Help Upgrading presario c500 series notebook - Page 13

ShadowFox,

 

 Can you suggest a decent way to test the speed of the existing and new wifi card (if I can get it to work)?

 

 I was going to do it by seeing how long it took the current card to download 5 pictures from my email account and then see if the new card would download the same 5 any faster. Not sure if that is very scientific so any other suggestions will be appreciated.

 

 Also I am hoping that the Intel driver that fast dave supplied a link to will be the missing piece to make this work.

 

 Either way it is not a lot of work to get to the card, so if I cannot get it to work I will leave the three wire rig in and swap the card back to the original.

 

Thanks,

 

 John

c500 fan & OShadowFoxO -

I've also found the following posting that might be of interest if the suggested HP Austin TX SoftPaq Upgrade (sp38054) doesn't do the trick.

LINK to MODIFIED BIOS:
http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Presario-C502TU-upgrade-to-4965AGN

BUT - with that noted, I'm REALLY hoping that the HP SoftPaq does the trick.

c500 fan - I believe that I have the same dilemma as you.

I see/read that you purchased a 4965 wi-fi card that came out of a dv6000 - so it's HP Specific; and I too would have probably chosen that route if I was as quick on the trigger as you are ;-)

BUT - what my "dilemma" is that when you look at the specs of the Intel 4065 wi-fi card on Intel's webpage, Intel says/states that the 4065 wi-fi card supports Intel CPU Chipsets, utilizing INTEL written drivers.....
:
LINK to 4965 Specs: http://www.intel.com/products/wireless/wireless_n/overview.htm

So, to clarify, it's kind of a gamble as to which will work - a HP Specific 4965 using HP SoftPaq Drivers, OR a "Generic" 4965 using INTEL Drivers.

I hope that I am making myself clear -

Hope that helps -
fast_dave

Fast_dave,

 

 Thanks for the further info, I found a few contradicting statements and theories while researching this on line but nothing I thought was conclusive nor did I find anyone who had done this, which is why I bit the bullet and purchased the HP version, so I could see if it works.

 

 If it does not work then I can report back and maybe try the generic version.

 

 We are only talking about $7 parts here so I am up for trying both if required. As I said in my previous post the hard part to fit is the three antenna's, once they are in swapping the wifi cards is easy.

 

 Also remember I have a different motherboard and a little known about Bios version so it might take a few attempts to see if it can be done.

 

 I am looking forward to trying it anyway, anything to keep improving/updating my C500!!

 

 Cheers,

 

 John

Hey guys,

c500 fan: A better test is local network transfers instead of internet transfers. Depending on your internet speed, you likely won't notice any speed difference over wireless. Either your net speed will be too low to max out the wireless, or the wireless will not be able to handle the max speed your net can pull.

I have a 50 Mbit downstream connection at my house, and there's really no download speed difference from the net whether using G or N. Of course, the reason is that Wireless G has a theoretical max of 54 Mbit and N a theoretical max of 300 Mbit. In either case, the 50 Mbit downstream net connection is slower than either wireless standard, if only just.

An internal wired network, on the hand, will have 100 Mbit to 1 Gbit across several links (depending on your wired setup). If you are going to notice a speed difference between G and N, it will be on internal transfers more than likely. Copy some files from your system to a network location and back, that will give you some idea of the behavior. Copy groups of small files and a large file (separately) to get a feel for it.

In my experience, there really isn't a difference between them, regardless of what speed is reported. 5-6 MB/s is the best I can pull. This is testing with Broadcom Wireless G cards, Atheros G and N, an Intel 3945 G, 4965 N, and 5300 N.

That being said, I'm just showing off some math here. Believe your own eyes and tests, if they show something better post the info and let's have it!

As for the BIOS modification and card support, it CAN work, but your BIOS revision has to be lower than the upgrade revision, obviously. I have a modified BIOS in my DV 9700, but couldn't find one for the C500 and I don't see a point in it now.

As c500 Fan points out, it's really pretty cheap so there's no harm in trying. That's how I got the info I have!

There is not, in theory, a difference between a generic card and an HP one. Capability wise, anyway. Whitelists in the BIOS (which is what locks them out of using "unapproved" cards) work on device IDs, and I THINK those are tied to the actual chips involved, not the whole card itself. I may very well be wrong on this point, however.

