v02.28, and it works just fine.

On my other 8200 Elite, I do have the GT 730 and it installed with no problems at all as well with v02.28.

[Hainricho]

The model name should be GV-N710D5SL-2GL ("GIGABYTE VGA NVIDIA GT 710 2GB DDR5 (PASSIVE)").

[Paul_Tikkanen]

That card should have worked with no problems at all.

It is either a defective card, or you have a bad motherboard (the black PCIe x16 slot has a problem).

You do have the card in the black video card slot, not the white one, correct?

The white slot (PCIe x4) is for a second video card (video cards that work together such as the AMD Crossfire supported cards).

[Hainricho]

They tested the card on other computers and it worked, don't think the motherboard is broken either. As for which slot, i think it was in the white one, but it was performing just like it should / would, atleast that's how it seemed to me.

EDIT: It seems like i forgot to mention one thing, before the card broke, i put my pc to sleep mode and went to sleep myself, then when i woke up in the morning, the computer was, for some reason, on. That's when i realized that there was no video and that i could only use the pc without the gpu. Another thing is that when i hadn't taken it out yet, the pc actually got to the windows loading screen, but right when the keyboard and mouse switched on and off (loading drivers, i think) the screen just went blank.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You need to have the card in the black PCIe x16 slot with only one video card.

Look at the service manual.  It tells you where to install the video card.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04224518

It is not an either/or option.

[Hainricho]

Oh, i'll try that.

[Hainricho]

Okay, done.

The computer booted, seemed okay for a few minutes, then, for some reason went into a 800x640 resolution or something like that and i couldn't use my mouse or keyboard or see anything else than my desktop and taskbar. This is the exact same thing that happened before i got it installed at the shop i bought it from, at this point im ready to just give up and throw this thing in the bin and find a new gpu, i had a GT 640 that worked right off the bat, all i had to do was install the drivers and it worked perfectly.