In this post I will show you how you can install an NVMe SSD into a HP Compaq Elite 8300 Small Form Factor and modify the BIOS so that the machine can boot natively from it. The 8300 SFF does have a UEFI BIOS, but there is no NVMe driver present.
I wrote a post on how add NVMe support to a Dell OptiPlex 7010 which has the same Q77 chipset at the HP 8300. So I wondered if the the same procedure could be used to upgrade the HP. Although the procedure is quite different, it is easy to do and can be completed in under 20 minutes.
The completed modification produces impressive results. Here is my CrystalDiskMark Result from the 8300 using a Samsung 970 EVO Plus:
Warning
This blog post contains instructions on how to modify your BIOS using a hardware programmer.
You could very easily break your machine. Proceed at your own risk!
Required Hardware
In order to carry out this upgrade, you will need a few things:
- An NVMe SSD. I used a 512Gb Samsung 970 EVOPlus
- An NVMe to PCIe Adapter, I used this one from Amazon.
- A USB Memory Stick of at least 2Gb.
- A jumper cap/paperclip etc.
- A HP Compaq 8300 computer to modify.
These computers are now really cheap on Amazon and in they are a bargain in my opinion if you just need a basic machine work school or office work.
Best SSD Deals of the Week
The above hardware is what I used for the upgrade, but SSD deals change quickly. Check out my best SSD Deals
Procedure Overview
The process involves a number of steps:
- Upgrade your current BIOS to the latest version.
- Create a SystemRescue bootable USB Drive.
- Put the machine into service mode.
- Modify the BIOS and inject the NVMe driver.
- Install the new NVMe hardware.
BIOS Upgrade
Before proceeding with the rest of the steps. Take a moment to check that you are on the latest BIOS available from HP. At the time of writing that was version 00.03.08 Rev.A.
ROM Firmware for 8300 Elite and 6300 Pro Business
I’d be interested to know if this BIOS mod also works for the 6300. But I do not have one to try it.
Create the bootable SystemRescue Image
Next, download SystemRescue using and make a bootable USB drive using Rufus. There are instructions on the SystemRescue website on how to make it bootable.
Put the machine into service mode
Once you have created the bootable USB you can shut the machine down and put it into service mode.
To put the machine into service mode you will need to remove the lid and find the FDO (Flash Descriptor Override) jumper, which is here:
Jump the pins with a jumper cap or anything else that you can find (paperclip etc). So it should look like this:
Boot the machine with SystemRescue
With the jumper on the FDO pins, insert your bootable USB into the machine and turn it on.
Press the escape key to access the boot menu and select your USB Stick. You will come to the SystemRescue boot menu, which should look like this:
Press the e key to change the default boot options. Use the cursor keys to move down to the line that says linux and add the following to the end:
setkeymap=uk copytoram dostartxChange the keymap to be appropriate for your own environment or if you are in the USA, just leave that part out.
Press CTRL-X to proceed with the boot.
Backup and modify the BIOS
The system will boot into a graphical interface. From there open Firefox and come back to this blog post so that you can copy and paste commands.
We have booted the USB drive using the copytoram option, which will enable us to mount the USB drive from within our booted environment to store the backup of the BIOS.
Backup Bios
First, open a terminal by clicking on the terminal icon:
Type the following command:
fdisk -l |grep "W95"The output of the fdisk command should be something like this:
/dev/sda1 * 2048 500118191 500116144 238.5G c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Make a note of the device, this should be your USB thumb drive, in my case it is /dev/sda1. Then type the following commands:
mkdir /mnt/usb
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
flashrom -p internal -c MT25QL128 -r /mnt/usb/backup.binIt should look like this:
The flash chip will now be read and you should get output like this:
Leave the terminal window open as we will be coming back to use it again soon.
Now the backup of the HP BIOS is safely stored on the USB device we can inject the USB driver. Open Firefox and download UEFITool 0.28.0 from here.
Open the downloaded zip file and drag the executable on to the desktop. Then open UEFI Tool. Open backup.bin that was created in the previous step by navigating to Other Locations -> Computer -> mnt – usb.
Modify the BIOS in UEFITool
Next we can modify the BIOS.
- Expand the BIOS Image like this:
- Scroll to the bottom of this section until the final DXE driver, which should be HpDigitalSignatureVerification.
- Download this NVME Driver and save it to your machine.
- Right click on the final DXE driver and choose Insert After.
- Choose the NvmExpressDxe_Small.ffs that you just download and then save the file as nvme.bin.
Write the modified BIOS back to the HP 8300
Now that you have the modified BIOS image complete, go back to your terminal and use the command:
flashrom -p internal -c MT25Q128 -w /mnt/usb/nvme.binThe new BIOS image will be flashed to the chip and it should look like this:
Now you can shutdown the system and remove the jumper from the FDO pin headers.
Add the NVMe Adapter and Drive
The system will now be able to from an NVMe drive! You can either complete a fresh install of your Operating system or clone your existing installation to the new NVMe SSD
Here is my Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe SSD from Amazon installed on to a PCI Adapter in the machine:
Performance
Adding NVMe support the HP Compaq 8300 Elite does provide a massive boost in performance. The machine I upgraded had a mechanical hard drive so the difference was astonishing. Here is the difference in speed results:
Cold boot time for Windows 10 with the mechanical hard drive was 1 minute and 16 seconds. With the NVMe drive it was 20 seconds.
Google Chrome OS Flex
As the HP Compaq Elite 8300 is a Chrome OS Flex Certified Device I decided to install that on to the NVMe drive and try it out. The installation worked no problem and it booted in 12 seconds. I really like OS Flex for giving older machines a new lease of life. It feel like a brand new machine.
Conclusion
You will have to judge if this is the right upgrade for you. A SATA SSD would be much easier to fit and does not require any additional hardware. This NVMe modification provides greater performance.
I would like to say a big thanks to Ivan in the comments who found that the BIOS chip could be flashed using the Linux based Flashrom tool. Previously this guide contained a much more complicated procedure.
In the end I actually used this Dual M.2 NVMe and SATA adapter from Amazon:
This allowed me to have the Samsung NVMe drive with a Western Digital SATA drive for additional storage. I used a short right angled SATA cabled which turned out to be a very neat solution. I removed the hard drive completely.
Jake Klumpp says
How do you get those speeds its only pcie 2.0, more like 1650mps ?
Paulie says
Those are the speeds I got. According to the service guide:
HP Compaq 8300 Elite Maintenance and Service Guide
The computer has one PCI expansion slot, one PCI Express x1 expansion slot, one PCI Express x16
expansion slot, and one PCI Express x16 expansion slot that is downshifted to a x4 slot.
Tony says
Hi Paulie, I have HP Compaq Elite 8100 SFF. Do you think I can do the same upgrade just like here ?
Tim says
Paulie, Do you think you will be trying the HP 8200 in the future? I have 3 or four.
Ivan says
@Paulie – I used flashrom (https://www.flashrom.org/Flashrom) for reading and writing flash, and UEFITool 0.28.0 (https://github.com/LongSoft/UEFITool/releases/tag/0.28.0) for modifying the firmware adding your linked .ffs.
Find below the precise commands executed by root:
# flashrom –programmer internal -c MT25QL128 -r backup.bin
(Modified backup.bin inserting NvmExpressDxe_Small.ffs and saving as Fixed_NVME.bin)
# flashrom –programmer internal -c MT25QL128 -w Fixed_NVME.bin
Juan Carlos says
Hola, intento implementar esto en un HP Z230 SFF, de momento no lo he probado, solo he encontrado las guías para poder hacerlo.