Anyway, I think that covers all the points above. Just providing some counter-points and information. Hope it helps steer you guys in good directions!

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O

Great thread ! LOTS of good info!

Thanks to OShadowFoxO and c500 fan for helping keep it alive.

Say guys, check it out. While researching c500 series mods and upgrades, I found information on the following two links, which have been VERY HELPFUL after upgrading my CPU from a Celeron M 530 to a Intel Mobile Core 2 T5600, as well as replacing my recently fried motherboard in my c552US

In short, Intel's website provide me with a some valuable updates to chip related drivers on the motherboard.

LINK 1:
http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect

Slim Drivers website provided me with valuable driver updates as well.
If I remember correctly, there was a significantly newer "system bus" driver and some hardware drivers.

LINK 2:
https://www.slimwareutilities.com/slimdrivers.php

NOTE: I performed these driver updates about 3 days AFTER installing the dual core CPU.
Although the processing was fast after the CPU upgrade, since the drivers have been updated, the computer is MUCH MORE NOTICEABLY faster than it's ever been.

I thought I was all up to date with driver upgrades, but in the end I was really surprised how many were revised.

Hope that helps!
fast_dave
Edited by fast_dave - 2/28/13 at 3:04pm

fast_dave,

 

 First of all, Thanks.
 

 

 You seem to be able to find the links to things that I can't.

 

 my C500 is now running better as well!!!

 

 No new WiFi parts yet but will be here soon.

 

 This just proves that we still have not found the true capabilities of the C500.

 

 Maybe we are not mad

no mad .... just a bunch of crazy enthusiasts ... nice on-going conversation and discussion good peoples

Thanks!

cheers ...

Wall my parts arrived this morning and I quickly tore my c500 apart to install the antenna wires. As I expected they are way to long so need shortened and soldered to the c500 recepticals.

As luck would have it my soldering gun is not playing the game and I have a couple of tile floors to lay before Tuesday so I have not been able to complete the install. Just finished a 13 hour shift prepping for laying tile tomorrow.
Hopefully I will get time to complete the install within the next 36 hours.
I still need to get the soldering gun to work though.

John

Well I got up early this morning after 4hrs of sleep and fitted the three wire antenna, a bit fiddly soldering it when feeling so tired but I got it done.

 

 Fitted the HP wifi card and rebuilt the C500.

 

 Turned the C500 on and quess what ShadowFox was correct (No surprise there) the system would not boot up but came up with an invalid wifi card message.

 

 So I refitted the original card and am back up and running.

 

 I tried the soft patch and that made no difference and the Bios modification would not work either, it must be designed for an earlier Bios version, Note they were using it for Bios 24A.

 

 When I get more time I will research it a bit further.

 

 Might also try the intel generic version but again the bios modification does not work on my bios version.

 

 I think that I need to find a whitelist remover for Bios 26 before I go any further.

 

 Cheers,

 

 John

the folks here had some discussion about removing HP black/white listing in the BIOS. As always, you are on your own playing with the BIOS mod ... be careful

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/15808-HP-Whitelist-bios-mod-mostly-worked-out-final-info-needed

cheers ...

Hi guys,

Yeah, I was afraid of that. I did quite a bit of digging on this some months ago, but I couldn't find any updated BIOS de-whitelisted that would work in the C500 since my board has BIOS F.26.

I DID try to use the BIOS recovery options that several sites mention for some of the HP laptops, but none of them would allow me to recover the board to an earlier version of the BIOS so I could then RE-upgrade to the de-whitelisted one.

As qhn said, be careful when messing with the BIOS. While systems today are certainly more resilient than their bretheren of old, they are still fragile things and a wrong move with a BIOS can brick your system solid.

After a week or so I packed it in since, as I noted, I could find no difference in performance between G and N cards. I am watching the posts here with definite interest, though!

As always, post any new info you get and we'll all go from there!

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O

qhn,

 

 I to was on that site early this morning, it was very interesting with lots on info but I need a lot more free time to go through it all and plan how I am going to go about attempting this. I was also on Bios-mods.com and they have an amazing thread on disabling the whitelist for various computers, thought I might ask if they new anything about Bios 26.

