In this post I will show you how you can easily modify the BIOS of a HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF or Mini so that it can support an NVMe SSD drive as a boot device.
Although these machines have a UEFI BIOS, they do not contain the NVMe driver. By adding the driver into the BIOS you can boot from a PCIe NVMe SSD. I achieved these speeds with a Samsung 970 EVO Plus from Amazon:
The speed result above was recorded when the machine was fitted with a Intel Core i7-4790. Originally the machine had a Pentium G3220T which was a bit slower:
But in both cases, the speed increase is huge from either a SATA SSD or mechanical hard drive.
Here is the PCI adapter and the Samsung NVMe SSD from Amazon installed in the HP 800 G1 Small Form Factor:
Warning
This blog post contains instructions on how to modify your BIOS.
You could easily break your machine. Proceed at your own risk!
Table of contents
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 HP EliteDesk 800 G1 to upgrade.
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The above hardware is what I used for the upgrade, but SSD deals change quickly. Check out my best SSD Deals
Procedure Overview
This process involves the following steps:
- Installing Required Software and drivers.
- Backing up your current BIOS.
- Adding NVMe driver support into the BIOS backup.
- Writing the modified BIOS back to the system.
- Optimising BIOS settings.
Install the Required Drivers and Software
Before being able to read from or write to the BIOS, you need to install the Intel Management Engine Components.
Download the Intel Management Engine System Tools v9.1 r7, which contains the tools required to flash the new bios. Extract the zip file to a directory on your computer.
Also download the NVME Driver which will be injected into the BIOS Image.
Finally you will need UEFI Tool 0.28 to make the actual BIOS modification. Here is a direct link to that version.
Put the machine into Service Mode
Now that you have the machine prepared, you need to put the machine into service mode before you can proceed:
- Shut the machine down.
- Remove the mains power supply.
- Locate the two pin service connector and put a jumper on it.
The FDO (Flash Descriptor Override) is in a different position depending on the model.
For the small form factor the jumper is between the Power Supply and the first PCI port , if you do not have a spare jumper you can borrow the jumper from the Password Header Pins:
For the mini the FDO Jumper is between the audio output and the VGA port:
Reconnect the power and boot the machine again.
Modify and Upgrade the BIOS
Now that you are in service mode, you can continue with the modification.
Backup the existing BIOS
Open a command prompt as an administrator and change to the directory where you extracted the Intel ME System Tools. Then navigate to the subdirectory \Flash Programming Tool\WIN64 (or WIN32 if you are on 32-Bit installation).
Within that directly use the command:
fptw64.exe -A 0x580000 -L 0xA70000 -D backup.bin
Modify the BIOS and Inject the NVMe Driver
Next, open UEFI Tool and open the backup.bin file. Expand the sections as per the following screenshot:
Scroll to the bottom of this section and you should see an area that looks like this:
Next, right click on item with the name CspLibDxe (CD8462C-6864-40A3-A081-C8D35E82B920) and choose Insert After.
Choose the file NvmExpressDxe_Small.ffs that you just downloaded earlier and you will see it appear right after the CspLibDxe section:
Now go to File -> Save Image File and save the file in the same location as the flash tool as nvme.bin. Go back to your command prompt and run the command:
fptw64.exe -A 0x580000 -L 0xA70000 -F nvme.bin
Shut down the machine and remove the jumper from the FDO pins and move it back to the password reset pins if you took it from there.
The BIOS modification is complete and the machine now has NVMe support.
Install the PCI NVMe SSD
If you have not yet installed your SSD into the machine, you can do it now. I used the black PCI slot.
Optimise BIOS Settings
Now that you have written the new BIOS you have some choices to make. The very first thing you need to understand is that you must boot in UEFI mode if you want to use the NVMe drive.
Here are my boot settings:
And here is my Option Rom Policy:
Now you can install an operating system of your choice or clone one of your existing drives to your new NVMe drive and enjoy amazing performance. If you are cloning then you will also have make sure your cloned drive is using the GPT partition system instead of MBR.
The reason I like the Samsung Drives is the data migration software makes this very easy to do.
Conclusion
This modification will bring new life to your HP EliteDesk 800 G1, it’s brilliant value upgrade and easy to perform. Especially if you are upgrading from a mechanical hard drive. I was able to boot from cold to a Windows 10 Desktop in 14 seconds.
Again, here is the PCI adapter that I used from Amazon:
- 512Gb Samsung 970 EVOPlus
- NVMe to PCI Adapter (The adapter comes with a heatsink also)
If you try it, I would love to know how you got on and what your results were.
pop says
I Have the HP 800 G1 mini and the motherboard doesn’t have the service mode jumpers. SO how can I achieve this MOD?
Paulie says
Wow – you found this post quick. I only just pressed publish! I have no idea. I don’t have access to a mini.
Jim G says
@pop
I don’t believe the HP 800 G1 mini will work for this. I see no mention of a PCIe slot in the specs for it. The minis are almost like laptops really, no expansion other than ports really…
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04266271
pop says
The mini has slot for a pcie m.2 card and many people in the past have tried to boot NVME drive but failed. If this becomes possible with the help of this tutorial Mod then a lot of people who still own this model will be very happy.
