Laptop graphics update

[SnooSnoo]

Hello. I have an older HP Elitebook 8540p that I might get from work. I was browsing for graphics card upgrades when I stumbled upon this answer.
Is it true that no other cards can be installed without BIOS locking them out (even with same TDP)?

Can the BIOS locks be bypassed or BIOS itself modded?

I'm asking because, this laptop will probably soon be obsolete and thrown away. So I thought I'd pick it up and maybe upgrade the graphics card and RAM on the cheap for a portable low-res gaming machine. But if it cant be done (well there are a few workstation cards compatible, but not worth it. 72 shaders from current 48) we'll just give it away.

According to the service manual, here are the compatible video cards

FirePro M5800
Quadro FX 880M
Quadro NVS 5100M
Quadro FX 1800M

 

[KompuKare]

MXM is at best a very poor standard and generally not easy to upgrade. So never mind BIOS whitelisting (for which there might be a hacked BIOS), even getting the correct revision of MXM (I, II, III, IV, A, B) might not be enough.

I had a perfectly good AiO machine which came with a 8400GS MXM card which had the solder defect and I was not able to find anything which actually worked (but found rather dodgy guys on ebay who sold 'refurbished' cards which looked like they had not just been backed but rather had been 'fixed' with a blowtorch). The real irony was that the board actually had an Intel chipset with onboard graphics which would have been perfectly fine for watching TV etc. but the motherboard designers had not designed it to be useable without the MXM card. Crazy but ended up being thrown away because of that

 

[SnooSnoo]

MXM is at best a very poor standard and generally not easy to upgrade. So never mind BIOS whitelisting (for which there might be a hacked BIOS), even getting the correct revision of MXM (I, II, III, IV, A, B) might not be enough.

I had a perfectly good AiO machine which came with a 8400GS MXM card which had the solder defect and I was not able to find anything which actually worked (but found rather dodgy guys on ebay who sold 'refurbished' cards which looked like they had not just been backed but rather had been 'fixed' with a blowtorch). The real irony was that the board actually had an Intel chipset with onboard graphics which would have been perfectly fine for watching TV etc. but the motherboard designers had not designed it to be useable without the MXM card. Crazy but ended up being thrown away because of that

Yeah, thst sucks pretty bad. All our work laptops got some MXM flavor, so...

 

[Zodiark1593]

Since it's in the service manual, odds are good that any of the listed cards will work. However, as workstation cards are pricy, you'd have racked your brains out trying to justify the expenditure.

 

[SnooSnoo]

Since it's in the service manual, odds are good that any of the listed cards will work. However, as workstation cards are pricy, you'd have racked your brains out trying to justify the expenditure.

Quite right, even if the laptop was free, it'd be hard to justify buying such old tech for so much money.