 

 I noted a couple of different ways to produce a Bios recovery flash drive (might need to be a CD rom) and would have to try and find one that I am sure works before I go any further.

 

 I have already downloaded the Slic modded Bios for Bios 24A and might try using that as Bios recovery as long as I have my Bios 26 recovery flash drive in hand.

 

 I will dig around and see what I can find, probably later this week as I am slammed at the moment.

 

 Worse case scenario I will brick it and have to fix that to. Then maybe I will give up or not!!

 

 No chance I love a challenge and anything is possible, you just need to know how.

 

 So all in I have decided not to purchase a generic Intel wifi card as I do not believe that is the issue (Thanks ShadowFox)

 

 I do believe that if fast_dave has Bios Version 24A or less then he should have no problem as this upgrade has been succesfully done before on that Bios.

 

 Oddly enough with the new antenna wires I am getting a better wifi signal at home. The new wires were thicker than the original ones so that might explian it.

 

 Onwards and upwards for the C500.

 

 Cheers,

 

 John

Yeah, take your time with any tweaks. Info is abound plenty, sorting through the knowledge maze is always a challenge. Good luck

cheers ...

I might be going over old ground here but I found this info last night at this link http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=3318986&swItem=ob-65673-1&mode=5;

 

 

 Revision History

	Version: F.2D  (7 Jan 2011)
	Enhancements
	- Fixes an intermittent issue that may result in an unexpected behavior, where the system stops responding (hangs) or a memory page fault is generated. This issue only occurs with 64-bit operating systems.
»	Version: F.2C  (28 Aug 2009)
	Fixes
	Adds Support Microsoft new version of OS.
»	Version: F.2A  (1 Jun 2009)
	Fixes
	Adds support for Microsoft Windows Vista Operating Systems with Service Pack 2(SP2). Adds support for future Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. Adds support for Boston Power Battery Cells. Fixes an issue where the Power-On Password cannot be typed on an external USB keyboard if the system is in idle mode for more than two minutes. Fixes an issue where BIOS flash progress is paused if the "Caps lock," "Num Lock," or "Scroll" keys are pressed while the BIOS is updating. Fixes an issue where the Brightness scroll bar in Microsoft Windows Vista Operating Systems does not move by pressing the FnF7/FnF8 Brightness Hot Key after the system resumes from Hibernation mode. Fixes an issue where the keyboard is locked after the notebook lid is closed and then reopened while the system is in the Setup menu. Fixes an issue where the DV-out function for some camcoders does not work through the 1394 port.
»	Version: F.26  (25 Feb 2009)
	Fixes
	Updates the BIOS to prevent the system from being woken from Standby or Hibernate mode using a network device when the notebook is running on battery power and the remaining battery capacity is less than five percent. This update does not affect the notebook when it is connected to AC power. Corrects a minor typographical error in the "Notebook Model" label that is displayed in the Setup Utility (F10). Fixes an issue where the Intel Protected Audio Video Path (PAVP) feature does not work correctly for HD video playback or when playing Blu-Ray discs. The fix for this issue ensures smooth playback and improved processor performance. Fixes an issue where an inaccurate error message is inadvertently displayed when the user performs a "Startup Check" (by pressing the F2 key) during the Power-On Self-Test (POST) for a notebook/laptop with only one hard drive.

 

 So it would appear that F26 is not the latest Bios version for the C500.

 

 Cheers,

 

 John

ShadowFox,

 

 What software are you running on your C500?

 

 I have read that most of the ready made modded Bios systems are designed for 32bit systems.

 

 I also found a manual way to copy and alter the existing Bios system using a couple of different programs which I will investigate further when I get the time obviously creating a copy of the original first.

 

 Cheers,

 

 John

c500 fan,

That is an impressive link. How did you come across that? I spent days (rather, what time I could in days) searching links of variants of the C500, C300, G3000, and G5000 models and couldn't find anything published over F.25.

At any rate: Can you clarify what you're looking for when you say software? OS, various programs, BIOS programs, etc.?

I don't recall which BIOS update software I was trying to use, if that's what you're asking. What I WAS attempting to do was trigger the BIOS recovery function (which, according to all info I found, was supposed to be triggered by pressing and holding Win+B when you power on the device with a properly set up floppy or USB disk containing an older BIOS file). Nothing worked to drop me back lower than F.26.

