HP 800 G1 usdt mxm graphics card upgrade - not booting

[anitawee]

Hey Nev, this site has told me that i have sent too many private messages for the moment so I couldnt respond I am thankyou for any possible additional help. 

[silverchairbg]

Hi guys,

I've just bought this wonderful (on specs) machine and I am having the same problems you guys hit here and some more.

1) I cannot get a proven working Quadro k2100m video card to be recognized. I am using 180W power supply, card is properly inserted and machine can boot into bios or OS. In bios I find 2 settings for VGA, to disable the integrated and to choose which would be used as boot one. Both options are grayed out. Why is that? If I insert a broken MXM card, it would not boot, it would constantly beep each 6 seconds. Also if I try to start the machine with the original 130W charger, the machine would not boot when the K2100m is inserted in the slot, the power button would blink red and it would again beep. So I know that the machine sees the card, because it powers it on. I tried both UEFI boot and Legacy Boot from Boot preferences. What else could it be?

2) I installed MSATA SSD in the MSATA slot and cloned the Windows 10 from original HDD to it. Verified that it boots properly from it and formatted the original HDD on another machine. I want to use the SSD for OS only and the HDD for data. But whenever I insert the HDD, the machine would not boot. It would fail with various error depending on the boot option (legacy/UEFI). Basically it seems like whenever an HDD is present in the SATA0 slot, it would try to boot ONLY from it and it never tries to boot from the MSATA.

Thank you in advance for any hints you might have for me!

Regards

[DGroves]

people get confused with legacy/UEFI booting, but in a nutshell

if UEFI is enabled, the "windows boot manager" should be the first/top most entry

if legacy mode (uefi disabled) the m.2 device name should be first in the list

if in UEFI mode with Legacy mode enabled (CSM) then two entries will be seen with the UEFI entries at the top

then the legacy entries showing under it

last is this the SFF or mini tower model you have?

if in UEFI mode and fast/secure boot is enabled you will be unable to change the video card. to change card(s) disable uefi, disable secure boot swap out the card and boot then reset and enable secure boot

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3156/~/when-installing-an-after-market-graphics-...

[silverchairbg]

@DGroves It is the USDT form factor machine as indicated in the title of this thread. It cannot have a regular video card, it only supports  an MXM 3 A type based video card. There is no fast/secure boot option as far as I can tell anywhere in the bios.

[DGroves]

there is, .....please take the time to read the link below and note the "Secure Boot Configuration" section

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03840403#AbT4

[silverchairbg]

Both secure boot and fast boot are disabled. And this is what I see in my boot order screen:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP2Vxf93c9JNJzNVh0XdOEbyfl2EYpVDukpDwetW7kxFObrMnTBi09_fPnPFlIj...

If I disable Legacy boot sources, then the machine would not boot at all. Should I migrate the SSD to GPT from MBR? And how does that relate to the ability to recognise your video card?

[DGroves]

DON'T GUESS,... read the factory manual!! and also read the bios link i provided

you need to determine what mode your drive is formatted as..... GPT or MBR.... the format of the drive determines the bios settings

you picture shows that Legacy mode (MBR) is enabled, so your drive needs to also be in legacy (MBR) format for it to boot

your video card is a separate issue and i have not mentioned it whatsoever,  so why would you think my comments on your boot issue applied to it?

[silverchairbg]

Then I failed to explain my problem. It is the same as the one described in this post, with the difference it's a laptop in that case: https://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/281826-hp-envy-6-msata-ssd-only-boots-when-hdd-physical...

So to sum up:

1) it boots with MSATA SSD

2) it boots with HDD in SATA0 slot

It would not boot from MSATA SSD when both SSD and HDD are present. The bios always checks for boot record in SATA0 HDD and if drive is present but it is not bootable, it doesn't bother checking MSATA slot.

Hope this clears any confusion.

[DGroves]

no it does not, you have not said which format the original drive is and which program used to clone and the settings used for  cloning the drive

you have a HP EliteDesk 800 G1 "MINI" the board only supports "SATA" not UEFI for boot devices

is your M.2 SSD a SATA or NVME device?

https://www.empowerlaptop.com/p/hp-746219-001-motherboard-w1711-2/

have you formatted the mech drive to remove the bootable MBR record from the drive?

have you tried the other sata ports? the bios may be disabling sata ports when the m.2 slot is used

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04266271

[silverchairbg]

It is not the 'MINI', it is 'USDT/USFF' variant. Here is a screenshot (https://www.screencast.com/t/iTbpvwKJk), so you get a better idea .. there is a single m2 msata, single sata for HDD and single sata for CDROM. Whenever there is a drive in HDD SATA, M2 SSD would not boot. And yes, the original mechanical drive (2.5'' form factor) is formatted entirely.