Jim G says
@Paulie Well done! Very nice. Thanks for sharing. I’m surprised the Intel ME tools work for the 800 G1, where as they would not for the HP Elite 8300 series when you tried it.
Before you posted this, I was getting ready to ask you about rom IC types for this 800 G1 and for the 800 G2 series to do those machines with Linux. But this will be much easier.
Will try this later, hopefully it works good. 🙂 The G2 would be great as it has an i5 6500 cpu, similar to the 800 G3 which has an M.2 slot already on the board…
Jim G says
@pop have you tried a M.2 PCIe NVMe in it already?
looks like you should be able to use a Samsung 950 pro in that machine natively without any mods…
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktops-Archive-Read-Only/HP-ProDesk-600-G1-mini-doesn-t-detect-SSD-on-M-2-slot/td-p/4099900/page/2
As for the bios mod, in theory Paulie’s mods should work with any PCIe x4 or x16 slot. How that translates to PCIe NVMe? unknown.
Maybe the board itself only supports certain revisions of NVMe? Again, unknown.
I would try the Samsung 950 pro and see if that works first, and find out what revision of NVMe it is. Perhaps the mini only likes a specific version of NVMe.
Since the mod makes a backup of the bios, you may as well just try it on the mini, and revert back if things don’t work out.
Kaz says
Another fantastic guide. Very clear and concise ?? Your guide has been invaluable. Have done this on all my DELL 7020/9020 machines with great results.
One cautionary note is regarding the PCIE card. There are compatibility issues so make sure you buy the exact one shown here or make sure you are able to return it. I learnt the hard way when I randomly purchased a card based on delivery speed and to my dismay, it didn’t work. Had to return and order one that I know works.
Paulie says
Thanks Kaz! Got a bit of a formula going. I need to film videos for the HP 800 and the 8300 and then I will move on to the 800 G2
Duncan says
Very interesting, Paulie and thank you. I did this a while ago with my 3rd generation Intel motherboard, but I pushed the NVME driver into my rEFInd bootloader and it works perfectly ever since.
With your method, can you flash any UEFI BIOS?
Paulie says
There’s many motherboards that you can do it to and there are lots of generic guides. But it does seem to be slightly different per machine – which is why I like to write a separate guide for each one to remove doubt and give confidence to the reader. I found a lot of the generic guides to be difficult to follow.
Cosmo says
i think the 800 G2 supports nvme with stock bios
siliconbeaver says
after BIOS mod, can HP still run hard drive. i.e. mix of SSD and hard drive.
If possible, I would re-use hard drive for data storage.
I am going to try my old HP 8300/800 G1. If working, that’s would be cool.
Paulie says
Yep, you can still use any drives connected to the SATA ports for data.
Paulie says
I would advise you to seek specific instructions for your motherboard. This guide is specific to this machine.
lutra says
good day, I can confirm that it also works on the 800 g1 mini, the FDO jumper is on the right side when the audio is output, used drive Patriot 310 240gb nvme gen3, excuse my English, translator
Paulie says
Thanks for letting me know – I’ve added an image of the FDO jumper on the mini to the post.
pop says
@paulie this is a good news. i will find sometime to try this on my Mini soon.
Thanh Alex says
Thank you so much!
My HP 800 mini G1 is ready to boot from nvme ssd. it took me 10 minutes to edit and install bios.
Paulie says
Beautiful! Is it fast?
David says
I find it amazing how many people have used this mod to add nvme support. Afterall I was patient zero to use this technique.
john says
OMG!! I’M THE GUY STUCK ON A LINUX MACHINE AND HAVEN’T USED WINDOSE.. Z.. Z….. (OH, sorry lol) SINCE XP PRO WAS DROPPED!! Can’t imagine a good idea to try and run through WINE or that other program for windows progs on linux?
Any idea?
Paulie says
Check out my guide on the EliteDesk 8300 if you combine that guide with this one, it should give you everything you need to do it in Linux.
Miguel says
any other brand of pci nvme adapter can be used
Miguel says
you can use any brand of nvme pci adapter and nvme hard drive sorry for my english
Tom says
Paulie, nice article and video.
I’m a novice regarding computers (probably a major understatement), bought a used HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF a while back to run some software and equipment offline that is only supported by Windows 7, and after seeing your YouTube video, I am interested in adding NVMe soon.
Regarding the UEFI Tool 0.28. You have a link to a GitHub page for this and a “direct” download link (https://github.com/LongSoft/UEFITool/releases/download/0.28.0/UEFITool_0.28.0_win32.zip)
If I am interpreting this correctly(?), the direct download file seems to be for a Windows running 32 bit.
Two (2) questions:
1. My machine is 64 bit, so is the correct file for me to download the one listed below?
UEFITool_NE_A65_win64.zip. (6.83 MB Feb 25)
(https://github.com/LongSoft/UEFITool/releases/download/A65/UEFITool_NE_A65_win64.zip)
2. Any problems doing the NVMe update/upgrade for people running Windows 7 (Pro), and/or does it change any of the suggested hardware/software/driver or instructions?