If your link is accurate, it would seem we have several BIOS versions above F.26 that might be workable to de-whitelist and allow the use of any desired wireless card.

This is a fascinating find and might just open up MORE modifications.

I don't have time to do a lot of research myself right now between work, school, and personal issues, but I will keep watch and throw in input when I can. This might actually help in my eventual work on the DV5000 series too.

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O

ShadowFox,

 

 I meant what OS are you running on the C500?

 

 I have been googling all sorts of possible c500 bios & white list variant searches to try to find anything I can about updating the bios or altering it to allow the use of the new wifi card.

 

 Annoyingly I have found quite a few links to people who have succesfully installed far better wifi cards than I am trying to but they all seem to have be running older bios versions.

 

 There is a lot of info out there for the DV5000 series, I have read quite a few pages about altering the bios on that before realising it was not C500 specific.

 

 It is interesting that HP are still issuing bios updates for the C500 unfortunately the HP update website does not recognise my c500 since I have upgraded it.

 

 I did also find a web site that claimed to have a bios specifically for the C500 running windows 7 64bit but I would need to research that a bit further before risking trying it. I note that the HP update site mentions nothing about the C500 being windows 7 compliant (which I know runs great on mine). I also found another site with a modified bios which claimed to improve processing speed but that is not what I am trying to achieve at the moment.

 

 Also I remember reading that on some systems the win-b bios recovery does not work I think the alternative was ctrl-b but will need to re-check that to be sure.

 

 I still intend to make a copy of my original bios for recovery purposes when I get the time and then try the further bios updates one at a time, maybe if I can get it to upgrade one of the revised bios's will accept the new card.

 

 Still I am way to busy at the moment to try this out so will continue researching the various ways to alter the bios until I have a spare day to work my way through them.

 

 Cheers,

 

 John

c500 fan,

I have been running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit on the C500 ever since I first installed the 64-bit C2D T5600 in it. It's CURRENTLY running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.7, but I have a Windows 7 drive stored that I can pop in and fire up at a moment's notice.

While I am certainly not above being wrong, I am not sure a BIOS update is absolutely necessary for an particular reason for Windows 7. My C503WM (in stock configuration) shipped with Vista Home Basic, which is close enough to 7 not to matter. I HAVE seen where specific INSTALLERS are needed depending on the OS (IE one EXE file for XP, one for Vista/7) due to differences in how the OSes handle reboots and interact with the base hardware.

For the continued BIOS updates, it IS interesting especially as I had not seen any updates past F.24 officially (or was it F.25, even I am losing track now). The last was about two years ago, but that is still three years or so more than what I see for a lot of consumer level machines. C503WM still shows F.24 as the most recent update.

The only thing I would like is more information on which specific model of C500 that page references. It shouldn't matter, but it's just the puzzle-assembler in me.

At any rate, if you can post any links to the data you're finding about better cards in the system it might be helpful. Maybe I can find some info that will give specfics on it.

I have seen processes listed that require you to power on the system with a supported card, put it to sleep, swap out for a better card, then bring the system out of sleep with the new card in place. I don't know if that will work or no, but it carries the risk of damaging the system so I'd think twice about it myself.

Stranger and stranger. Anyway, keep the info coming!

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O

I agree I would not try swapping out parts while the system has power It might work but the chance of damaging something is to great, anyway I would assume that the Bios on the next boot would still throw the same code as it has not been re-written just fooled.

 

 I will post links to the other cards when I have time to find them again. It should just be a matter of searching through my browsing history but with all the searches I have been doing lately it could take some time. If I remember it correctly one person had a 1Gig wifi card?? and they were trying to get it to work with their C500. I might be mistaken though as I am keeping track of a further generic android software update for my cell and also dealing with Jeep related questions while doing some time consuming construction.

 

 Cheers,

 

 John

Hi c500 fan,

The trick to the card swap is that the system is in sleep, not in a cold shut down. The BIOS is "bypassed" when coming back from sleep as the system is not entirely shut down.

At any rate, more information is definitely needed. I am still skeptical that any difference would be had between Wireless G and Wireless N, but the new AC cards might provide some differences if the numbers are to be believed.

Either way, exciting stuff!

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O