HP Pavilion dv6700 Special Edition - CPU upgrade

[mirkrat]

Good morning,
I would like to ask about the possibility of upgrading the processor on the HP dv6700 Special Edition model.
Installed HW:
base: quanta 30d2 79.29, Chipset PM965, CPU Intel® Core™2 Duo T8100, 3M Cache, 2.10 GHz, 800 MHz FSB
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/33916/intel-core2-duo-processor-t8100-3m-cache-... specification.html
Bios version F.52

I would like to give this now:
Intel® Core™2 Extreme X9000 Processor, 6M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/34443/intel-core2-extreme-processor-x9000-6m-ca... specification.html

Both CPUs run at 800 MHz, so I assume I won't have to take the laptop apart again and return the original processor. 😄
I am sending the HW parameters taken from the HW info program below.

Thank you very much in advance for your reply.
Best regards,
Miroslav Kratochvíl

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Good morning, Miroslav:

You can upgrade to the T9500, and you can also read this post regarding upgrading to the Intel® Core™2 Extreme X9000, which will work, but this person has BIOS F.58 installed.

I do believe that you are OK with F.52 because if your notebook currently has a T8100 installed that BIOS should also support the T9300 and T9500 processors as well.

DV6700 Upgrade (CPU, Matrix, Memory, HDD, etc) - HP Support Community - 6712783

[mirkrat]

Good morning,
Thank you for your reply. The article is very interesting. So it's probably worth a try, since I already have the processor at home.
So if it is necessary to install the latest BIOS F.58, where can I get it and how to flash it. I've never done it, I'm sure there will be some tutorial on YouTube, I hope.
But I will have to play it before replacing the processor, right? And with what OS, is WIN 11 or 10 OK for it?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Since the BIOS updates were only written to be run using Windows Vista, I don't recommend updating the BIOS in W10/W11 unless it is absolutely necessary.

Here is some general information on how to update the BIOS.  Your PC does not support Bitlocker.

Update Your HP Computer BIOS from Windows | HP Computers | HP Support (youtube.com)

As I had replied to you the other day since your notebook is currently running a T8100 it has the BIOS update that added support for Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Processors T8100, T8300, T9300, and T9500, which according to the link below was F.45, so you should be good to go.

HP Pavilion dv6700 Special Edition Entertainment Notebook PC series Software and Driver Details

Revision history

Version:

F.33 A

Fixed in this release:

• Fixes issue where the notebook may stop responding (hang) when it is idle if Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AG/AGN is installed on the notebook.
• Fixes issue where the notebook cannot shut down during a BIOS update if a USB mouse is moving.

Version:

F.45

Fixed in this release: Fixes issue where the 1394 port may not work after resuming from Standby mode.Adds support for Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Processors T8100, T8300, T9300, and T9500.

Version:

F.51

Fixed in this release: Updates the fan-control algorithm for the system to reduce the likelihood of future system issues.

Version:

F.53

Fixed in this release:

• Modifies the thermal policy to lower the local alert temperature.
• Fixes an intermittent issue where the notebook does not detect the hard drive when booting.

Version:

F.57

Fixed in this release: Adds "Factory installed OS" information to the Setup menu.

Version:

F.58

Fixed in this release: Adds support for the AR5007 802.11b/g Wi-Fi Adapter.

Please post back and let us know how your notebook's processor upgrade project went.

[mirkrat]

Thank you for the detailed explanation.
Although I have Win 10 on one SSD and WIN 11 on the second SSD for testing purposes. But I will definitely not risk destroying the motherboard, I will take a third HDD (some old one) and I will have to download and install WIN Vista somewhere.

I found this guide from you to upgrade to the latest Bios as well with links to the installation file. So I guess this is what I need:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Software-and-How-To-Questions/Bios-Update-Hp-pavilion-dv6700/...

HP retired support for that model series since it is more than 10 years old.

It would be a pretty big gamble to try and update the BIOS when you are running W10, and the BIOS update was written to be run in Windows Vista.

Also, there is nothing a BIOS update would do for you in W10, but if you want to take the risk of turning your notebook into an expensive paperweight, here are the links to the last BIOS info and exe files that HP released for your notebook.

F.58

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp39501-40000/sp39862.CVA

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp39501-40000/sp39862.exe

I'll let you know when I do this, to be sure I'll try it on a different computer than the one I'm running on. I will probably get my hands on at least one more dv6700 with the same parameters.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You can download the file right from the link I posted yesterday.

The links you posted won't work unless you change the web address slightly.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp39501-40000/sp39862.exe

The CVA link you don't need; it is just a description of F.58 and I already gave you the entire BIOS release note history yesterday.

[mirkrat]

You are right, the links are not active. I downloaded the one from your link just fine.
Thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

[mirkrat]

Good morning,
I still need some advice on the drivers.
Somehow my system crashed - WIN 11 freezes, a blue screen pops up with error messages, and then the laptop resets itself. Repairing the system via the command line is not possible at all, the laptop freezes right at the beginning and what I write above happens.
It could possibly be a problem with the drivers. Of course, I understand that running WIN 11 on a laptop with these outdated parameters is quite presumptuous (of course it does not meet the requirements for HW).
I haven't installed any drivers yet, I assume that WIN 10 and WIN 11 will install them themselves, but maybe I'm wrong.
Can you please refer me to the most up-to-date drivers at least for the Chipset, Graphics card, etc...
So I hope that the Bios update and processor upgrade will also help. I'm quite embarrassed about it.
Thanks a lot for your support. It means a lot to me, I am a beginner amateur in this.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Good morning.

I think it is great that you are experimenting with W11 on unsupported platforms.

I have W11 24H2 running in many HP and Dell notebook and desktop PC's that don't meet the W11 hardware requirements.

I haven't had any issues like you're experiencing though.

I have one old HP notebook like yours with the GM 965 chipset running W11 23H2 and never had a problem with it.

W10/W11 does install most of the drivers you need.

I do have some disappointing news for you though.

Starting with W11 24H2, Microsoft upped the processor requirements.

In order to install W11 24H2 the PC's processor must support SSE 4.2 & POPCNT.

New Windows 11 24H2 Hardware Requirement: SSE 4.2 Explained - Fossbytes

The bottom line is no Intel processor older than an Intel 1st generation core processor will work with W11 24H2, so don't even try installing it.   That will include the Intel® Core™2 Extreme X9000 Processor as not supported.

You have to leave it on 23H2, so save the ISO file because it will be hard to get after 24H2 comes out.

Drivers:

The below driver is the only one that I think you can update other than the Intel storage controller driver and you have to manually install that one.

These drivers are both for W7 but will work on W10/W11 too.

Latest chipset:

Intel Chipset Installation Utility

9.2.0.1031 

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp53501-54000/sp53918.exe

I have zipped up and attached an updated Intel storage controller driver other than the generic one Microsoft installs:

Download and unzip the file to its folder.  Do not do anything with the files in the folder.

Go to the device manager, click to expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers category.

Click on the standard AHCI controller.

Click on the driver tab.

Click on Update driver.

Select the 'Browse my computer for drivers' option and browse to the driver folder that you unzipped.

Make sure that the Include subfolders box is checked, and the driver should install.

You will be asked to restart the PC.  After you restart the PC, the SATA controller should now be identified as an Intel(R) ICH8M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller.

If your notebook has the onboard Intel graphics, Windows will install the best graphics driver available.

If it has the Nvidia graphics, you should manually install the Vista 64-bit NVidia graphics driver from your notebook's support page for best results.

If you continue to have issues, I suggest you remain on W10.