Paulie says
Hi Tom,
Windows 7 does not support NVMe natively, so this won’t be such an easy upgrade for you. It is possible to add NVMe support, but for the sake of simplicity I would use a SATA SSD.
Paulie
Tom says
Paulie,
Thank you for taking the time reply and your advice. Very kind of you and I sincerely appreciate it.
Ironically, immediately after I bought the HP EliteDesk 800 G1, I did add a Samsung SATA SSD as the boot drive. I realize in hindsight that this was not particularly difficult, but I was proud of myself nonetheless:).
Ultimately, I may just stay with the SATA SSD solution as NVMe may not be worth the effort or possible headaches. I’ll have to research ways to add NVMe to Windows 7 and see if there are instructions/videos that are comprehensive and easy to follow for a person with my computer skill level.
If you are aware of one/any, feel free to point me in that direction and I’ll check them out.
Since you are an IT guy, do you have advice (in general) about the trustworthiness and “safety” (spyware, malware…) of sourcing software/drivers, etc. that are not downloaded directly from the hardware manufacturer/Intel/Microsoft/etc. websites; but rather, come from third party developer sources and websites such as GitHub, etc.? I guess to put it another way, even as a computer expert trained in the field, how do you personally decide whether you are comfortable using certain third party sourced software, sometimes required for example, in upgrades such as this NVMe one?
SK MD IMRAN says
Hi Paul,
I’m using HP motherboard 406 G1 MT, can please tell me what is the backup bios command “fptw64.exe -A 0x580000 -L 0xA70000 -D backup.bin” and restore command.
Thanks,
Imran
Zack H says
hi Paul,
I had previously done 3 mods (2 Dell Optiplex 9020, one 7010). Today I am trying to do a EliteDesk 800 G1 Tower (not sff or mini). The backup.bin shows slightly different structures:
^ UEFI image
Padding
^8c8ce578-*****
but inside it I do see the CD84562C….CspLibDxe.
The question is whether I could write this modified bios back or not? since they looked different from you screen capture.
In the other machines I had to update the BIOS first, which this article does not say.
Many thanks,
Zack
Paulie says
I would suggest that you update the BIOS first.
Zack H says
ok I watched your video and it shows the same bios file…I flashed the modified bios and then the computer has no network (it had it working even after the bios jumper)….but it turned out the Netgear router chose this rebooting moment to kill itself….now computer works fine with the modified bios (with a back up router), but have not bought the board and nvme to test it yet.
Miki says
hi paul
It would be possible to plug the adapter into another pci slot I have the black one busy with the graphics I hope for a prompt response thanks
Paulie says
You can put it in another slot. You might not get the same speeds though.
Miki says
would settle for it being faster than my kingston ssd which would surely be faster
jcardenasch says
Unfortunately, I am getting the following error when I open the backup file
parseFile: invalid data checksum 5Ah, should be AAh
Dan Lewis says
Hi Paul,
‘Just wanted to let you know that I finally fixed my Dell Precision T3610 by purchasing two new BIOS chips, flashing them from the backup.bin file, and soldering them onto the motherboard. It booted right away, and all I had to do was set the BIOS clock. Then I (carefully) proceeded to do the BIOS mod and this time without bricking the motherboard!
Thanks for all your help!
Dan
Paulie says
Wow – that would have made a great video – I bet you learned loads. Well done!
Fernando says
Hi Paul
I have tried your procedure with my HP Prodesk 400 G1 SFF, but I obtain an error with the command:
c:\>fptw64.exe -A 0x580000 -L 0x7A0000
Warning: The length of data to read from flash extends past the end
of flash memory!
Start Address: 0x00580000
Read Length: 10944512
Total Flash Size: 8388608KB
Do you want to truncate the data and continue? Y/ or q to quit : n
I did the backup with the command:
c:\>fptw64.exe -BIOS -D backup.bin. I add the NVME driver and I apparently everything is correct, but I don’t dare dump the bios, not knowing if I’m doing the right thing.
What range of values ??should I take for the -A and -L parameters in my Prodesk 400G1 SFF?
Thanks
Paulie says
No idea, I do not have a 400 to try it on. I would advise you not to use these instructions for a 400 as they are written specifically for this machine. Only consider moving forward if you have a hardware based flash writer so you can revert your changes safely. It is likely to be a different flash chip.
Fernando González Macías says
Hi Paul.
Where did you get the information to know that the parameters for fptw64.exe on the 800 G1, were -A 0x580000 -L 0x7A0000?
How can I know the equivalent parameters for the Prodesk 400 G1 SFF?
On the other hand, how can I know the correct version of Intel Management Engine System Tools for the 400 G1?
Tranks
Raf says
Hey Paulie, I hope you’re well mate.
Thank you very much for putting together this great tutorial. I’ve been trying for ages to implement this on my old but reliable G1, and this is only great news.
