Upgrade M7525 Media Center PC to Core 2 Duo E6700

[matth35]

I would like to upgrade my HP Pavilion Media Centre m7525.fr but the support page is down.
This PC has an ASUS P5LP-LE motherboard.
It is written that the motherboard accepts the upgrade to Core 2 Duo E6x00 (Conroe) up to E6700

So I bought a Core 2 Duo E6700 (S-Spec: SL9S7) for the upgrade, but the motherboard doesn't boot, I think I have to update the bios.
Problem: where can I find the latest bios?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

What BIOS version do you have now?

I zipped up and attached v3.17 below which is the newest one I could find.

Here is a print out of the file contents...

Title: P5LP-LE Motherboard BIOS Update

Version: 3.17

Description: P5LP-LE Motherboard BIOS update prevents system from attempting to boot from a HP Personal Media Drive.

Purpose: Recommended

Category: BIOS

Operating System:

Microsoft Windows XP Home

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Language(s):

Global English

Enhancement/Fixes:

- Prevents system from attempting to boot from a HP Personal Media Drive when one is present.

- Allows user to enter regular BIOS setup (F1) or advanced BIOS setup (F11) in the event of a CPU or system fan failure warning.

- Improves boot performance on some systems when a large capacity USB hard disk drive is attached.

- Improves support of Serial ATA optical drives.

- Adjusts CPU temperature settings for certain Intel processors.

Prerequisites:

- You must be logged on as an administrator to install this update.

Installation Instructions:

1. Click the Download Only button.
2. At the File Download screen, click the Save button.
3. At the Save As screen, save the file to your Desktop.
4. If a message appears stating that the file already exists, click YES to overwrite file.
5. Double-click the icon for the update downloaded to your desktop, and then click NEXT.
6. Follow on-screen instructions.
7. If prompted to restart the system upon completion of the update, click YES and allow system to restart.

Copyright © 2006 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

[matth35]

Thanks for your quick answer, my bios is currently in version 3.15 (dated 06/23/2006).
So version 3.17 could fix the problem.
However, before updating the bios, I did some more research and noticed that there are several motherboards with the name 'P5LP-LE', see below:

P5LP-LE (Lithium) / P5LP-LE (Leonite) / P5LP-LE (Leonite2) / P5LP-LE (Emery) / P5LP-LE (Emery2) / P5LP-LE (Leucite) / P5LP-LE (Leucite3) / P5LP-LE (Limestone) and probably many others...

Mine is an Emery2 according to CpuZ (see photo), but with the 'PCI Expansion Slot' connector integrated contrary to what can be seen on the photo in the documentation.
I wanted to know if the bios were the same for all these motherboards and if I didn't risk to bricked mine.

Thanks in advance.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

This BIOS file indicated it was good for a HP m7567c Desktop.

HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7567c Desktop PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

According to the above specs, it has the P5LP-LE, Emery2-UL8E motherboard.

This HP forum discussion indicates the file is also good for the P5LP-LE rev 1.05 Leonite  motherboard.

Solved: BIOS upgrade for P5LP-LE rev 1.05 Leonite mainboard - HP Support Community - 6880021

So, perhaps the BIOS update is good for all of the P5LP-LE motherboards.

But I can't say for sure, so you will have to either forget about updating the processor and leaving your PC as is, or take your chances with the BIOS update file, and hope it does not wreck your PC.

There is no further info on that file other than what I posted, and I had to use the free file utility 7-zip to extract that word document out of the BIOS update file, to copy and paste it to my reply yesterday.

[matth35]

Thank you, I had not seen this discussion on the forum.

I updated the bios to version 3.17 and everything went well.

But I still can't boot with a Core 2 Duo E6700

I looked at the specifications of the different motherboards and only the 'Leonite' versions indicate that they support Core 2 Duo. The only difference I see with my Emery2 is that the Leonite has a 945G Chipset with integrated graphics chip. (the Emery2 has a 945P).

So, normally, there are no hardware compatibility problems.

But I found a discussion on the Hardware.fr forum on this subject dating from 2017 :
https://forum.hardware.fr/hfr/Hardware/Processeur/core-e6700-sujet_1016112_1.htm 

apparently, there is a version 5.23 of the bios for Leonite cards only, which implements the Core 2 Duo microcodes.

I found this version 5.23 here :

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software10/COL22990/pv-60363-1/sp37378.exe 

Now, either I try to flash it or I try to implement myself the microcodes in version 3.17 with this tutorial.

I'll give news when I succeed (or not).

[Paul_Tikkanen]

That is great news.

It might be easier to just use the newer BIOS update.

Here are the release notes...

Title: P5LP-LE Motherboard BIOS Update

Version: 5.23

Description: P5LP-LE Motherboard BIOS update corrects SATA port information displayed in BIOS setup.

Purpose: Routine

Category: BIOS

Operating System:

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic (32-bit)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows Vista Business (32-bit)

Microsoft Windows Vista Business (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit)

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows Vista Starter

Language(s):

Global English

Enhancement/Fixes:

- Fixes BIOS Setup Menu Display for SATA Port 2 and 3 .

- Updates CPU microcode.

- Updates AWDFLASH to v115M for MXIC SPI Flash Support.

Prerequisites:

- You must be logged on as an administrator to install this update.

- You must have a Microsoft Windows Vista operating system.

- You must have a P5LP-LE motherboard.

Installation Instructions:

1. Click the Download Only button.
2. At the File Download screen, click the Save button.
3. At the Save As screen, save the file to your Desktop.
4. If a message appears stating that the file already exists, click YES to overwrite file.
5. Double-click the icon for the update downloaded to your desktop, and then click NEXT.
6. Follow on-screen instructions.
7. If prompted to restart the system upon completion of the update, click YES and allow system to restart.

Copyright © 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.