Os adjunto 3 enlaces sobre como instalar NVMe M.2 pcie, reprogramando la bios por software (1 y 2) o, alternativamente, mediante un simple arranque alternativo del bios (3). Para quién pueda interesar
1. [Cómo] Obtenga soporte completo de NVMe para todos los sistemas con un AMI (American Megatrends Inc) UEFI BIOS
https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/howto-get-full-nvme-support-for-all-systems-with-an-ami-uefi-bios/30901
2. [Solucionado] HP Z230 Tower Workstation
https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/success-hp-z230-tower-workstation/38156
3. [Guía] NVMe-boot sin modificar su UEFI/BIOS (método con Clover)
https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/guide-nvme-boot-without-modding-your-uefi-bios-clover-efi-bootloader-method/31665/639
Mike Steak says
Great work that is impressive!
Maybe you can help me with an issue. I have a 6300sff i7 3770 – 16gb- sata ssd.
Its been nothing but issue after issue. I have had great results in the past with similar models like your 8300 and an older version that had a core 2 quad.
The rear usb 3.0 ports are the main reason I bought this machine and the damn things wont transfer faster than usb 2 speeds.
Ive updated BIOs to 3.08 but I only read too late that you have to do 2.99 first.
Ive even reverted from windows 10 to 8.1 pro.
theres a guy on the hp forum with my exact same issue and he said if he boots into linux they work at usb 3 speeds but not in win 10.
in windows 10 No matter what I did it would not find a driver for a few components even with snappy driver.
Windows 8.1 found the driver as soon as I got wifi.
my current bios version reads 3.08. Do I have to rollback to 2.99 and then go back up again? or since it accepted the flash that means its algood?
it wont accept rollbacks now through BIOs flash or winflash.
If I have to I will buy a 3.5″ front usb 3 panel that connects to the pci slot from memory?
Look forward to hearing from you.
Artur says
Hi!
I’d like to say BIG Thank You! – for your amazing knowledge, great tutorials on modding BIOS for NVMe boot capability and your willingness to share this information. I really appreciate your work because I’m very interested in these old and affordable SFF office PCs/desktops that lack NVMe boot support.
So far, I managed to enable NVMe boot in my DELL OptiPlex 3020 SFF PC – making a good use of your tutorial. I also would like to try modding BIOS in DELL OptiPlex 790 and HP Elite 8300 SFF that are on my shelf.
However, I’d love to learn about modding BIOS in my current main PC which is HP Z230 SFF (BIOS L51 v01.63 – Rev.A / Xeon E3-1245 v3). So far, I was able to open BIOS .BIN file in UEFI Tool (.BIN BIOS file taken from this official HP repository https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp103501-104000/sp103745.exe ) I managed to insert NvmExpressDxe_Small.ffs somewhere after the last DXE driver (I’m not sure if this place was chosen correctly).
However, after saving modded BIOS .BIN file to nvme.bin … I don’t know how to flash it back into my machine. I tried via USB DOS Flash option but system said it could not find proper BIOS .BIN file on my pendrive formatted in FREE DOS via Rufus. Maybe it can recognize that BIOS file has been changed in an unauthorized manner? I can only guess because my knowledge is very basic in this area. Can I somehow switch this PC in Service Mode or flash back modded BIOS via clip and programmer … I’d like to read your opinion or advice if possible.
Best Regards,
Artur
Cosmo says
@Artur
See this post here: https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/success-hp-z230-tower-workstation/38156
This person gives you step by step instructions for what to do and how to do it for your specific machine+bios file and version.
Cosmo says
Hmm so here’s my update. I suppose it could just be the m.2 adapter I got, but the nvme isnt showing up in bios. anyone know why that might be? I guess I will order another adapter to rule the first one out.
clonezilla does detect the nvme drive though. I am presently cloning my SSD boot drive just to see if that will do anything.
Cosmo says
ok so my issue now is MBR vs GPT. I guess my SSD that I am cloning is GPT. but with the nvme on the pcie adapter, it needs to be MBR. the bios doesn’t detect the drive unless it is MBR. so there’s no way that I’ve tried that will clone the SSD to the NVME, keep the data, but make it bootable over MBR. Maybe someone here can drop a hint. Really don’t want to have to reinstall my entire system and all the settings and data etc.
Cosmo says
lost patience and just started a fresh windows install. so so so much to restore now. but at least I have an nvme running as a boot drive. anyone who has questions I spent a lot of time on this and now know it like the back of my hand. feel free to reach out and I’m happy to help
Cosmo says
ok, final word on this. originally had a crucial 500gb p3 plus nvme in there. 3500 read and 1900 write. just used clonezilla to clone that 500gb drive to a 1tb version of the same drive with 3500 read and 3500 write. then used gparted to move my recovery partition, permitting me to expand my data partition to the full 1tb. read and write speeds confirmed at 3400ish/3400ish. seems like this project has reached its end for me. this PC will now have another 5-7 years of life. thanks to all who have helped me along the way.
again, if anyone has any questions, please feel free to reach out. [email protected]
Jim G. says
@Paulie
Do you recall what kind of processor is in your HP 8300?
It looks like you are getting PCIe 3.0 speeds with your setup.
This is a gen2 and gen3 crossover motherboard. Whereas a lot of the newer chipsets only handle 1 generation of cpu.
It sounds like 2nd gen sandy bridge chips are PCIe 2.0 and the 3rd gen Ivy Bridge chips are PCIe 3.0
I was under the impression this is a PCIe 2.0 board only.
Oscar says
@Paulie and @Ivan Thanks for the instructions.
I modified the flash following Paulie’s path and Ivan’s Linux way on two HP 8300 SFF PCs.
I did something like:
– Install the internal jumper
– Format a USB pen with SystemRescue (https://www.system-rescue.org/) I used RUFUS utility.
– Boot from the pen and select SystemRescue to be fully loaded into ram memory. This allows the USB pen to be mounted and used to exchange the files.bin with Windows.
– run #flashrom -p internal -c MT25QL128 -r backup.bin
– Modify backup.bin inserting NvmExpressDxe_Small.ffs and save it as Fixed_NVME.bin.
I did it in Windows and copied the fixed file to the USB pen back to Linux.
– run #flashrom -p internal -c MT25QL128 -w Fixed_NVME.bin
– Remove the internal jumper
Note that the procedure generates different NVME.bin code starting from each backup.bin .
If you write the wrong one possibly you will require the hardware programming tool to recover the flash ?
@Paulie thanks again for the very useful post.
Oscar says
System is HP 8000 SFF, I7-3770, BIOS 3.08 modified, Window10 Pro 22H2.
After bios mod to move Win10 to the new NVME disk I followed this tip https://youtu.be/Z939daHclxY .
It run well for my GPT partition system.
Cosmo says
@oscar, I think the reason you had different nvme bins generated is because the bios clock changes, so the CRC or the bin necessarily changes. that’s my logic to justify the change anyway.
@Jim G, i have the same speeds as @paulie. I am running an i7 processor in this machine: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.40 GHz.
i am using a piece of sh*t nvme adapter purchased from amazon — cheapest i could find. i also bought 4 others to test and they all produced identical speeds. my nvme is a crucial p5 pro 1tb drive. dont forget, most drives market as UP TO 3500meg/s or whatever. because the 500gb and smaller drives are slower. typically only the 1tb and up drives support the fastest theoretical transfer speeds.
Joseph Shaff says
Will that method work on the HP Compaq Elite 8300 CMT (Convertable Micro Towers) ?
Gary Sapir says
@ Joseph Shaff, i can’t speak to that, sorry. I would think if the bios file used to upgrade the 8300 sff and cmt is an identical file, then the method should work the same
Paulie says
For anyone following this blog post, it has now been completely rewritten with the useful information provided by Ivan. Let me know how you get on!