Just one thing to add: initially, I installed the NVMe adapter in the white PCI port and was only getting half of the speeds you reported. I did a bit of research and found that the white PCI is v.2 and the black one is v.3. So, I moved the adapter to the black port and now I’m achieving read and write speeds above 3Gb/s.
I hope this helps.
Again, thank you very much for such a great and detailed tutorial.
Cheers,
Raf
siliconbeaver says
It also works on HP 800 EliteDesk G1 tower.
OS install. this time, I did ghost disk-to-disk rather than clean-install.
Under original OS Windows 7, installed Microsoft hotfix Windows6.1-KB2990941-v3-x64.msu (V3 NOT V2), reboot to finish Microsoft hotfix install, then shut-down.
next, boot from ghost, image disk-to-disk. when done, shut-down then disconnected the original OS disk (SATA SSD, to boot easy and safe).
now boot, Windows 7 started and is up.
the G1 mod is similar to HP Elite 8300 mod but much easier. all completed under Windows. I think, G1 mod is best worth. More important, after BIOS mod, all CSM feature intact on G1, I can still boot an run those CSM-boot GPT tools. but on HP Elite 8300 after BIOS mod, those tools failed to work.
Thank Paul,
siliconbeaver says
Here is Crystal report
(again, the CrystalDiskInfo cannot detect the NVMe SSD. hence no CrystalDiskInfo. per shipping slip, it’s TOSHIBA 512 GB).
——————————————————————————
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): 3121.891 MB/s [ 2977.3 IOPS]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 2208.103 MB/s [ 2105.8 IOPS]
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 795.108 MB/s [ 194118.2 IOPS]
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 51.478 MB/s [ 12567.9 IOPS]
[Write]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 1145.681 MB/s [ 1092.6 IOPS]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 1119.156 MB/s [ 1067.3 IOPS]
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 737.064 MB/s [ 179947.3 IOPS]
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 266.784 MB/s [ 65132.8 IOPS]
Profile: Default
Test: 1 GiB (x5) [C: 9% (42/477GiB)]
Mode: [Admin]
Time: Measure 5 sec / Interval 5 sec
Date: 2023/05/06 17:28:44
OS: Windows 7 Professional SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
miki says
You could make a configuration to be able to activate the xmp profile in the bios for the memories that I can’t find any modified for that option and update to 2.78 and it doesn’t have that option, what a disaster my g.skill is no longer worth it, they stay at 1333, I didn’t do it old bios backup
Damián R. says
Good night,
I have hp 800 g1 SFF and after looking for options I found this thread.
Comment that it has worked perfectly for me cloning SSD to nvme in pcie x4 with m.2 to pcie adapter.
Outstanding performance of 1min 20s has passed to 30s of loading win10 and note that it is in legacy mode that is working, I have a PC like new and for several years of use.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Zach B says
hi Paulie,
I have one white (16x downgraded to 4x) and a 16x PCI slot. which one is faster? right now inside the white one.
siliconbeaver says
@Zach, your 1st choice is the black PCIe slot (v3).
If not, then 2nd choice is the 4X slot one.
@Navi says
Hi Paul, first I apologize for my English. I followed carefully what you posted, I managed to install a ssd samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB in Hp Prodesk 600 g1 mini, but before that I updated BIOS to the latest version and it works 10 out of 10. Thank you very much for your contribution!
Jim G. says
Hi All. Haven’t gotten to do the 800 G1, but I did just try this with an HP 600 G1 firmware version 2.78 using @Paulie ‘s steps and software files for the HP 800 G1, and it is working ok.
YMMV – I am including the read and write output at the end of the post for comparison… it is slightly different for the 600 G1.
The UEFI Tool 0.28 screens for the 600 G1 bin file look a little different too.
The intel image section is not there
vUEFI image
padding
>8C8CE578-8A3D-4F1C-9935-896185C32DD3 AppleFSO section
there are 4 of those volumes, in the first one (noted above) there is the entry that is the same as in the article
.
.
.
CD84562C-6864-40A3-A081-C8D35E82B920 File DXE driver CspLibDxe
I inserted the NVMe Express Dxe right after this one, saved, reflashed, etc. and it works fine
After the mod, I did have some problems with the NVMe drive not booting. The SATA drive was still connected. The PC was still seeing the SATA drive as Disk 0 and booting from it, instead of the NVMe disk.
Finally after a bit of tinkering, unplugging and powering off, the NVMe is booting first and the SATA drive is operating as a secondary disk now.
Windows Boot Manager has always been at the top of the list before and after the mod.
