*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 2*

So I have had some progress. I have the proper heat sink for the new video card. I’ve managed to cut a new vent hole for the new fan. I upgraded the heat sink to a double pipe to accommodate the new cpu. I decided instead of soldering the power and ground to some seriously small pins for the new fan, I ordered a slimline sata cable extension. I can just solder the power and ground to the extension cable and just utilize the plug to connect to the mobo. I also purchased the proper bracket for the back of the video card so I didn’t have to modify the original one. The video card heat sink came with heat pipes running to a rad and the fan had heat pipes running to the wrong heat sink. I managed to remove the heat sink from the rad and the fan from the wrong heat sink and mate the two together. It seem like things are coming together pretty good. I won’t be able to do any testing until the slimline connector extension arrives.
Thought I’d drop an update. This virus has slowed shipments. I had to wait 2 months for the proper heat sink to show up.
I did end up having to cut a post for the keyboard off. The fan heat pipe was in the way. Was thinking about using a couple old cpu rads to make a cover for the DVD opening. Seems like it will fit ok but I worry about it getting damaged



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Need help folks. I purchased a 2nd 8740w laptop. I wanted the K5100 4gb video card it has as I am a flight simmer. That works fine, but this is a dual core machine. It does have the 1.60 bios, I assume it's the latest. I know that bios allow my quad core 8740 to use up to 32gb of ram. So I assumed that this means the dual core can now use 2 8gb sticks for a total of 16gb.

But when I put 2 sticks of 8gb in Windows will not boot. Bios will boot up after a pause, but Windows starts to load and the screen dims and won't boot. These 2 sticks work fine in the quad core 8740w.

So it appears that the latest bios only allowed the quad core to expand up to 32gb, but doesn't allow the dual core machines to use 16gb.

Can anyone confirm that the dual cores simply cannot use 16gb and are stuck at 8 max even with the 1.y0 bios?.
Thanks for any help. I am hoping someone will say they can use 16gb, you just need to do this or that in the bios settings or reload Windows or something.

 

I have 16 gig ( 2 8 gig sticks) in my dual core mobo. I’m pretty sure the bios is updated to the latest and greatest. I had it booting windows and Mac OS high Sierra before I started modding the hardware. Can’t boot it yet to check. Try reseating your ram



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Hi. thanks for the reply. I have reseated over and over. There seem to be so many darn variables. I now read that some dual core models have i7 cpu's in them, so this could also be why some might work. Mine is the 560M i5. 2.66 ghz. Can you tell me your dual core specs? Cpu, Ram specs and such. This is so frustrating. The ram sticks are definitely good, but then again, I only tried one at a time in my quad core, not both at the same time in slots 1 and 2. So I guess I am not sure yet as to that they are for sure compatible but the stick I purchased was sold as the same spec as my Crucial brand, comatible with the crucial part number in a dual channel setup. I have my original 2 4gb chips in the first 2 slots, and just an 8gb chip alone in the 2nd bottom chip slot. It is working fine with 16 gigs of ram and both chips work. What I can do is move my 4 gb chip to the other slot on the bottom and put my two 8 gb chips in 1 and 2 to make sure they are working in dual channel mode. You see, I don't know eitrher how to get at the slot 3 that is below the keyboard in my quad 8740. Can you tell me what all I have to remove to get a chip in that 2nd slot below the keyboard? It looks like I may have to remove the vid card cooler or the palm rest cover or something.

Thanks for any help.

 

Did you mean K5100M 8GB, K4100M 4GB, K5000M 4GB, or what?

Did you ever solve your RAM mystery?

 

Hi. The vid card is the K3100 4gb. Cpu is the 560m No, no luck. Both ram chips work in my quad core. I just sent my quad core off to someone I found on Ebay to have a 4gb vid card put in it and to add my two ram sticks to the 2 empty slots in it to make 24gb of ram. So I'll need to buy a couple more sticks of ram to try and get this dual core at 16gb, but that's a lot of money to spend just to find out it can't use it.

By the way, anyone here wanting upgrades done and don't want to try it themselves just post a message and I will put you in contact with this friend. I'll report back when I get my quad core back with it's new life.

But yeah, I would like to figure out why this dual core won't use the 2 8gb sticks. I hope it's not that it is not the right kind of dual core, not being an i7 cpu but an i5 560m. Or maybe the bios and I hear we cannot go back to previous bios version once 1.60 was installed.

And help figuring out this mystery would be great and maybe help others.

 

That is very strange. My original processor was an i5-520m. I upgraded the the ram to 16g with no issues. I upgraded the cpu to an i7-920xm and the video card to an HD 7970m with an added fan. I’m waiting on a new cord to power the second fan so I haven’t booted it since the chip and card upgrade but I had no issues after originally upgrading the ram with the original cpu and M7820.
I’m sure the bios was upgraded to the latest version too.

 

Hi. Does your machine just have 2 memory slots or 4?. I heard that some dual cores came with 4 slots or some put dual core in 4 slot boards.

Can you give me the ram chip specs you are using?. Maybe the Crucial chip I have works in the quad core but not the dual core boards.

In my case, the bios would boot, Windows screen would come up, start to load, then it would sim, then shut down or the repair screen would come up. If I clicked on repair it would start to load Windows files and go dim or shut down again.

Now, there are some circumstances that may mean something.
I had the SSD drive in this dual core in my quad core previously. I didn't want to have to reload Windows when I got my dual core, so I just put the SSD drive from quad core to 2 core. Windows booted, had to do some updating I guess for the CPU, and I had to load new vid drivers from the old 2800 to the k3100. The machine is running just fine but at first I had a couple conflicts with sound and such.

I tried to do a system file checker and it said it couldn't fix some issues, even running it in safe mode. So I assume Win 7 may still have some files that originally loaded up when Windows was installed on the quad core.

So that might be a factor. It kills me because I could have checked this easily. All I would have needed to do is just boot to my USB stick with win 7 on it and act as if I want a new install and see if it would load files as if I were going to do the install. If I got that far and let me get to the point where I could format my drive for the new install I would then know that the problem is because this Windows setup was originally done on the quad core and it may have files that won't allow these chips for some reason. I sent my chips off with the quad core now and can't do that test but it would have told me if a fresh install could have been done.

Thanks for any help

 

Wow, I’m so sorry. I totally got confused. I only have the two memory slots but I just realized I only have two 4 gig sticks. I also have an 8470 and it has the 2 8 gig sticks. I’m sorry to have wasted your time and created more confusion. If you manage to get it figured out I would be very interested in knowing if I can even upgrade to 16 as well. I swear to god I thought both laptops had 16 gig. My bad.


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Maybe you can temporarily try the two 8GB sticks in the two-slot machine to see if they work. You may already know that the process is easy.