Jim G says
Thanks for the heads up. I’m glad I made a PDF of the old one. Honestly if it was me I would have made two pages, offering two different methods. Why dump up tried, tested, and true work? Method 1 would have been with the SOIC 16 programmer stuff you have already done, and Method 2 as a whole new write up using the the Linux programming.
As for me, I wouldn’t have even have the idea right now to try resurrecting my bad flashed HP 8300 if it weren’t for @Paulies original article with the SOIC 16 programmer stuff… After 2 weeks of delays from amazon, I finally got an SOIC 16 cable to go with the usb programmer. I had to go with an off brand, and hope it works. It’s 16 pins and 16 cables. The DollaTek from the article was out of stock.
I am wondering too about other HP system possiblities, but I have to find out more on the flash chips for them.
HP Pro 6200 (it’s only PCIe 2.0 and would be similar in NVMe speed to the Dell 990 write up), plus HP 600/800 G1 core 4th gen and HP 600/800 G2 core 6th gen machines. They all use a similar ‘blue bios’ to the 8300. All things being equal with the programmer, chip etc… it might work.
Hoping the HP 8300 will come back to life trying this method to read and flash the bios. Then will try the other steps to add the NVMe support…
Paulie says
Hi Jim, I did toy with keeping the existing page active. But I want new visitors to have the clearest, and easiest possible solution. The Linux method is very easy and will make this modification straightforward for anyone else trying to do the same. Your situation is a bit of an exception.
I wouldn’t worry too much that you couldn’t get the same brand programmer, they all seem to be the same until you get into the higher quality, more expensive units. I am sure there are many possibilities of machines that this mod will work with. But right now I have an Office full of old machines that I need to get rid of before trying any more!
Jim G says
@Paulie
I hear you, true the Linux method is easier overall. I wish someone out there had a writeup about programming using the SOIC 16 method some time ago. Without your old post, I would have never known about any of this, so thanks for the idea anyway.
I am having some problems with your old SOIC 16 clip method though. I noticed my off brand cable did not come with the 8 to 16 pin header that yours has with the Dolla Tek (which is still out of stock right now at Amazon). It only came with a 16 pin header for the clip cable to connect to the programmer. Do you think this is a problem? Only once has the aux light came on so far. So maybe this 16 pin header is an issue?
Even with the ram chip white holder clip fully removed for the same slot that your top part was broken for in the old post: the clip still does not like to stay on the chip, and it is a bit difficult to line up right.
All the software and drivers installed ok, the programmer red power light is on, so all looks well.
The problem is this: The HP 8300 mainboard aux light has come on only one time. The AS programmer just keeps returning FF FFF FFFF etc for all the stats. It is not reading the IC correctly. I have tried flipping the SOIC 16 cable every which way at the programmer side and at the BIOS chip side, and no luck. Do you think this 8 pin to 16 pin converter is really needed? Is it a bad cable?
Maybe I need take the board fully out of the case and look to see what the clip contact looks like? I don’t get why only 1 aux light in about 12+ tries at getting this clip to make good contact, unless it IS that 16 pin header vs the 8 pin header you have???
I can see why you broke part of the RAM slot holder off in your original post with the programmer method. The SOIC 16 clip is very sensitive, the spring is super tight. I managed to take out the RAM slot holder clip completely, by gently but firmly pulling on it with a needle nose pliers. Squeezing in the right spot apparently released the tabs enough for it to come out as one piece. The holder tabs on the sides of it look ok. We’ll see if it goes back in or not later once the machine is repaired…
Paulie says
It can be very difficult to get the clip on. But when it’s on you’ll know you have it right. I’ve got the knack of it now having done it to several machines, but the first time I tried I just couldn’t get it right for quite a while.
Cosmo says
if you need the old guide, you can reference it using waybackmachine
Paulie says
If people really want the old guide, I can make it available again. But it is a very complex procedure for most people to follow.
Jim says
Hi @Paulue @Cosmo
Getting further with the SOIC16 clip, but still no luck.
Got a 2nd cable, it seems to be making better contact than the first one, but still problems. I don’t know if I fudged my AUX light on the mainboard, but it is not coming on now no matter what I do.
Programmer is reading the IC but the codes are all different each time. As the old article said, to stop ‘here’. None of the codes matched what you had on the page.
The IC Chip on the 341A also getting VERY hot. I think this programmer is shot from the get go. It’s never read anything correctly with 2 different SOIC 16 cables now. The programmer usb device is coming up as unrecognized too after a few chip detections too and programmer not recognized (-1). I don’t think a bad SOIC 16 cable would cause this… very strange.
Should the LEFT side light on the programmer stay ON when it has made a proper connection to the SOIC16 clip? Or does that light only blink when there is activity?
Either way: getting another programmer… having such horrible luck with this.
Trying this with win 11, maybe this weekend I need to break out a win 10 box… I don’t think the OS would make that much difference.
Paulie says
You might be better off using a higher quality clip if you are struggling. Have a look at this one made by Pomona: https://cpc.farnell.com/pomona/5250/test-clip-8-pos-1-27mm-soj-soic/dp/IN08790
Jim G says
@Paulie Have you got more info for that Pomona clip: a part number, or model number, etc? Maybe I can google it or something. Getting Access Denied error…
Access Denied
You don’t have permission to access “http://cpc.farnell.com/pomona/5250/test-clip-8-pos-1-27mm-soj-soic/dp/IN08790” on this server.
Reference #18.cc1c2117.1679079529.1011d76
Paulie says
POMONA 5250
Jim G says
Thanks @Paulie
Ok so I got your clip page to come up now. Went to https://cpc.farnell.com and searched for Pomona 5250.
it came up, but it is only 8 pins:
8-Pin SOJ/SO IC Test Clip – 5250
https://cpc.farnell.com/pomona/5250/test-clip-8-pos-1-27mm-soj-soic/dp/IN08790?ost=pomona+5250+test+clip
The winbond bios chip for the 8300 is 16 pins. Shouldn’t I get one that is 16 pin like this one? Pomona 5252
16-Pin SOJ/SO IC Test Clip – 5252
https://cpc.farnell.com/pomona/5252/test-clip-16-pos-1-27mm-soj-soic/dp/IN08792
https://www.amazon.com/Pomona-5252-0-050-Spacing-0-830/dp/B00CO8B1QS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=IJR0NLZJ4A69&keywords=POMONA+16+pin+test+clip&qid=1679203898&sprefix=pomona+16+pin+test+clip%2Caps%2C100&sr=8-1
Thanks.
Paulie says
Yes, sorry. I’ve ordered a selection of them. I don’t know what they are like yet – but they seem to be higher quality (but may be not better for our purposes).
Jim G says
@Paulie
Understood. Let us know how it goes, I hope the Pomona clips work better for you. Amazon can’t get me one until May and for $35.00 or so US to use with the 8300…
Before dropping back to punt with a totally different working motherboard as a replacement:
I was wondering too about somehow using patch wires to piggyback a good working bios rom from another working HP 8300 board to fire up the ‘dead’ one and get it reflashed. Is that even possible somehow without soldering?
@Paulie @Ivan
As for the Linux steps in the new article: I have prepped a system rescue usb drive, while I figure out my next move for the 8300.
I was considering trying the patch on a working HP 6200, or maybe the 800 G1 or G2, but you have just posted a new article for the 800 G1 🙂 yay!