Before the mod, the NVMe drive was showing up as disk 1, and the original SATA boot drive as disk 0. Windows apparently latched on to something for disk ordering with both drives connected before the mod. It took disconnecting the SATA drive and making the NVMe boot by itself first, before the NVMe drive would show up as disk 0. After that, I reconnected the SATA drive and it works fine now as Disk 1 for secondary…
Thanks again, 2 machines done now.
flash read/write stats below:
-Jim
—–
read stats
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22621.1778]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\System32>cd “D:\HP600G1SSD\Intel-ME-System-Tools-v9.1-r7\Intel ME System Tools v9.1 r7\Flash Programming Tool\WIN64”
C:\Windows\System32>d:
D:\HP600G1SSD\Intel-ME-System-Tools-v9.1-r7\Intel ME System Tools v9.1 r7\Flash Programming Tool\WIN64>fptw64.exe -A 0x580000 -L 0xA70000 -D HP600G1.bin
Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 9.1.10.1000
Copyright (c) 2007 – 2014, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
Platform: Intel(R) Q87 Express Chipset
Reading HSFSTS register… Flash Descriptor: Valid
— Flash Devices Found —
W25Q128BV ID:0xEF4018 Size: 16384KB (131072Kb)
– Reading Flash [0xFF0000] 10688KB of 10688KB – 100% complete.
Writing flash contents to file “HP600G1.bin”…
Memory Dump Complete
FPT Operation Passed
—–
write stats
D:\HP600G1SSD\Intel-ME-System-Tools-v9.1-r7\Intel ME System Tools v9.1 r7\Flash Programming Tool\WIN64>fptw64.exe -A 0x580000 -L 0xA70000 -F HP600G1-NVME.bin
Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 9.1.10.1000
Copyright (c) 2007 – 2014, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
Platform: Intel(R) Q87 Express Chipset
Reading HSFSTS register… Flash Descriptor: Valid
— Flash Devices Found —
W25Q128BV ID:0xEF4018 Size: 16384KB (131072Kb)
PDR Region does not exist.
– Reading Flash [0xFF0000] 10688KB of 10688KB – 100% complete.
– Erasing Flash Block [0x5E1000] – 100% complete.
– Programming Flash [0x5E1000] 4KB of 4KB – 100% complete.
– Erasing Flash Block [0x90B000] – 100% complete.
– Programming Flash [0x90B000] 16KB of 16KB – 100% complete.
– Verifying Flash [0xFF0000] 10688KB of 10688KB – 100% complete.
RESULT: The data is identical.
FPT Operation Passed
D:\HP600G1SSD\Intel-ME-System-Tools-v9.1-r7\Intel ME System Tools v9.1 r7\Flash Programming Tool\WIN64>
amitri55 says
I do have HP EliteDesk 800 G1 Ultra-Slim (USDT). It has Mini PCIE which could be used for NVME disks with adapter.
Could someone point me to relevant FDO Pin header in this one?
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/320365i62810492894DB734?v=v2
Thanks in advance.
Fernando says
Hello Paul. I have a HP Prodesk 400 G1 SFF. I did the fptw64.exe -d BackupBIOS.bin, and I obtain a file. The -A 0x580000 -L 0xA7000 is not possible because I obtain error:
Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 9.1.10.1000
Copyright (c) 2007 – 2014, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
Platform: Intel(R) H81 Express Chipset
Reading HSFSTS register… Flash Descriptor: Valid
— Flash Devices Found —
W25Q64BV ID:0xEF4017 Size: 8192KB (65536Kb)
Warning: The length of data to read from flash extends past the end
of flash memory!
Start Address: 0x00580000
Read Length: 10944512
Total Flash Size: 8388608KB
Do you want to truncate the data and continue? Y/ or q to quit :
Any idea? Thanks in advance? I’m sure there is a solution but I don´t find.
Muhammad Ramzan says
Hi , Can I use 16 pin pci adopter for this
Hatem Fares says
is this work with any NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 ? or just with Samsung 970 EVOPlus
Paulie says
Any NVMe SSD. The Samsung is just the one I chose to use.
Miki says
A mi me sirvió un nvme wd green y un pcie sin marca ni nada y lo tengo en el pcie 2.0 blanco y me va a 1800 con eso me sobra antes iba a 500 de velocidad por que el pcie 3.0 negro lo uso para una gráfica Gtx 1050 lp y ni un problema va mucho más rapido que un ssd me conformo tb lo probé con un Riser en el puerto pcie x1 y funciona ? gracias
Kane says
No problems adding support on both a 600 G1 and 800 G1 desktop minis, which have very similar boards but with slightly different chipsets. The M.2 slot is beneath the fan — one must remove the CPU heatsink (3 screws), being careful as the fan cable runs through a slit in the shroud, and then the fan itself (4 screws). One must clean off and apply new thermal paste on the CPU when reinstalling the heatsink.
Physically, there is only one mounting post for a 2280 sized NVMe and the required screw is a M3x0.5mm — larger than the usual M.2 drive screws as it’s the same thread pitch as a 2.5″ drive screw. If one is using 2.5″ drive screws, make sure the head is smaller than the M.2 drive’s mounting pad; otherwise it may short out and damage the drive and/or the motherboard.
One aspect on these minis — the M.2 slot runs off the chipset, which is PCI-E 2.0 x4. There is no reason to get a super fast drive here as 1.6 GB/s is the maximum speed achievable, regardless if the drive is capable of greater throughput. I did experienced some incompatible drives — a Kioxia BG4 will not boot and a SK Hynix BC711 ran slow. Both are OEM drives, so they were designed for an intended market, not the general market. No issues using an affordable WD SN570 and PNY CS1030 instead, both of which maxed out the bus.
