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HP Elitebook 2560P Owner's Lounge [version 2.0]


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BIOS - Upgrade or not?

 

Hi,

I have F28 on my new (well, more or less) elitebook 2560p now and wonder if it's worth upgrading it. I read through the version history and there's some stuff that sounds like it mitght be useful but on the other hand everything seems to run fine at the moment. Will install 2x8 GB 1600 MHz L DIMMs soon, are there any improvements for RAM frequencies or low voltage DIMMs they forgot to mention?

 

 

@Nilz: Old CPUs sometimes sell for ridiculous prices, don't know why. If you take the 150 you paid for the 2560p (awesome price, paid 200 for a well used one) and add 200 you're in the region of a 2570p which will not only be newer but faster, too.

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Hi Oliver,

 

I have upgraded the BIOS to the newest version to get SATA3 working since I am using an ssd. This was before I upgraded my ram (16 GB DDR3L 1600 as well) but the new ram runs only at 1333mhz iirc, at least not 1600. And I believe it runs on 1.5v as well. I'd advise not to upgrade the BIOS if everything is working as is.

 

And agreed, I wasn't ever going to spend that much on a CPU. Luckily someone offered the 2760QM of their old laptop that was still working. I asked if he wanted to trade his CPU for my 2640M so he'd still have a working laptop at hand and he actually agreed! So I now have a true quadcore CPU for the price of a post stamp :) .  I also found that the laptop doesn't actually throttle the cpu to 35 watts like other users have stated. The result however is that the cpu reaches 90°C (194°F) during a torture test.

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Thanks Nilz,
never change a running system, I think I'm fine with my F28, maybe I will upgrade a SSD (even then F28 should be good since I can't find any other infos in the version history, except some problem not booting form SSD) or sell the whole thing again. The memory was so damn cheap that I would make close to no loss in this case. Anyway those 1600 MHz RAMs should run at 1600 and with 1,35V in that model, at least they are officially supported by HP. It even looks like they switch over to DDR3L since the regular DDR3 Modules were discontinued in 2013.

 

And for your WiFi question: Do yourself a favour and buy a USB Dongle or something like that, I mean all this stuff with internal antennas sucks! Especially when it's in a metal case...even my Smartphones WiFi is lightyears ahead. Preferrably something with a RP-SMA connector (or DIY something, shouldn't be a problem as far as I've looked into this thing everything has regular connector). I have one of those bloody cheap TP-Link TLWN722N, 15 Euro with a good 8 dbi antenna, only downside: no 802.11a but it allows prosmicious mode, packet injection and all those funny things.

Edited by oliverh
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  • 2 months later...

For my 2560p with i7 2620 (Windows 10), which I got very cheap  I have run fan_30pct and it worked better than without it

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/hp-2510p-owners-lounge.352887/page-33#post5638409 (a big thank you to the programmer!)

But the noise of the fan is very annoying, even if the speed is low. So I have simply removed the fan for the present. The door is removed as well the dvd-tray. The 2560p is on a docking station and the temps are ok (surfing about 60 degrees Celsius and the other temps about 50 degrees Celsius)
Rightmark rpm panel to set the minimum cores to 5%.

Hi Shikyo
"cut out hole on service door under fan and add black steel honeycomb mesh (never done, need right tools first)

find a cooling solution, either one short server heatsink or just a big piece of copper to fit on top of the heatsink.

possibly tall enough to touch service door to use it as well." Are you happy with the effect?

 

" Expresscard 34 to USB 3.0x2 card" Which one did you buy?

 

Hi Andrew479

"Basically the idea is this:

32x32x2.5mm copper shims on the heatsink to enhance its heat soak abilities

200x100x0.5mm copper mesh to help spread the heat across lower area near the service door - it's quite convenient as you can thermally join the laptop base with it.

Holes in service door in fan and optical bay area - should help the system breathe & direct the cool air through the hot mesh which in turn improves the cooling by a lot." Have you got any experience with it now? I wondered to install a Fischer profile like http://de.farnell.com/fischer-elektronik/sk-81-75-sa/strangk-hlk-rper-100mmx75mmx15mm/dp/1211716 in the DVD tray and to use a heatpipe to connect it to the present copper on the cpu. But I don't have a clue how to do it.