I still have a question on this new method for the Linux programming though:
It looks like one has to know what kind of rom chip with the -c switch from your Linux commands:
ex:
flashrom -p internal -c MT25QL128 -r /mt/usb/backup.bin
and
flashrom -p internal -c MT25QL128 -w /mt/usb/nvme.bin
I am confused why MT25QL128 (Micron Technologies?), when the bios chip on my HP 8300 mainboard says Winbond on it? In the old article for the 8300 for the 341A programmer, you had us select the W25Q128BV for the winbond chip.
Is the Linux flashrom util able to detect what kind of rom is on the mainboard? If not, how are you getting this info about MT to use in the command?
That said I’ll look up the IC info for my HP 6200 bios (its probably a similar winbond chip). I’d like to know how to figure out what to use for -c if I were to try this with some different HP machines, where the Intel ME tools might not work.
Cheers
Ashok Sagar says
Hi Paul, I tried to use your guide for modifying my hp 8300sff but after finding my Intel Q77 chipset I keep on getting this message: No EEPROM/flash device found
Please help as I am stuck at this point.
Thanks in advance.
Ros De Siena says
Hi Paule, thank you for your article.
I got the whole thing, when I type the string:
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
the system warns me that the usb drive is read only.
How can I fix?
Thanks again for your explanation.
Ros.
jordi says
Thanks for the guide, I used in my HP elite 8300 tower. The flash chip is diferent, is “W25Q128.V” so the orders are:
# flashrom -p internal -c W25Q128.V -r /mnt/usb/backup.bin
and
# flashrom -p internal -c W25Q128.V -w /mnt/usb/mod.bin
To add the driver I used MMTool 4.50.0023(https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/howto-get-full-nvme-support-for-all-systems-with-an-ami-uefi-bios/30901).
Thanks a lot,
Jordi
Ros says
RESOLVED
There is an error in the command syntax when rewriting on the Chip with the modified file, the command: flashrom -p internal -c MT25Q128 -w /mnt/usb/nvme.bin, the L is missing in the name the correct one is MT25QL128
I managed to get root permissions, using Linux Mint.
I too used #flashrom with the values ??described by Ivan. Thank you all, now it works perfectly!!!!
siliconbeaver says
I have an HP Elite 8300 tower (NOT mini, nor SFF). my order of PCIe adapter card and NVMe SSD 512 GB is shipping. I have read all 37 comments. Do I need a SOIC 16 programmer someone mentioned in comments?
Per Paul’s guide, looks I need a USB drive. That’s it. am I right?
(then follow 1st part of this post, Paul’s guide).
Thanks,
Paulie says
You don’t need a programmer. The comments reflect an old version of the post.
Marco says
Hi. I have used my HP elite 8300 tower to allow nvme boot. I followed all of the steps. Pci and nvme is inserted, jumper removed. I do not see boot option for NVME. What else I have to do to enable boot option for NVME in Bios? Thanks.
Paulie says
Nothing more, you need to install an operating system on to it to boot from.
em says
Hi. The method presented also works for the HP 6300 MT workstation.
Thanks for the guidance offered.
Paulie says
Thanks for letting us know. We’re the steps exactly the same as the article?
siliconbeaver says
Thank Paul,
finally my order of hardware delivered (NVMe SSD 512GB and PCIe adapter card) today. couldn’t wait any more.
plugged the card and SSD onto HP Elite 8300 tower, tested them both “good” (but non-bootable at this moment)
Next, I completed the modification produces using your method, step-by-step, less than an hour.
OS Install,
I was using Windows 7 install media from HP Cloud Recovery
https://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/CloudRecovery/crsupportedplatform.html
Windows 7 clean install no any problem
1. install media offered by HP Cloud Recovery
2. run Simplix (update of hotfixes, a step longest time)
3. install HP Elite 8300 drivers
4. apps
Windows 7 is up on NVMe SSD now.
the HP install media works for HP PC only (tested on my HP G3/G1, Elite 8300). its beauty:
1. naturally activated. no need of Window 7 key. no need of online activate.
2. including NVMe driver.
con:
my PC was running GPT disk. while could boot MBR to use many MBR-boot tools (such as Ghost, Macrium). Now my PC is GPT-boot only. Lucky, some of them, GPT version available.
siliconbeaver says
looks like my PC is running PCIe 2.0, read/write some 1700 MB/s.
the test was performed on black PCIe slot of HP Elite 8300 tower. i3-3220 CPU @ 3.30GHz.
btw, the CrystalDiskInfo cannot detect the NVMe SSD. hence no CrystalDiskInfo data. it only reported SATA SSD data.
——————————————————————————
CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 x64 (C) 2007-2021 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World: https://crystalmark.info/
——————————————————————————
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes
[Read]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 1762.071 MB/s [ 1680.4 IOPS]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 1242.946 MB/s [ 1185.4 IOPS]
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 457.474 MB/s [ 111688.0 IOPS]
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 39.334 MB/s [ 9603.0 IOPS]
[Write]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 1123.503 MB/s [ 1071.5 IOPS]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 1090.117 MB/s [ 1039.6 IOPS]
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 356.137 MB/s [ 86947.5 IOPS]
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 162.347 MB/s [ 39635.5 IOPS]
Profile: Default
Test: 1 GiB (x5) [C: 14% (66/476GiB)]
Mode: [Admin]
Time: Measure 5 sec / Interval 5 sec
Date: 2023/05/06 1:23:57
OS: Windows 7 Professional SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Jim G says
@SiliconBeaverLooks like you need to upgrade your processor to an i5-3470 or so… you need something in the i5 range for sure, as that series supports PCI-E 3.
The i3 you have apparently does NOT support PCI-E 3.0 according to Intels’ specs
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/65693/intel-core-i33220-processor-3m-cache-3-30-ghz.html
Also, check the specs of your SSD itself, what kind of disk is it? The crystal disk mark isn’t telling us on what you posted.
i5 CPUs can be found at ebay these days for $10 USD or less shipped.
The same fan you have should work, just need to bump up the cpu
Jim G. says
Sorry for the double post. Needed to add some clarity.
@SiliconBeaver
The i3-3220 you have apparently does NOT support PCI-E 3.0 according to Intel’s specs. It is only PCI-E 2.0
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/65693/intel-core-i33220-processor-3m-cache-3-30-ghz.html
you can google ‘i3 3220 ark intel’ or any intel cpu model to get the spec sheets to find out this kind of info.
You need to upgrade your processor to an i5-3470 or so… and you’ll need some new thermal paste too in order to properly cool the new CPU. If you don’t know how to change out CPUs, before doing anything, you should google how to replace an intel i3 3220 cpu, and find out how to proerly add the conductive thermal paste to the cpu.
You need something in the 3rd generation core i5 or i7 range for sure, those series do support PCI-E 3.0. I had the same problem with an i3-2120 (only PCI-E 2.0) and went straight to an i5-3550. With the latest 3.08 bios installed on the HP 8300, it should be just fine to swap in the new CPU and do the mod. I would go with the i5 for the price, the i7 cpus are high $$$ even used. You can get a whole newer generation machine with an i5 already in it for the same price of the i7 3rd gen cpu alone: something like a HP 800 G1 with an i5 4570 or so that Paulie has an article for too.
Also, check the specs of the SSD drive itself, what kind of disk is it? The crystal disk mark isn’t telling us on what you posted.
i5 3rd generation CPUs can be found at ebay these days for $10 USD or so shipped.
The same fan/heatsink setup you have will fit just fine.