Hatem Fares says
Thank you Paulie. It works with UGREEN NVMe PCIe Adapter PCIE4.0 x4 and TEAMGROUP MP33 512GB PCIE Gen3x4 M.2 2280.
I installed it on white PCIE becuase Nvidia 1050Ti uses the black PCIE. and I got read 1700MB and write 1600MB.
now game load is more faster than SSD SATA.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
luyc says
Thank you Paulie! I have one HP 800G1 SFF. I did it too !
But I still have one HP 600G1 SFF . Is there still hope for it?
Paulie says
I’m sure it is possible – but I don’t want to say for sure as I do not have one to play with. So proceed at your own risk if you decide to try it!
Jim G. says
@luyc check my notes in the comments back in June. I got it to work with the 600 G1 and I posted the output results You will definitely want to back up your bios first, and make at least 2-3 backups to be careful.
luyc says
@Jim G Yes, I did as you said my HP 600G1 SFF worked right, 2 older computers with NVMe SSD (and Win7) That’s great!
Thank you very much
Jim G. says
@luyc Glad it worked. You will want to keep those backup files indefinitely. I have some concerns about the area that doesn’t get flashed.
I’m not sure what the difference is (if any) for the programmed locations between the 600 G1 and the 800 G1. The command I used below is exactly the same as the article.
D:\HP600G1SSD\Intel-ME-System-Tools-v9.1-r7\Intel ME System Tools v9.1 r7\Flash Programming Tool\WIN64>fptw64.exe -A 0x580000 -L 0xA70000 -D HP600G1.bin
For security reasons, you may want to do the free upgrade to win 10. It can be done by using the win 10 media creation tool to get the win 10 iso, and then extracting it and run the setup from inside win 7.
JJ says
Hi Paul
Many thanks for your post.
I have a HP EliteDesk 800 G1 TWR and attempting to do the upgrade using your blog.
I have an issue in that the image file is not the same as yours.
The first lines are
^ UEFI image
Padding
^8c8ce578-*****
The “CspLibDxe” is there.
I have the latest BIOS on my system dated 5/9/2017.
Also I am a bit concerned when I open the backup.bin file using the UEFI utility it says
“invalid data checksum 5Ah, should be AAh”
Any thoughts?
Paulie says
I would guess you downloaded the wrong version of UEFITool
JJ says
Hi Paul
Thanks for the reply.
Yes you could be right. The link in your blog points to the win32 version, “UEFITool_0.28.0_win32”.
I am struggling to find the version for win64. Could you provide a link for this?
Have tried “UEFITool_NE_A67_win64” but get errors when reading the file.
Thanks
Paulie says
Why not use use the linked version? It doesn’t matter if it is 32-Bit
JJ says
Hi Paul
Thanks for the reply.
I did use the version in you blog (UEFITool_0.28.0_win32) but am seeing a checksum error.
Also when it reads the file it does not appear as in your blog. It starts with
^ UEFI image
Padding
^8c8ce578-*****
Any other thoughts?
Thanks.
Jim G. says
@Paulie is this a flash rom manufacturer issue like we see with the linux method?
@JJ this sounds like a bad read into the bin file. I would suggest making a new bin file using the win32 version. I know the win32 works with the 600 G1 and it has been noted with the 8300 series there are several
flash rom types between sff and cmt tower models. Also make sure your command prompt is run as administrator too when reading and writing the bin file.
JJ says
Hi Jim
Many thanks for the reply.
Have tried the win32 version to read flash and am running cmd as admin. Afraid still get the same.
Thanks
Jim G. says
@JJ let’s see if @Paulie has any suggestions. Maybe the cmt uses a different Intel flash utility.
The other route you could try is the Linux instructions from the HP 8300 article. But you will have to know what kind of flash rom the bios chip is on your 800 G1 cmt main board for the flashrom utility to work correctly.
I would be super cautious with this method and you will definitely want to make a few bin file backups and keep them for quite awhile
jj says
Hi Jim & Paul
Thanks for the replies.
I assume it does not make any difference but I read the flash ROM without putting the PC in service mode.
Thought I would see if I could read the ROM and modify the file before writing to to ROM.
JJ says
Looking through the comments I see @jcardenasch had the same checksum error.
“parseFile: invalid data checksum 5Ah, should be AAh”
@jcardenasc, did you ever solve the problem?
JJ says
Hi Paulie
I have noticed on your Video instruction that when you read the back file using the UEFI utility you also have the same checksum error – “parseFile: invalid data checksum 5Ah, should be AAh”.
Should I just ignore this?
JJ says
oops! You have probably already worked it out but I meant the backup.bin file not back file. Sorry.
Anyway as I mentioned the video tutorial shows the same checksum error so should this be ignored?
Steve says
I’m trying this with an 800 g1 DM.
