HP EliteDesk 800 G2 Mini 65W Desktop PC
Overview
Small form factor desktop PC that uses an external power supply. It has good realtime kernel performance for LinuxCNC.
lspci output
lspci -nn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers [8086:190f] (rev 07) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 530 [8086:1912] (rev 06) 00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family USB 3.0 xHCI Controller [8086:a12f] (rev 31) 00:14.2 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family Thermal Subsystem [8086:a131] (rev 31) 00:17.0 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation Q170/Q150/B150/H170/H110/Z170/CM236 Chipset SATA Controller [AHCI Mode] [8086:a102] (rev 31) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #6 [8086:a115] (rev f1) 00:1d.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #9 [8086:a118] (rev f1) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation Q170 Chipset LPC/eSPI Controller [8086:a146] (rev 31) 00:1f.2 Memory controller [0580]: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family Power Management Controller [8086:a121] (rev 31) 00:1f.3 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller [8086:a170] (rev 31) 00:1f.4 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family SMBus [8086:a123] (rev 31) 00:1f.6 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (2) I219-LM [8086:15b7] (rev 31) 01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless 8260 [8086:24f3] (rev 3a) 02:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller [0108]: Device [1ed0:2283] (rev 01)
BIOS
Hotkeys
While booting, you can tap the following keys to get to various menus:
- Esc: "Startup Menu"
- F1: "System Information"
- F2: "System Diagnostics"
- F3: "3rd Party Option ROM Management"
- F9: "Boot Menu"
- F10: "BIOS Setup"
- F11: "System Restore"
- F12: "Network (PXE) Boot"
Updating
You can download a BIOS update .exe from the "Software & Drivers" section of HP's support page:
HP EliteDesk 800 65W G2 Desktop Mini PC Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Support
NOTE: even though you're probably using Linux, choose "Windows 10" as the OS and "Windows 10 (64-bit)" as the version.
HP EliteDesk 800 65W G2 Desktop Mini PC Software and Driver Details (latest version at the time of writing)
sp152286.exe (direct link)
To update the BIOS from Linux, extract the .exe using a file archiving utility such as command like 7z or a GUI like Engrampa:
mkdir HP_BIOS cd HP_BIOS 7z x ~/Downloads/sp152286.exe
There will be a BIOS upgrade file such as N21_0263.bin, you must copy this to a specific location on the EFI partition (a conveniently available FAT32 partition that can be read by the in-BIOS upgrading utility):
sudo mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/HP/BIOS/New sudo cp N21_0263.bin /boot/efi/EFI/HP/BIOS/New/
- reboot the PC
- tap the "Escape" key while it is booting
- you may see a screen with black background and white text that is asking if you want to exit, if so, choose "Yes"
- you should now see a "Startup Menu" screen with a white background and gray/blue buttons with white text listing various options
- choose "Update System BIOS"
- you should see a "System Bios Update" screen claiming there is an important update available (it found the BIOS file you copied earlier), it will have two options "Update Bios - 2.63" (or whatever version), and "Cancel update". Choose "Update Bios - 2.63"
- you will see a progress bar with a warning to not shut off the computer during the process
- you will see a completion screen, with a countdown to automatically reboot, and a button to reboot immediately
- the computer will reboot, do not be alarmed if you hear some POST beep codes and it keeps rebooting, just let it be
- you may see another white background "System BIOS Update" screen saying "Final step of BIOS update is in progress", again warning you to not shut off the computer
- eventually it will reboot and you will see the display come back up with the black background and BIOS boot messages!
Here are screenshots throughout the process:
Startup Menu
System Bios Update (Update button)
System Bios Update (Progress bar)
System Bios Update (Reboot countdown)
System BIOS Update (Final step)
POST screen for updated BIOS!
References:
How to perform a HP BIOS upgrade with only Ubuntu? - Ask Ubuntu
GRUB UEFI Booting
Sometimes GRUB will install correctly, but the BIOS will refuse to automatically boot it. The root cause is that the UEFI BIOS is looking for hardcoded file paths and not respecting Debian Linux's naming scheme. You can manually boot by doing the following:
- tap F9 while booting the computer
- you should see "Boot Menu" screen with a white background and gray/blue buttons with white text
- choose "Boot from file"
- navigate the directory structure to
\EFI\debian - choose the file
grubx64.efi - it will boot into GRUB!
Now that you are able to get into Linux, you can do a permanent workaround fix:
sudo mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/boot sudo cp /boot/efi/EFI/debian/grubx64.efi /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi
Now if you reboot, the BIOS will automatically enter GRUB without any fuss.
NOTE: I am not sure if there will be any issues when updating GRUB, since it won't know to update this other copy...
Replacement Parts
Power Supply
HP 790946-001
Generic Chinese replacement:
Antenna Kit
HP 814176-001
MINI Antenna 814176-001 FIT HP ProDesk 600 800 400 G2 G3 /EliteDesk 705 800 G2 | eBay (from eBay seller tobeyl2011)
Antenna Cover
HP 905489-001
side
back
Online Resources
HP EliteDesk 800 65W G2 Desktop Mini PC | HP® Support
HP EliteDesk 800 G2 Desktop Mini PC, Intel Core i5 6500T 2.5Ghz, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD, USB Type C, Windows 10 Pro (Renewed) | Amazon (source of stock photos)