If you don’t find the cpu somewhere else and are in the US- I have an i5-3470 I can sell you for $10 shipped US. You can drop me a line at [email protected] if interested.
siliconbeaver says
Many thanks, Jim. 🙂
Frankly, I am NOT confident on CPU upgrade engineering. I recently updated ASUS motherboard. the CPU fan is getting noisy after CPU replace. no matter how to adjusting its seating, fan, or CPU thermal paste/glue. I was struggling about two weeks then gave up. Its CPU temp is about 23C, runs normal. Just it cannot be in Office because of the loud noise.
siliconbeaver says
typo,
upgraded ASUS than updated ASUS
Jim G. says
I see what you mean, then yes don’t pursue the cpu upgrade.
The other thing you could do is use a slower NVMe SSD in the HP 8300 machine. There are SSDs with about 1800MB or so read/write speeds. something like a TeamGroup MP 33 is perfect for what you need with a PCI-E 2.0 computer. They’re under 50 bucks these days new for a 1tb and have a good long TBW workload life as well.
It sounds like you have an 800 G1 already. You’re probably better off with that pc and finding some way to sell/trade the HP 8300 and upgrade it another 800 G1. The cost is minimal really between the two…
siliconbeaver says
Read Jim’s comments again. Thanks Jim, really good to learn.
Did google as suggested, the result is tantalizing,
Intel Core i3-3220 CPU “Upgrade Chance”
https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/CPUs/Intel/Core_i3/i3-3220.html
siliconbeaver says
@jim is right, a single i7 CPU costs more than an i5 PC system, when I was shopping for replacement.
I am taking Jim’s suggestion, replacing my HP Elite 8300 i3 system (PCIe v2) with an i5 system (HP 800 G1).
i5-4590 system, $35
i5-4670S system, $50
siliconbeaver says
Update
After HP Elite 8300 mod (i.e. flashing BIOS by Paul’s guide), my test confirmed
If PICe slot taken by NVMe SSD, then PC boot GPT only. MBR OS wouldn’t boot. on F9 boot menu, any legacy option was out of order.
If PICe slot empty, then PC boot SATA interface as usual. either MBR OS or GPT OS boot. F9 boot menu, each option worked normal (legacy or NOT).
My HP Elite 8300 tower was migrating to HP 800 G1 SFF. hence I did the test when removing NVMe SSD. was thinking if I should restore backup.bin. no need after test.
Jim G. says
@siliconbeaver
Yeah there are plenty of cheap 800 G1s in that range for 40-50 bucks on ebay and elsewhere. They also take DDR3 so you could even move your ram from the 8300 to the 800 G1 too, in most cases.
The boot option you are talking about also happens when a 3tb or larger disks are installed in the 8300 as well. With GPT disks, you can only boot them using UEFI, it takes precedence. NVMe M. 2drives are probably native GPT anyway by default. I’m assuming that’s why the BIOS switched over.
I would just clean install Win 10 22H2 or Win11 22H2 on the new GPT drive, with either machine. It will make cloning the disk easier in the future. There are utilities to convert MBR to GPT for Win 10/11 boot drives. But I have yet to see windows own util for this, to actually work.
You’re better off with GPT in the long run. MBR only handles 2tb disks. If later you want to use a 3tb or larger regular hard drive or SSD in the machine as a boot disk, you’re going to have to move to GPT anyway. Or you’ll be limited to just a 2tb disk.
—–
Going to try my 8300 soon. Will let everyone know how it goes once done. Just finished making a USB flash drive and got the files on it… just have to find time to do it.
I decided to put a folder on the usb disk called HP8300, and I put all the files from the article in it. ZIP already extracted and ready to go too…
siliconbeaver says
The last HP model taking DDR3 is HP G1 (600/800 DM). Paul has released a mod guide to HP 8300/G1.
I did test, HP G3 is much faster than HP G1. HP G3/4 can be $60s (i7-8700). Hence, it’s better migrate to HP G3/G4 simply.
Jim G. says
@siliconbeaver
I was suggesting the 800 G1 because there is a mod, and the price diff between it and the 8300 are next to nothing, one could effectively upgrade for nothing provided they had a buyer…
Yeah you are better off going for a G3 or G4, for the extra money. I have yet to see a 600 G4 with i5 8500 8th gen series go for $60 US, because they natively support Win 11. HP 600 G3 does not, but there are workarounds to get it installed on it.
I have done so with My 8300 as of today as well. You can get the 600/800 G3 for $60-75 with i5 6500 6th gen series. These are DD4 systems, so ram for the 8300 will not fit.
I would suggest the G3 or G4 because you get an actual M.2 slot with that one, and none of these mods are needed. The add in cards do work with those, they can always be moved off of these older ones and into those as a secondary disk.
Myself I went with an 800 G3 because of the dual 3.5″ drive bays and raid support for the spinning drives… my media center runs one.
anyway- did my 8300 mod, notes to follow…
amitri55 says
Thanks for the guide, tried in my HP Elite 8300sff.
No EEPROM/flash device found with your command. It seems different chip is used. From other comments below I found and tried with W25Q128.V (Winbond chip) on SFF.
So – alternative BIOS chip read command:
flashrom -p internal -c W25Q128.V -r /mnt/usb/backup.bin
Write command:
flashrom -p internal -c W25Q128.V -w /mnt/usb/nvme.bin
Success!
lala says
i have hp elite 8300 micro tower can i install nvme on it to upgrade it
amitri55 says
It worked also in my HP Pro 6300 SFF with same BIOS 3.08.
Same commands with success!
However, disk speed with Intel Core i3-2120 CPU is lower – probably PCI-E 2.0
(1658 MB/s read, 1440 MB/s write). Even so 3x speed of SATA disks!
Cheers!
harpmaster says
this is great! thanks for this post. i have an 8300 microtower and your instructions worked beautifully. thanks also to @jordi for saving me the search for my chip.
Gio says
Hi,
Great guide. 100% success
Only 1 note; read and write commands:
“flashrom -p internal -c MT25QL128 -r /mnt/usb/backup.bin” were throwing the “No EEPROM/flash device found ” message.
it is because not all chips are called the same..
you need to identify what chip you actually have in order to make the backup and then modifications.. To show what chip you have; use:
“flashrom -p internal:boardenable=force”
“Found Macronix flash chip “MX25L12805D” (16384 kB, SPI) mapped at physical address 0x00000000ff000000.”
now just use replace as needed. in my case the chipset was MX25L12805D so I needed to run:
“flashrom -p internal -c MX25L12805D -r /mnt/usb/backup.bin”
hope that helps.
Jim G. says
@Gio. Thanks for sharing. I have two posts awaiting moderation that asked this very question of how to detect what kind of flash rom the motherboard has.
Mine turned out to be the same one as @jordi has and apparently our winbond chip is in the sff and cmt.
Adding your Macronix to the list, there are now at least 3 different flashrom types for the HP 8300 sff: micron, winbond, and macronix
Paulie says
I will update the post soon with all of the different types of chips
siliconbeaver says
@Jim
According to your suggestion, I have disposed my 8300 microtowers, then migrated to G3/4. meanwhile I have kept and modded my G1s (to re-use DDR3 RAM). In this way, the M2 SSD sticks are fully re-used.