@JJ I too was getting a different output from the UEFITool than what Paulie’s screenshot is showing. But I decided as mine is a test machine I could afford to see what happens if I continue regardless. Funnily enough, no issues. It wrote the new nvme.bin image without any errors. I shutdown the computer, removed the jumper, and booted it back up. No problems. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have an NVME SSD to see if it works.
Jim G. says
@JJ @Steve I made a post last week that is still awaiting moderation, I guess because it had a web article link in it.
One needs to google the error message JJ provided.
“parseFile: invalid data checksum 5Ah, should be AAh”
You will find a winraid page showing that error is possibly due to how HP programmed the EEPROM itself originally at the factory.
In light of this error, if I were doing the mod, I would go with the flashrom instructions in the HP 8300 article as it uses linux and you should NOT get the error reading in the EEPROM with that util, provided it is done correctly. However, you do need to find out what flash rom type is on your 800 G1 mainboard. The flashrom util needs to know what kind of EEPROM chip for it to do the reading and writing correctly. As we noted with the HP 8300, there’s at least 3-4 different types of EEPROM chips HP used for the 8300 series, the same may apply with the 800 G1 of having more than one type of EEPROM chip.
Steve says
@Paulie I’ve just watched your Youtube video for this procedure, and the output from the UEFITool after opening backup.bin, is NOT the same as your above screenshot. In fact it matches what most of us here have been seeing. Could you please check and update this blog.
JJ says
Hi
Just completed the upgrade and all looking great.
A couple of points.
Desktop – HP Elitedesk 800 G1 Tower
Used – Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB
PCIe card – glotrends PCIe M.2 Adapter
FDO pin header are on the edge of the motherboard next to the white PCIe slot.
I ignored the parser checksum error – “parseFile: invalid data checksum 5Ah, should be AAh”
The UEFI Tool reads the bin file starting –
^ UEFI image
Padding
^8c8ce578-*****
These last two observations match Paulie’s You Tube video tutorial but are not the same as the blog.
To clone my HDD I used Macrium Reflect (trial version). As I cloned from a 512GB HDD to the Samsumg SSD which is 1TB.
the additional unallocated space is placed at the end of the recovery partition. To move the unallocated space next to the main
data volume and merge I used Minitool Partition Wizard
Hope this helps others who may wish to undertake the upgrade.
Paulie says
Thanks for the helping comments. Did you get a good performance boost?
jj says
Hi Paulie
The processor in my HP Elitedesk 800 G1 Tower is an Intel i7-4770. Previously I was using a HDD drive which was taking ages to boot up and settle down. The Crystal Disk Mark read test was of the order of 100MB/s.
I am now seeing a significant improvement – Read 3203 MB/s, Write 2036 MB/s. (Test SEQ1M Q8T1)
My Desktop now boots up amazing quickly (about 20sec) and is responsive. No longer do I have to wait for the disk to settle down. Previously the disk utilisation was running at 100% long after Windows has loaded.
Apps now run a lot faster.
So this has been a great improvement.
Thanks for doing this blog and sharing your knowledge.
Hope my experience will help others.
All the best,
JJ
Window user says
Hello , im stucked at last command where it showing parameter not recognize , so what to do , its hp elitedesk 800g1 sff
Steve says
Hmmm. Windows 10 recognises the nvme drive but the BIOS does not?
HP 800 g1 Mini. BIOS version 2.33
Steve says
Unplugged the SATA drive. The NVME drive is 2nd hand and must have already had Windows 10 installed. Boots up just fine. Thanks Paulie.
Steve says
HP EliteDesk 800 g1 DM (Mini)
As mentioned before, the Mini only has a PCI-E v2 for M.2, so speeds will be no faster than 1.5GB/s. But that is still many times faster than a SATA SSD.
It is possible to use an AHCI based M.2 SSD that can be booted from without this mod, but the largest drive I found is 512GB (Samsung MZHPV512HDGL). This also gives 1.5GB/s. But this mod is worth it just for a greater range and capacities of M.2 SSD’s that you can boot from.
Steve says
Added a Crucial P3 1TB, modified the BIOS as per this blog, installed Debian Linux (UEFI), and getting a boot speed from power on to desktop in 15 seconds. Benchmarked the drive at 1.6GB/s.
800 g1 Desktop Mini
i7 4790T 2.7GHz
16GB 1600Hz RAM
Thanks for sharing this Paulie!
Sumit says
Hello i have successfully booted with window 10 nvme and im getting 1.6GBps speed in pcie 3.0 wired x4 but here is something i have to ask , why the boot image of window 10 22h2 is little flat , how to fix that and there is a hard drive partition which is of 49mb what to do with that it is mbr , i haven’t cloned my hdd to ssd because there is an error was showing during hdd cloning through acronis , and in crucial drive before booting with usb i set 5GB for over provisioning but its now 500mb when im clearly it then it said failed so how to fix that too ,
? thank you for this good tutorial , I hope you will make more of amazing tutorial for older pc , just like installing window 11 in unsupported hardware , im waiting for it , have a nice day
Alex says
HP 800 G1 min it turned out, but you need to take NVMe M2 and install from 0 as UEFI – then the loading point will appear and it will be possible to load from M2. Thank you very much!
