Dual-Core Xeon support for HP XW6200

[BTS]

Hello,

My HP XW6200 workstation has 2x 3.2GHz Single-Core HT "Nocona" Xeon, 800MHz FSB, Socket 604, released June 28 2004 (P/N RK80546KG0881M). http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=28016

** CPU-Z suggests that my CPUs are actually "Irwindale" but I'm not sure if that's accurate

I would like to replace these with 2x SL8MA 2.8GHz Dual-Core HT "Paxville DP" Xeon, 800MHz FSB, Socket 604, released October 10 2005 (P/N NE80551KG0724MM). http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=27202

I have the latest BIOS from HP v2.10b released 12 October 2006. (download link below)

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=12454&prodSeriesId=409749&prodNameId=409751&swEnvOID=2002&swLang=13&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=wk-44077-1


The problem is that tech support from both Intel and HP are incompetents and cannot tell me whether CPUs will be compatible. Intel keep saying that only HP can answer and HP keep reading from the manual (dated 2004) that only the Nocona series are certified as compatible.
By the looks of it, it should work but I don't want to buy two Xeon CPUs just to to give it a try.

I tried every possible software from the download section to open the Rom.bin bios file and see if I find a list compatible CPU's but all failed. Is there any way to open one of these HP bios files and find an answer to my question?


Thanks for your help.

[1234s282]

Sorry but this is a ROMPAQ bios and none of our current tools are able to split it into its modules (ie. extract the CPU microcode)

Sorry
Admin

[oXYnary]

Actually all rompaq is a compressor. There is a command line that will uncompress. Have mentioned this before in my thread when i was investigating another HP server with later bios.

http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-HP...1#pid21221

(Just use rompaq, the softpaq was my misquote.)

I would do this for ya, but Im on a 64 system right now without a virtual 32 bit system. So I cant use the command line program. I did extract them from the disk image though.

http://207.246.157.76/compressedrompaqHP6200.zip

[BTS]

Actually all rompaq is a compressor. There is a command line that will uncompress. Have mentioned this before in my thread when i was investigating another HP server with later bios.

http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-HP...1#pid21221

(Just use rompaq, the softpaq was my misquote.)

I would do this for ya, but Im on a 64 system right now without a virtual 32 bit system. So I cant use the command line program. I did extract them from the disk image though.

http://207.246.157.76/compressedrompaqHP6200.zip

Thank you, that's very helpful.

I'm on 64-bit as well but will go over to a friend and try it there. I'll report back with the outcome ...

[BTS]

I tried running Rompaq to decompress the image as follows:

ROMPAQ.EXE /D Rom.bin RomD.bin

It failed with following error:

Caution! Product id doesn't match filename
Error! Header versions are incompatible in file ROM.BIN

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[oXYnary]

I tried running Rompaq to decompress the image as follows:

ROMPAQ.EXE /D Rom.bin RomD.bin

It failed with following error:

Caution! Product id doesn't match filename
Error! Header versions are incompatible in file ROM.BIN

Any suggestions?

Thanks

I think you misunderstood my directions.

Here is what I did and it worked on your file. I dont have ftp at the moment to upload the results here but it worked with no issue.

ROMPAQ.exe /D BLUEFI70.20A rom.rom

which made a new umcompressed file rom.rom

I forget which brand rom is for so try the different tools for award, phoenix, and ami to see which it opens up in (the rom.rom).

[BTS]

I was wondering what that other file was

Sorry for misunderstanding. I'll have another go at it.

Will I be able to flash my BIOS with the resulting (modified) uncompressed file? (in your example rom_modified.rom)

Or should I use the Rompaq utility to recompress it into a .20A file and then do something else with it?

I really appreciate the help. Thank you.

PS: Are the .20A and .rom extensions extensions representative of actual file type or are they just random meaningless extensions?

[oXYnary]

I was wondering what that other file was

Sorry for misunderstanding. I'll have another go at it.

Will I be able to flash my BIOS with the resulting (modified) uncompressed file? (in your example rom_modified.rom)

Or should I use the Rompaq utility to recompress it into a .20A file and then do something else with it?

I really appreciate the help. Thank you.

PS: Are the .20A and .rom extensions extensions representative of actual file type or are they just random meaningless extensions?

Unsure for both of those. I havent flashed the results of that as I was only uncompressing to get the bios for my purposes.

I think if all else fails, you can use a universal flash. Or after you find out which bios it is AMI, Award, Phoenix. Use theirs.

In either case the uncompressed file it creates is the stock bios. You still need to take it into a editor to hack your new cpu support in. That you will need 1234s or others help. If its the same bios type I worked with. Should be AMI which shouldnt be too difficult to replace the cpu micro code section. You just need to find a motherboard with the same chipset and bios that has the newer cpu support to replace that section.

[1234s282]

none of my tools will open the extracted uncompressed rom though

Admin

[BTS]

none of my tools will open the extracted uncompressed rom though

Admin

After a successful decompression the only tool that would recognize anything in the outputted file was the BIOS Information Tool from the download section.

The result is below. I'm not sure where to go from here as no other software that I have could open it, but this seems ti indicate that there might be hope ...

¦ BIOS by Compaq Computer Corporation ++-++'k+
[v] System Management BIOS w/DMI v2.3
[v] PCI IRQ Routing Table v1.0 (correct)
[v] EL TORITO CD-ROM Boot Specification

Thanks again for all the input.