I prefer G3/4 after test. more powerful CPU. I was stuck with 8300/G1 years, and was trying my best to upgrade hardware to run them faster. That indeed costed more. the cheaper and easier way is to upgrade to G3/4 (this week G3/4 on ebay $40-$70)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/334896750790
https://www.ebay.com/itm/275855272028
https://www.ebay.com/itm/325669376018
I didn’t go i3-8100. worried about its performance. minimum is i5 or higher.
btw, have you done any OS backup after mod?
most backup software cannot “see”/detect the NVMe SSD on the modded PC.
however, on G3/4 (non-modded) no this issue. can even run DOS version GHOST (<2 MB) to image OS.
siliconbeaver says
Sorry, no idea where got copy of “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” 🙂
Jim G. says
@siliconbeaver I see what you mean
and yes an i5-8500 or higher is probably best with a 600/800 G4 if you want to do Windows 11
latest version rufus util can make a win 11 installer that bypasses check for cpu type / secure boot tpm 2.0
I have it running on an my HP 8300 actually, and on a 600 G1 right now with an i5 4570 in it, both running @Paulie ‘s mod
The rufus installer will also work with anything 600/800 G1-G4 that I have tried.
plus the newer rufus does have options to enable all the privacy stuff by default, which is handy too…
as for Ghost, that software was great for back in the day. I quit using it in 2017 when I got True Image. DOS bootable Ghost will not support drives above 2tb, and won’t support GPT partitions. What version of ghost are you running? I bet your are still using MBR partitions…
If you have some kind of western digital drive somewhere, I would suggest getting the free version of true image that WD has on their site. I think it requires you to have a WD drive of some sort hooked up, either internally or via USB. I don’t know, I don’t use this one. I bought mine.
True Image USB ISO does see the NVMe and it can back up the NVMe drive just fine. It has worked fine for me on the HP 8300 after mod and also on an HP 600 G1 I just did the NVMe mod on.
Also, I was able to use MiniTool Partition Wizard to migrate the Win 11 OS from a SATA drive to the NVMe on a 600 G1 today. There is a free version of that, I don’t know its limitations. The full version worked fine for my needs.
I used to use AOMEI partition assistant too and that one is free, it might do what is needed, don’t know, have not tried it. There is clonezilla (linux bootable usb) and that is free too… it can do images of windows drives as well as linux. There are options out there. Just have to find something and try it.
I have yet to hear of a version of Ghost that works with drives above 2tb or GPT partitions. As far as I know, they stopped making that software before these things came out. If someone is aware of one that works for these bigger drives and newer partitions, let me know what version.
Joan says
Thanks for the guide – it worked flawlessly. I have a question though: I get the fast speeds on the black slot (where my graphics card usually sits) and half that in the white slot next to it. Is there any way around that? Thanks!
ss says
Has anyone tried this with a q67 chipset? I have an 8200 elite SFF.
Paulie says
I have done it on a Dell Optiplex 790 (blog post on this site) and it worked very well.
ss says
Hey there,
So I went for it and got to the point where I was using flashrom to backup my bios but I’m getting an error and can’t get by it. Have you run into this at all?
BIOS region SMM protection is enabled.
I can’t get around it no matter what security settings, etc. I change in the BIOS. I’ve jumped the FDO so that’s not the issue.
Jim G. says
@ss I am wondering if you are using the right chip type for the flashrom -c switch. I don’t know the commands to auto detect what type but there at least 3 different flash chip types for the 8300. And I would say the same for the 8200 series, that there are probably some different flash types for ut as well.
See if you can figure out how to have flashrom auto detect what flashrom type you have.
ss says
Duh. Thanks for that Jim, I was able to figure out my flashrom and it reported it’s one of three. When I read the flash I’m still getting a warning. I was able to open the backup.bin and insert the NVMe driver but am nervous about bricking my comp if I send it back. Here is a link to what flashrom reported.
https://imgur.com/wGD0PBJ
Any thoughts by anyone? I have work to do so can’t afford to brick it right now so just looking for insight before I attempt it. If successful I’ll be sure to post my exact steps.
Right now I was able to upgrade my ram from 4 to 32 Gb and by a 1Tb M2 with a PCI-e 16 card and put it in the motherboard and currently using it as a data drive. My machine RIPS after it starts up now and it only cost $170 CAD for all of that. Rediculous.
Jim G. says
@ss you’ll want to check the make and model of the flash rom on the main board. Not sure on the 8200 if it is by the ram slots or elsewhere. It is near the ram slots on the 8300.
If you can wait a few weeks I can take a look at this stuff on an HP 6200 which should be very similar to the 8200. I think they use same intel chipset anyway.
Nico says
Thank you so much this worked however I only get 2GB/s because my card is only PCIE Gen2 X4 same Mainboard. How were you able to get these high speeds? Do I need a X8 or X16 card or are my other PCIE cards 10GB ethernet SFP+ X16 and 2.5GB RJ45 X1 the problem as they use these lanes?
Jim G. says
@Nico pcie Gen2 will max out at like 1600Gb/sec. You need a pcie 3.0 or higher adapter card, a pcie 3.0 or higher ssd, and the right cpu. And the latest 3.08 hp 8300 bios installed.
What kind of ssd and processor are in the machine? It sounds like you my be facing the issue that siliconbeaver had with an i3 processor. You need an i5 3rd generation processor to get the pcie 3.0 support in the hp 8300. If you don’t have the i5 cpu, you’re probably better off moving yo an 800 g1 as I mentioned in some older posts.
unes says
i did all steps correctelly exept for the last one i got an error of the chip :
[root@sysrescue ~]# flashrom -p internal -c MT25Q128 -w /mnt/usb/nvme.bin
flashrom v1.2 on Linux 6.1.30-1-lts (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org
Error: Unknown chip ‘MT25Q128’ specified.
Run flashrom -L to view the hardware supported in this flashrom version.
Hugo Simões says
Hi there. Yesterday, by chance, I landed on this tutorial when I was wandering around the web.
I bought myself a cheap HP Elite 8300 CMT. Very good quality machine. It seems that this machine has some annoyances. Today, I converted my SSD that had MBR to GPT and since then, when I reboot the machine, it no longer shuts down and starts up… which is great.
I do not see the need to follow this tutorial because the SSD is fast enough. I can reach the Windows lockscreen in less than 20 seconds. I just use it casually to watch youtube, some programs, but still don’t see the need to move to NVMe.
I do have an offtopic: when Windows boots up, which logo appears to you? The Windows Logo or the HP blueish circle logo? I wanted the HP logo instead of Windows logo… is it possible?
Oh… another question… Is it possible to edit the colors of the hp bios screens? My eyes are no longer what used to be and the white/light backgrounds hurts my eyes. Some dialogs are presented with dark blue background with white text but if I select some option, some white dialog goes over that dark blue dialog….
Thanks.
David says
I bought the following adapter for PCIE to NVME:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FN3YZ8P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Is that the fastest port to use? I’m seeing people use the full-length PCIE slot.
I have an HP Elite 8300 CMT with the highest i7 CPU, 32 gigs of ram.
Also, for those that want to put a faster video card in their computer but cannot because it lacks the additional power.. there are solutions out there that fit in a drive bay and turn on at the same time as the computer and supply the supplemental power to the video card. I used one for a long time and it works great.
Jim G. says
@unes which form factor is your HP 8300? There are different kinds. Are you using the SFF small form factor the article was written for? A Mini? Or a CMT Mid tower?
“[root@sysrescue ~]# flashrom -p internal -c MT25Q128 -w /mnt/usb/nvme.bin
flashrom v1.2 on Linux 6.1.30-1-lts (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org
Error: Unknown chip ‘MT25Q128’ specified.
Run flashrom -L to view the hardware supported in this flashrom version.”
That error means you have a different flash chip than what the article was written for. As I mentioned in an earlier post on this article, HP used at least 3-4 different types of flash roms for the 8300 series. You will need to find out what kind is in your machine. @Paulie is working on updates for that I think. Otherwise you can check the info markings on flashrom IC itself. For the SFF, the IC above the first white ram slot on the side nearest the DVD/CD drive, or the hard drive under the power supply.
I guess I would see if there is flashrom -h or -help some sort of help list for the switches, to see if flashrom can detect what kind of chip you have. If it cannot, I have no idea what linux built in tools in the sys rescue image can do this.