Edited by schdrag
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  • 1 year later...

My experience with 2560p and 2960xm

 

I had a 2960xm for bargain price (with 4x8gb of ddr3) and as I had a spare 2560p i decided to buy it and test the cpu on this laptop.

I had in consequence the laptop with 16gb ddr3 and this i7 2960xm with is the top lane of the sandy-bridge series. I was pretty happy before testing the cpu :

1) i still have also a 2570p with a i7 3820qm and the performances are asto-ni-shing. The 3820qm runs almost at max turbo speed and the maximum temp is pretty high (90-95°C) but it doesnt throttle even with 4 core activated and 100% load (but no gpu load). I lost only 200mhz from max turbo but seems this is due to windows because one time I remove 95% of background processes and I lose only 100mhz. so insteat of 3.5ghz for 4 core the 3820 was at 3.4ghz. I never tested it with 4 cores and full gpu load because I don't game or whatever using gpu. also the 2570p was running on 60w charger. sweet ?

So I decided to test this 55w cpu on the 2560p. I swapped the old i7 2520m, booting the laptop with no problem, and quickly arrived on windows. here comes the hassle. first, running benchmarks, I was at 14 seconds on throttlestop. this was pretty high as the 3820qm is at 9seconds best. according to benchmarks on the internet the 2960xm should be between 8 and 10 seconds because it is older gen but runs at higher freqs than the 3820qm so the performance should be roughly equivalent. this means that the heatsink was not enough. I had the 60w charger and also I say obviously it was not enought.

also compared to the 2520m i7 cpu, the 2960xm was quicker but not as much  considering the price of the updrage (not alot but for a such old cpu as this 2960xm normally this old cpu should be everywhere at 20 to 30 bucks).

now, for the temperatures. this IS what I mostly hated. even with core parking, the 2560p was constantly at 70°C at idle. it was impossible to hold comfortably. the 2570p/3820qm is at 60°C. I tried almost everything at least without mooding. I had to keep the fans at higher speed to keep the laptop somewhat cool (= noise).

 

Conclusion

From a mooding perspective, it is funny to have a 2960xm is a such small laptop as the 2560p. this is something never hp (even hp) or any other manufacturer would consider. the smallest laptop with a 2960xm i saw was I think a clevo at 13" but this was a custom build and i am not even really sure it was a 2960xm, i just can roughly remember (please confirm).  but the very high temps, low performance and noise makes this upgrade somewhat complicated. also, need to buy a much more powerful charger (maybe 80w will be good, my experience showed that the 2560p/2570p don't consume a lot more than 20w without cpu). also some fan mooding or some under coller pad to put under the laptop, unfortunately I don't have this but this would male the laptop possible to hold for extended time and gain 5°C (i think).

 

Hope someone can confirm my experience, even if I agree  that 1/ getting a 2960xm is not easy and 2/ buying this for a such old laptop just for testing is complicated, but hey, it is just mood/hack/geek testing !

 

 

Edit : it seems that for the 2570p one reason it is so cool with the quadcore was the thermal paste. I used a very advanced thermal paste (silver coumpound) but for the 2560p + 2960xm I used a cheap thermal paste. I will try to repaste with a good thermal paste, I should gain easily 10°C so idling at 60°C instead of 70°C by my rought estimations with the 2570p and another Dell laptop. My rought estimations tells me also that in load the 2560p will still not be able to make the XM CPU run a full spead because of the AC adapter, size of heatsink and HP's bios 40 watts limitation.

Edited by juandante
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On 16/08/2016 at 5:31 PM, schdrag said:

For my 2560p with i7 2620 (Windows 10), which I got very cheap  I have run fan_30pct and it worked better than without it

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/hp-2510p-owners-lounge.352887/page-33#post5638409 (a big thank you to the programmer!)

But the noise of the fan is very annoying, even if the speed is low. So I have simply removed the fan for the present. The door is removed as well the dvd-tray. The 2560p is on a docking station and the temps are ok (surfing about 60 degrees Celsius and the other temps about 50 degrees Celsius)
Rightmark rpm panel to set the minimum cores to 5%.

Hi Shikyo
"cut out hole on service door under fan and add black steel honeycomb mesh (never done, need right tools first)

find a cooling solution, either one short server heatsink or just a big piece of copper to fit on top of the heatsink.

possibly tall enough to touch service door to use it as well." Are you happy with the effect?