Tub says
The operation failed on my HP EliteDesk 800 G1 TWR. I performed the commands successfully but the “computer setup” bios menu became a black screen. Fortunately, Windows is still booting and I was able to restore backup.bin. So “computer setup” came back.
Version 2.15.1236. Copyright (C) 2013 American Megatrends, Inc.
32768 MB
Product Name HP EliteDesk 800 G1 TWR
BIOS Version & Date L01 v02.71 05/09/2017
ME Firmware version 9.0.31.1487
Craig says
OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! HP 800 G1 MINI!! It worked perfectly the exact same steps, the only difference was my UEFI tool screen did not look the “exact same way” it didn’t list the “Intel” or any other information like yours did but I found the same line of code “CD8462C-6864-40A3-A081-C8D35E82B920” hit the install after write the new bios and bam it worked beautifully
qdjd2000 says
Tested it’s working.
HP Elitedesk 800 G1 DM, Intel nvme 256GB. After inserting nvme driver, booted from the nvme drive.
David says
OMG…. I spent ages trying to get my EliteDesk 800 mini to boot off a 1tb Samsung 870, it would load windows installer then format everything but just sit there not booting.
Did some google searches and found this article… you sir are amazing !
Now booting in about 10 seconds.
Was a bit squeaky doing it as the UEFI said checksum error but was brave and ignored the warning , rebuilt the bios and amazed as it works just great.
Might go and buy a 2tb just as a treat.
Jim G. says
@Dave
Thanks. Glad it worked for you, easy enough. 🙂
It is good to have old small usb sticks laying around. They are excellent for utility boot disks. Sometimes when someone doesn’t want their old one anymore because it is ‘too small’, I try to get them. And amazon has them cheap enough as a 5pk for 16gb too.
Instead of a usb stick, I’d go with a Samsung T7 Shield or something of a USB NVMe external. They do cost more, but they are are MUCH faster. 3 words: black friday sales. I just picked up a USB 3.1 Gen 2 x4 PCIe card and the Samsung T7 shield flies at 850MB/sec for an external. Pair that with the modded NVMe boot and one really- is off to the races. Even with the standard USB 3.x ports, it can get up to 450MB/sec which still runs circles around usb sticks…
—–
@Paulie
Any insight on this from your poweredge article? Just stumbled upon it today while doing some reading…
Now I am trying to figure out how to do CLOVER to boot BIOS to NVMe. It’s kind of an expansion on what you did with the poweredge.
Been reeding some articles and it seems this CAN work. Where the clover boot loader can get older BIOS or UEFI machines to boot NVMe, without modifying the bios firmware. But I have yet to figure out how to properly build the Clover boot ISO to do it. Boot Disk Utility did not work and a pre made ISO of Clover just hang on my test machine.
If I can get this to work, it should basically be universal?! I was going to try an HP 6200 and some other older machines to where this kind of thing is probably a much better solution vs. getting brave with undocumented firmware mods.
Cheers.
Rajesh Shanmugam says
Any way to do pcie bifurcation so i can install 2 nvme in one pcie x16 slot ?
Paulie says
Nope. I believe HighPoint sell a NVMe adapter that makes this possible, but it’s very expensive.
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
QB says
Paul, you are a genius! I followed your instructions and was able to get the E800G1 SFF to boot off the PCIE-NVMe disk. Now the PC shows improved performance and we can get rid of the slower SATA drives. Thank you for this article!
You sir, are a scholar and a gentleman 🙂
cheers!
QB
Paulie says
Thank you! I do enjoy reading all of the success stories
Jim G. says
Sorry wasn’t trying to steal @Paulie’s thunder. @Dave @David 2 Daves and I’m getting confused between different posts with posters with similar names. 🙂 whoops.
Paulie says
Don’t worry Jim – I don’t have much thunder!
Erhard Falkenberg says
Thank you so much for this excellent tutorial.
Everthing works just fine.
Time for ‘fast’ computing…..
Paulie says
Pleasure – glad it helped you out.
Ozsvárt Ottó says
Thanks for your work!
800 G1 DM works perfectly with Windows 11, Kingston NVME ssd.
Kanga says
OK, all good until the final flash bin. It does not pass and asks if I wish to overwrite bin file, answer yes or no. Which selection ?
Kanga says
— Flash Devices Found —
N25Q128 ID{0x20BA18 Size 16384KB (131072Kb)
(backup.bin) file already exists
Do you wnat to overite file? Y/N or q to quit:
Not game to proceed, any advice welcome
Kanga says
If You get message to overwrite file, answer yes (y) and I now have nvme speeds.
Thanks for the comprehensive video Paulie.
Bob says
Paul,
Recently tried this up date on my HP Elite Desk 800 G1 TWR and worked fine until I tried to flash the bios and I got the following: Error 280 : Failed to disable write protection for the bios space!