You definitely need to find out what flashrom type your board has for this to work.
@Hugo Simões
hp logo during boot is an oem modification in the Windows 10/11 install image. That is why HP, Dell, and other vendors have their logo when you turn on the pc and boot, because you’re using their customized windows installer, which adds that feature. You’d need to extract the hp logo screen from an HP windows installer image. This is someting out of scope of the mod article. Do some googling on how to modify the windows load screen image. That’s where you would start for that. I have no clue how to do it. Given time and other constraints. I just use the defaults.
Later versions of the HP 600/800 G3 and G4 seem to have the HP logo from the bios on the screen during boot up. They also have a native NVMe slot that you can boot from without the need for mods. You can easily update the bios on these models too from within the bios via network, and other things. Honestly I think that upgrading to one of those for 50-60 bucks is worth the time saved and money spent vs customizing the logo. Definitely easier than messing with creating custom wim images for install for a HP bitmap image. My 2c.
@David
That card in your link is an pcie 3.0 x4 / 4.0 x4 card. Your i7 supports PCIe 3.0 The card is fine for this.
IIRC, the WHITE 16x size slot is downshifted to either 8x or 4x, the BLACK 16x slot is full 16x for video, and the SSD will work in either slot. Both slots should work up to PCIe 3.0 x4 max speed. Running a crystal diskmark will definitely show you the if speeds are similar for either slot. Crysal Diskmark is freeware. If you have a PCIe 4.0 SSD, you’re not going to get PCIe 4.0 performance, it will top out around 3000MB/sec + or – depending what kind of drive you have. Either the PCIe 3.0 slot or the drive will be the bottleneck, it depends on what kind of drive you are using.
Dave says
I have a double width video card .. I forget the exact model.. the highest Geforce GTX that doesn’t require supplemental power.
So, I’ve put the NVME adapter in the black slot. The video card is now in the white slot.
Is this going to hamper my video performance?
I don’t have a choice but to do it this way.
Dave says
I have a double width video card .. I forget the exact model.. the highest Geforce GTX that doesn’t require additional power.
So, I’ve put the NVME adapter in the black slot. The video card is now in the white slot.
Is this going to hamper my video performance?
I don’t have a choice but to do it this way.
Jim G. says
@Dave what is the video card used for? Games?
The manual says the WHITE is a 4x slot max. Yes, the video card will be slower. Performance wise I don’t know how much losing these lanes really matters. You’ll want to do some video benchmarks with the vid card in either slot to see how much of a drop in performance drop it really is.
You definitely need an x4 slot to get any decent performance out of any NVMe. They don’t make x1 NVMe adapters cards because they would be no faster than SATA SSDs. Same for USB 3.x Gen2 10gbps or 20gbps PCIe cards for external SSDs, they require the x4 slot too for the same reason, they would be no faster than Gen 1 5gbps.
If you’re super worried about vid performance, you might have to move your vid card back to the black slot, with a SATA SSD in the 8300 as your best option.
As I mentioned to someone else in the other post: you may want to look into an HP 600/800 G3 or G4 simply for the built in NVMe slot alone, and then add your vid card to that. The G3 is an excellent value you can grab for about 50-60 bucks today with a quad core i5 6500 in it and no drives. Your i7 chip alone probably sells by itself for near the price of the G3 unit alone. The G4 is the bear minimum to ‘officially’ run win 11 with an i5 8500, about $100 and up… both are good cheap options. There are options anyway…
Hugo Simões says
Hi again and thanks for the response above… which got me confused… kinda. I wanted the hp logo during Windows boot. I turned legacy support off, Windows logo still shows up even if I hook a pendrive with Windows installation made with Rufus with GPT and UEFI enabled.
Since someone touched the graphics card subject, I have myself added a Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 PCIe 2.0 to the black slot. UEFI hates this card. If I turn legacy support off and save settings, there will be no video output anywhere except when Windows reaches the GUI (pre-lockscreen). So I searched online and I read that turning off legacy off also turns off support for legacy boot and legacy graphics cards.
What’s “legacy graphics cards” for HP? What’s the minimum gfx card that UEFI likes?
I do plan to get a graphics card that UEFI loves. that doesn’t suck no more than 25W from PCIe, and also has at least OpenGL 4.4+ support. I’m thinking of getting Radeon HD 5450. HD 5670 is too hungry.
Is there an specific place where we can have general purpose talk about HP 8300 and other such machines, instead of filling this page with other things than NVMe?
David says
I have another question. Not 100% related, but it does have something to d with the BIOS.
I want to flash a new bios logo and change it from the standard HP to another logo.
However, for the LIFE of me I cannot get it to boot from the USB stick so I can use DOSFlash /I (image file name).
It always shows up in the BIOS under the Devices. I then set the boot order to USB Floppy in the Legacy options and when I reboot and go to the Boot Menu it’s not always there (probably changed some option somewhere).
But, when it is there specifically by name even (Sandisk), I select that and it’ll usually got to a black screen with the cursor in the top left and nothing else.
I can boot from that USB just fine from a new generation computer.
I guess I should mention I used both MSDOS and FreeDOS created from Rufus.
The sticks I have tried are a 16 gig and two different 128 gig sticks.
HOWEVER … I was able to install Windows 11 from the same USB stick.
One is a SANDISK USB Extreme 3.0 16 gig.. older stick from maybe about 10 years ago.
The other is a USB 3.0 / USB-C (double ended) SANDISK 128 Gig stick. Fairly old.
The other is a newer SANDISK Extreme PRO 128gig.
So, since I was able to install Windows 11 from one of the 128 gig sticks it tells me that for some reason it recognized that as bootable but doesn’t like my MSDOS or FreeDOS.
Driving me crazy.. it’s a little thing, but my son loves playing Overwatch so I created an image with the Overwatch logo and then changed the Overwatch name to say “DAVEWATCH” instead of “OVERWATCH” in the regular Overwatch font. He’ll like that.
I know this is unrelated to the post, but someone might like flashing the bios image as well.
Jim G. says
@Hugo @Dave
I would suggest that both of you do some googling on how to change the windows boot screen logo image. You can take a look at reddit for something like that or maybe sevenforums, windows central, or forums.anandtech.com <– that one is a great resource I used to use… if there aren't posts about this stuff elsewhere out there already, perhaps people at these places can help. I know nothing about this stuff. I use the defaults and seldomly reboot. (that is what hibernate is for, or leaving the pc on 24/7 🙂 Without add on video cards, the HP8300 only uses about 60 watts of AC power from a 110v AC wall socket. I checked it with a killawatt type device, so barely 1.440 killowatts per day if left on 24/7. Modifying things in windows or wim images for custom boot screens opens up it's own possibility of problems, issues, and headaches too. One would certainly want to back up their current windows os disk before changing any of that stuff.
I can try to answer any off topic stuff at [email protected] when I have time, but it is best for people to do some googling for best and fastest solutions really… many of these things have been covered many times already on the web.
I guess @Paulie quit replying after all the off topic messages. Sorry.
There is still the issue of the several different flashrom ICs that HP used with the 8300 series. Some of them are listed in various flashrom commands in various posts.
For those having problems, you really need to figure out what flashrom IC chip you have.
If you have a winbond flashrom chip, see below. Or take a look at some of the other ones other people have used.
Someone else listed these, these worked for my HP 8300 SFF winbond flashrom chip:
Read command:
flashrom -p internal -c W25Q128.V -r /mnt/usb/backup.bin
Write command:
flashrom -p internal -c W25Q128.V -w /mnt/usb/nvme.bin
Jim G. says
@Dave
Short answer: You need to get a smaller usb stick.