 

" Expresscard 34 to USB 3.0x2 card" Which one did you buy?

 

Hi Andrew479

"Basically the idea is this:

32x32x2.5mm copper shims on the heatsink to enhance its heat soak abilities

200x100x0.5mm copper mesh to help spread the heat across lower area near the service door - it's quite convenient as you can thermally join the laptop base with it.

Holes in service door in fan and optical bay area - should help the system breathe & direct the cool air through the hot mesh which in turn improves the cooling by a lot." Have you got any experience with it now? I wondered to install a Fischer profile like http://de.farnell.com/fischer-elektronik/sk-81-75-sa/strangk-hlk-rper-100mmx75mmx15mm/dp/1211716 in the DVD tray and to use a heatpipe to connect it to the present copper on the cpu. But I don't have a clue how to do it.

How can you run without no fan with a 2520m ? I have this same CPU and if I am iddling (or watching some film, reading a pdf) it will be at 60°C without fan but the least activity I start it goes up to 90°C and stays here (if no fan). 

 

The 2560p heatsink is very small and it was obviously not made for any sort of passive cooling (like a desktop heatsink, they can hold the cpu cool with no fan for a more extended amount of time).

 

Also, just download HPFanControl to control the fan, no need for dst or whatever. You will have a background process but it will work and be good.

Edited by juandante
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  • 4 months later...
Hello. My 2560p does not boot from HDD installed in optical drive bay. Bios F66.
If I boot from USB and select boot from HDD in bootloader menu, then windows from HDD boot up.
I do not have the main hdd, since I lost the sata adapter
Edited by Valera Master
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  • 4 weeks later...

The HP BIOS Configuration Utility HP BCUallows to set the boot device manually:
My boot ssd is in a 2.5 inch dvd-bay (very cheap aliexpress bay, no problems yet)

Upgrade Bay Hard Drive boot
    Disable
    *Enable

Edited by schdrag
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On 7/29/2018 at 8:39 AM, juandante said:

The 2560p heatsink is very small and it was obviously not made for any sort of passive cooling (like a desktop heatsink, they can hold the cpu cool with no fan for a more extended amount of time).

works fine for quite some time with the help of Notebook Fan Control, where my profile allows passive cooling up to 78 degrees Celsius (no problem surfing the web, office etc.). Very rarely on youtube the fan is on for some seconds.
The internal 2.5 space is empty and the ssd is in a 2.5 inch dvd bay.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 years later...
On 9/12/2012 at 6:51 AM, Tech Inferno Fan said:

 

Welcome to the 2560P Owner's Lounge! A place to liase with other owners and share useful tips/tricks/mods to get the most satisfying user experience from this exceptional ultraportable notebook.

Release date: 9 May 2011
Ffwdj36.jpg

 

VOHwsLq.jpg
gejHiwv.jpg 3j73hrj.jpg



Reviews/Comparisons: laptopmag, NBR, pcworld. 

72353d1320573574-hp-elitebook-2560p-owne
 

Hidden Content

 

Hidden Content

 
  • HP 2560P vs Lenovo X220 (butwhyme)
  • HP 2560P vs Lenovo X220 vs other ultraportables/ultrabooks (spoiler below - Tech Inferno Fan)
  • HP 2560P vs 2530P (butwhyme)
  • HP 2560P vs 2540P vs 2530P vs 2510P (spoiler below - Tech Inferno Fan)

Customized 2560P systems (ordered by approx additional expense spent)
 

Owner
Storage
Other Mods
2.5" sata bay
sata optical bay/2.5" caddy
External
Tech Inferno Fan ssd: 128GB MDS Bullet Proof
hdd: 500GB/newmodeus
- DC_optimized, GTX560Ti DIY eGPU
SimoxTav ssd: ???
hdd: 250GB/ebay
- i7-2630QM, GTX560Ti DIY eGPU, 8GB RAM
vnwhite ssd: 256MB Crucial C300
hdd: 750GB/ebay
- DC_optimized, i7-2820QM, 6300AGN, 8GB 1866MHz RAM


RED - highest performance setup | GREEN - lowest power consumption drive setup (2.5" SSD see here). 

