BIOS Update

[DJK53]

I have two of these desktop machines which although quite old I am very happy with and would like to squeeze a little more performace out of.

Firstly I would like to change the mini PCIe WiFi card for something that supports 5G as well as 2.4G however I am concerend if the BIOS will allow this. The current card is an Atheros AR5B125. Does the BIOS hold a whitelist of allowable devices.

Next the BIOS is quite old, V80.08 06/24/2014, is there a newer BIOS available.

The process is an AMD A8-6500 and I would like to swap this for something a little more powerful, perhaps an A10.

Currently is has a mix and match memory configuration, some slow some faster and different capacities. I'll swap these out for two x 8Mb cards of the same type and speed.

Finally I would like to swap out the power supply for something a little larger, to handle a more powerful processor and additional devices. Somthing like the HP P/N: 667892-003

I know that many will say just buy a new machine as all this might be expensive, however I intend to souce the parts used to keep the costs down.

I'd be interested in any thoughts advice on the above.

David

[DGroves]

HP whitelists laptop wireless cards in some systems not desktops, as such any  wireless card that fits your available expansion slots and has drivers for your current OS will work

note that a faster wireless card is only useful if your current wireless router can take advantage of  the faster speeds

you may need to upgrade your wireless router also

the fastest supported CPU is the Kaveri Quad-Core A10-7850 (B/K suffix) 95watt

however this may require a upgraded heatsink

the Kaveri Quad-Core A10-7800 is just a bit slower and cheaper and is a 65watt part

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04341331

while a power supply upgrade from the stock 180 watt  can be done it's a  ATX standard supply and uses a 24pin pinout

consider the total cost of the wifi card/cpu/ram /power supply to upgrade your current system

now look at a system like this for 120.00  that is considerable faster and is able to be upgraded easily to run windows 7 through 11

https://www.ebay.com/itm/354650892320?hash=item5292d72820:g:XqUAAOSw10ZkEgnq&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4F...

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, @DJK53 

I am not 100% sure that an Intel card will work in your PC.

Only certain Intel cards will work directly in an AMD platform's wireless card slot.

I recommend you play it safe and find this model card on eBay:

Search by the HP part number.

Broadcom BCM4352 802.11ac 2x2 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.0 combo HP part # 724935-001.

Before you purchase a Wi-Fi adapter, make sure that your PC has two antenna wires going to the currently installed Atheros card.

A dual band 2 x 2 card is designed to work with two antenna wires.

I am concerned because your PC parts list references a single antenna.

HP PartSurfer

Antenna - PIFA 802.11a/b/g/n SingleNep2

[DGroves]

this systems motherboard has several standard pci-e x1 slots which is why i recommended a pci-e based wireless card over the HP based mini pci  laptop style card  ,such a generic pci-e x1 card will have the necessary external antennas and is plug and play and will most likely also be cheaper

https://www.amazon.com/OKN-2974Mbps-Bluetooth-802-11AX-Wireless/dp/B07X462KRK/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2U27HL...

[Paul_Tikkanen]

If you are going to recommend a PCIe x1 card, then you should also let the OP know that there will be a requirement to connect the internal USB cable that should come with the desktop PCie x1 Wi-Fi kit that works the Bluetooth to the internal 9-pin USB connector on the motherboard.

The replacement card I recommended will fit in the existing slot the Atheros HMC Wi-Fi card is in, and the Bluetooth will also work from that slot.

The issue is...does the PC have a single or dual antenna configuration?

Also, if the PC has two antenna wires connected to the Atheros HMC Wi-Fi card, it should be less expensive in used but tested and working condition than most PCIe x1 desktop kits.

The maximum throughput of the Broadcom card is 867 MBPS on the 5.0 GHz Wi-Fi band.

724935-001 for sale | eBay

[DJK53]

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone for their knowledge and advice.

I forgot to mention that I am in the UK so whilst the refurbished system on ebay would be great the seller only ships inside the US.

I've ordered a very cheap newer Atheros card from ebay, under $4 delivered, to see if it works, its only single band but does have Bluetooth, I've also ordered a pair of new antenna again just a couple of bucks.

If this works, and I'll post the results here, then I can move on to something a little better.

I don't think these systems have TMP so next will be finding a decent work around to allow a Windows 11 build to be installed.

I don't do gaming, they are just used for browsing, storage (3Tb) and documentation.

Thanks again everyone for their ongoing help.

David (retired HPE employee)

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, David.

If you are interested in installing W11 on your PC as is, you can read this discussion for how I upgraded several HP and Dell notebook and desktop PC's that did not meet the W11 hardware requirements to W11 22H2.

It was very easy.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Issues-upgrading-to-windows-11... 

If the in-place upgrade fails, you should be able to clean install W11 using the bootable W11 installation flash drive you made with Rufus.

[DJK53]

Paul, many thanks I'll have a look.

As I said for what they are used for these old systems do the job quite well and with a little bit of upgrading I hope will continue to do so for a while yet.

Having a pair of them, I bought one for myself and one for my son via the HP Employee Purchase Program when I was working, I can "experiement" with one and only when happy migrate the changes to my live system. My son has moved on the a better machine as he's into gaming 😞

The systems don't have any Trusted Media Platform implemented, not even 1.2 I believe, which has been the issue so far but hopefully the links you have kindly provided will help work around that.

IAs with the hardware updates I'll continue to update this thread incase there is anyone else with these old machines that might be interested. 

Thanks again.

David

[DGroves]

the poster stated he wanted a wireless card for his desktop system not a wireless card that also has a  Bluetooth option

the card i linked to is one of many models that are a wifi  card and do not require anything more than a pci-e x1 slot

cards that come with Bluetooth require a usb connection and  even if you do use one of these Wi-Fi + Bluetooth you are not required to connect the Bluetooth usb cable in order to use the wi-fi part  which in retrospect i should have mentioned

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime @DJK53 

Glad to have been of assistance.

I have used the method I gave you to upgrade to W11 on at least one notebook that does not meet any of the W11 hardware requirements.  No UEFI BIOS, no TPM. no secure boot, an unsupported processor.

Several of the PC's I have upgraded to W11 only had TPM 1.2 security devices, no UEFI BIOS, no secure boot and none had supported processors.