There IS a limit microsoft set with Fat32 partitions, and it is 32gb. You can’t boot DOS from an NTFS partition. Your windows installer is NTFS, and that is what it works to install windows from it only. The disk is too big for DOS booting.
If you have an older 1 to 16gb stick or something, that would be perfect for this. You can try to format one of the 128gb sticks as 32gb, but it may not work still because the actual physical disk size is too large. You may need something like partition wizard to reduce the size of the fat32 partition to 32gb. If still not working, you will need to get like a 5pk of 16gb sticks from amazon or something…
Please drop me a line at my email above for off topic stuff or check those forums. Thanks.
Jim G. says
Well Ladies and Gents:
I am happy to say I have managed to get a nice little USB EFI NVMe booter going on. 😉
Though I still have yet to get legacy BIOS to work with ANY boot stick, it just hangs.
For those who are having problems flashing the ROM for the HP 8300 for NVMe support, OR for other models that support EFI boot: you may find this post to be- very helpful.
I have tested the Clover installer method below with the HP 8300, and it DOES work to boot to the HP 8300 PCIe NVMe via Clover. So in effect, one does NOT need to flash the HP 8300 bios, if they want to use this method.
My test machine is an HP 6200 Pro SFF with latest stock bios 2.33, no NVMeExpressDxe was added to it as a BIOS mod. No bios mod guides are out there for it either. So this machine was a great choice for this. The drive is a Western Digital sn730 1tb disk with a MAIWO PCIe x16 adapter card in the only pci x16 slot available on the HP 6200 SFF.
Some of this may be slightly similar to what @Paulie did in his Dell poweredge article. Mine is a different usb boot stick and a different windows setup method.
Please be aware that you do any of this below at your own risk. I cannot say this method is *completely* universal, but that certainly is the hope for other uEFI systems. The HP 6200 has no raid controllers built in, such devices may throw a monkey wrench into things with other systems, or other non intel systems or chipsets with proprietary SATA or RAID controllers, etc… things you would need the proper Dxe files for in the Clover USB stick config or drivers in Windows installer boot images, so I cannot say that other things will work with anything else, outside of my test hardware. So try this at your own risk.
First, what does NOT work: posted here to save you time:
I tried some things with @Paulie’s BDU, plus DUET/rEFInd, and Clover original iso, all in BIOS only mode. None of these would ever work, the system would just hang. Yet there is supposed to be a way to make those older machines boot with with usb sticks… so older BIOS only (non uEFI) machines are out (for now?)
Next, turned on EFI mode. DUET/rEFInd would boot the win 11 usb installer stick, but it would never boot the NVMe drive. It does not see it, my guess is it needs a Dxe file somewhere in the config to solve this problem.
Now, what DOES work:
The current full Clover stock ISO works 🙂 so that is what we will use.
I can’t share a link to download it, because the post will just sit in awaiting moderation status in purgatory. :/
I got my clover iso directly from github, or you can Google search for Clover EFI boot ISO, and you make the bootable usb with Rufus and the defaults on the FIRST usb stick, just like you would for a windows usb installer image. Paulie’s BDU Boot Disk Utility image he used for the dell poweredge might work too, I did not try it.
Before you get started: you MUST use a GPT disk for your windows installation. Throwing an a MBR disk with a previous windows install on it into this deal, may be a big monkey wrench. If you do not have a GPT disk set up already, my suggestion is to go with option 1 below, and start from scratch with your PCIe NVMe drive.
I used AOMEI Partition Assistant free version to switch the PCIe NVMe disk to GPT mode, before doing anything. This GPT setting remained throughout the install process. I did this to save time and avoid a headache, this may or may not be necessary. Something like Minitool Partition Wizard or other utils should do the same.
Two ways to get the HP 6200 PCIe NVMe to boot Windows 10/11 with Clover USB boot stick:
Method 1. Install Win 10/11 Pro from scratch.
Prerequisites: have a licensed version of Win 10 or Win 11 ready to go for your machine. Win 7 does NOT support NVMe booting at all, as far as I know.
Get your windows install files ready on a SECOND usb stick.
I did use the Clover and Windows Installer sticks together (whereas @Paulie did not in his poweredge config), actually selecting the clover stick from the boot menu, only on the first boot. Once clover loads, you can select to boot the windows installer from EFI via clover.
To keep things simple, with the HP 6200 machine laying flat horizontally as a desktop pc:
I used the front usb ports next to power switch, power switch on left side:
I have both my clover usb stick and win 11 pro installer sticks connected:
left to right 1 2 3 4
1 windows installer usb image
2 empty
3 empty
4 clover install boot stick
The HP 6200 Bios sees these ports in REVERSE of this numbering, it sees the first boot device of 2 the usbs- as the clover installer on port 4. Clover installer can be moved to the back of the machine, once completed.
This will be DIFFERENT for other machines, you will have to figure it out from your BIOS boot ordering.
The BIOS is set to boot for EFI section to boot first. Windows boot manager is still at the top of the list, because MS likes to put it there (I purposefully left it this way, given MS will set it to this with a NEW install anyway, and future MS Windows upgrade probably switch it to this also). Since Windows doesn’t find the NVMe drive (the machine has no NVMe BIOS mod), it flips down to the next boot device: the First USB booter it finds, which is the Clover usb. If for some reason you get a non system disk error when booting, then move the USB boot device to the TOP of the list in your BIOS setup.
Once the initial setup is done and the first reboot happens:
the pc should automatically go to a clover boot screen if all goes well. Boot Microsoft EFI Boot from EFI is the default, and it will boot within a few seconds. The rest of the setup will finish. And you can continue using the clover default from now on. 🙂
Once windows setup is complete: remove the usb sticks, and plug the clover USB boot device on a usb port in the back of the machine. It will need to be there permanently. Be aware that if you do want to boot other devices in the future, you may need to use you bios boot menu to select the appropriate usb stick.
———
Method 2. Clone previous/current GPT mechanical hard disk to the PCIe NVMe.
Again please DO NOT clone a previous MBR Windows installation over to the new PCIe NVMe drive, Windows may not like it with this Clover config.
I used Acronis True Image for this. Full disk clone worked perfectly, no issues. If you don’t have a paid license for this: there is another way. If you have a Western Digital drive of ANY kind (even an old 500gb usb 2.0 my passport will do), Western Digital has their own custom version of True Image as download on their site. It is FREE and works for 5 years. (You will need to swap to a different WD drive to re-trigger it as useable for another 5 years.) You can also use things like clonezilla that is free, and other softwares.
Once cloning is complete: remove any usb sticks, and plug the clover USB boot device on a usb port in the back of the machine. It will need to be there permanently. Be aware that if you do want to boot other devices in the future, you may need to use you bios boot menu to select the appropriate usb stick.
The pc should automatically go to a clover boot screen if all goes well. Boot Microsoft EFI Boot from EFI is the default, and it will boot within a few seconds. And you can continue using the clover default from now on. 🙂
———-
My test WD black SN730 1tb disk gets 1641MB/sec read and 1144MB/sec write. The drive is more than fast enough for this PCIe 2.0 system. Older NVMe drives actually might be better for this pc. Meaning: you can upgrade an SSD in a newer machine, and repurpose the drive that was removed from the new machine: by using it in this setup.
Again, I cannot say this Clover boot stick is universal for ALL uEFI systems, but that certainly is the hope.
I hope this helps those of you who are having problems modifying your HP 8300 bios, or those who don’t have a way to do bios mods for their particular setup.
-Jim
Christian K says
I did this on my HP Compaq Elite 8300 mt and it worked like a charm.
Thank you for this guide, couldn’t have managed without it!
Cheers.