OS, drivers and disassembly 

Drivers, Manuals, Maintenance And Service Guide, Media Services Library with disassembly videos.
Popular HP Notebook Software Collection : one-stop location for the latest versions of popular HP notebook sw.
Win7 OEM sources : the additional HP installation contents added to a Win7 CD.
HP/Compaq Desktop Wallpapers : A compilation of stock wallpapers from the HP and Compaq notebook range
HP DMIFIT 118 Utility: change DMI details, eg: model number, serial, password. Used to tattoo your system in case you replace the systemboard. Usually done by a HP technican.

Storage

Second hotswappable 9.5mm 2.5" HDD/SSD via optical drive bay. 2560P examples: ebay (SimoxTav) or newmodeus. 
e-sata/usb cable or enclosure, useful for external e-sata storage. Eg: convert optical drive to be external unit

Expansion

USB 3.0: add a US$15-delivered USB 3.0 expresscard.
DIY eGPU: to attach a desktop videocard via expressport. Provides HDMI/DVI and accelerated graphics. 
WWAN/WIFI card whitelist: the WWAN/WIFI cards the 2560P bios will bootup with.
Ivy Bridge CPU retrofit for 2560P?: proposed method to get ME 8.x firmware onto a 2560P for Ivy Bridge CPU support.

Tweaks

Flashing F.01 bios to a 2560P : to regain 1866Mhz RAM support removed in subsequent versions. Includes details on other hacks.
F.28 or newer BIOS removes RAM frequency limit. Can use 1866Mhz RAM at full speed.
HPFancontrol: set custom (quieter) fan profile confimed to work on a 2560P by pejx
Performance: running 1600, 1866 or 2133Mhz DDR3 RAM in a 2560p : gain up to 54%/10% single-channel/dual-channel HD3000 performance.
DC_optimized: optimize the system to maximize battery life, idling at 4.7-5.2W!! Done with more sophistication by vnwhite &.
Enabling third-button mouse click scrolling with touchstyk
Dual-channel RAM: increases WEI RAM and video (1x4GB vs 2x4GB)
How to enable Upgrade Bay Hard Drive boot: so can hit F9 at bios screen then boot off an optical bay caddy HDD or SSD.
Disconnect upgrade bay caddy diagnostic pin: allows the system to fully shutdown rather than hang with a black screen.

Misc

Retrofitting webcam to non-webcam models : in case you have a non-webcam model.
Backlit keyboard mod: HP Folio 13 backlit keyboard retrofit??
EliteBook NightLight mod: increase the brightness/spread of the nightlight by removing the diffuser.
Obtaining an expresscard blank: if lost or damaged yours. Replacement comes with an optical drive weight saver. 
FAQ about optical drive space saver: can it's faceplate be used on other ODDs or a caddy? Answer: no/maybe. 

Schematic - Inventec_Styx_MV.pdf (aka HP Elitebook 2560P). The block diagram summary is below:

STYX.png

Hi everyone,

I know this is an old post but I would be interested in some of the mods listed here for the HP Elitebook 2560p. Particularly the tweaks in the RAM speed and flashing the Bios. Is the bios F.0.1 a modified version? My laptop is running Bios Version F.50 at the moment, I have clicked in the links regarding the information listed here but I guess the info is too old and the links shows an invalid URL.

I am also interested in any information how to upgrade the WIFI and Bluetooth on this laptop.  If any one reading this that could be point me into the right direction regarding these mods it would be much appreciated. 

Edited by spiderthink
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  • 1 year later...

 

Hi guys, I'm sorry to write in such an old topic, but there are no professional hp 2560p specialists anywhere else on the Internet.
 

I bought an i7 2860qm for hp 2560p, after installing it inside, the bios does not even boot, caps lock flashes five times, the screen is black, and the cooling system is running at full capacity.

Used standard 19.5V (3.33A) 65W power supply. Windows 10/x64 - ssd (mbr). the latest BIOS version is A.66

 

The battery is removed from the laptop and is powered only from the mains.


I tried to reset the bios before replacing the processor using the motherboard battery. it was reset, but the laptop never turned on.

 

Tell me, what could be wrong? The I5 2540m works perfectly.

 

p.s. sorry for the mistakes in my English, I am writing through an online translator)
 

Edited by defonmin
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