Cant get into HP Z640 BIOS

[0bn0x]

I'm trying to get into the BIOS of a Z640 I just bought. I purchased an HP PS/2 keyboard after my initial issues. After my new round of attempts with the PS/2 keyboard, I still have issues.

After boot up, it gives me the option to configure RAID which seems to work fine. After the RAID menu disappears, it goes straight to PXE boot and will not let me boot from internal CD drive, external USB CD drive, or USB flash drive.

I have tried mashing Esc and F10 at startup. It will eventually get a single beep (as if it registered the Esc/F10, I assume), but still doesn't go to the BIOS and goes into PXE boot.

I have tried resetting CMOS--remove power cord, hold power button 10 seconds, hold CMOS button 10 seconds.

What should I try next?

[SDH]

First, what is your current BIOS version? I fully agree with use of a quality (HP) PS2 mouse and PS2 keyboard until you get control.

I've seen some strange BIOS corruption things over the years but the good news is that I've never come across a bootable HP workstation that I could not eventually get into the BIOS of and turn it into a tamed beast. Some issues could be as simple as not knowing that unplugging the power cord does not equal removing the CMOS battery, and that you need to do both things and only then start drawing down the on-board capacitors by press and hold in of the power-on button... hold in for at least 30 seconds each time, and rinse and repeat, and again, and again, and walk away, and again and again, and walk away overnight. And then again and again. Make sure to throw in a press and hold 30 seconds the CMOS reset yellow button each cycle of this process. I even bridge all of the 3 prongs of the power cord with my damp finger tips to give a path for any residual power to be drawn off. No kidding, over and over each time. Out of all this I'm not sure what is the key, but I've come to believe it is all these steps together that finally work each time.

One of the first things I change in BIOS once I get in is to put in a 5 second boot delay. Some workstations are so fast you need that to work with.

Another issue is that many don't realize power can feed back into the motherboard from monitors via video cables and many other attached items... those need to be disconnected for now and only then draw down the motherboard's capacitors to zero. There are PCIe cards that have backup batteries and supercaps onboard that will preserve minimal power into the motherboard. All those need to go until you get control back.

Parts of BIOS can be corrupted but others not, in the same BIOS... a proper reload of BIOS can clear that and get you back to factory default settings. Did you know that a BIOS update does not delete your BIOS settings, and what if those are corrupted?

Trying to be too complex in your build while you're dealing with this can be an issue also. I'd go back to a single SATA SSD (or even a HDD) and a thumb drive and try a clean install of W10. Forget RAID for now... the advice is to get back to basics first.

Got a hot video card? remove that and go for a slow poke known-good old card that is simple, slow, but works.

Running fancy BIOS settings or some that someone else set and you don't even know what you have? Revert to factory defaults if you can, and don't forget to save those on the way out of BIOS.

I'm working on an update to my Crisis Recovery recommendations... how to force a BIOS update or downgrade that also dumps your current BIOS settings and loads, instead, the factory defaults. Once you get that done you can step up from there.

[0bn0x]

Thanks for your response. For more background, I was originally able to boot from USB and installed windows. I still could not get directly into the BIOS at that time, but I installed HP Performance Advisor and was able to change some BIOS settings that way. Eventually, some changes caused serious performance issues (mouse moving slowly and clicks were not registering) so I did the basic BIOS reset steps like I mentioned in the first post. After that is when I got permanently stuck in PXE boot. This was all prior to today with USB keyboard and mouse. Today, I got my HP PS/2 keyboard and mouse delivered from eBay, so I am at it again trying to bring the PC back to life.

My BIOS is up to date with the most recent version available for download, 2.61 (this was verified when I had access to BIOS settings via Performance Advisor). I tried the Crisis Recovery steps you posted here: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Crisis-Recovery-Ju.... I get the two cycles of fast blinking USB lights, and then after that my monitor will turn on for about 5-10 seconds without displaying anything before the system power cycles and starts the whole thing over with more USB LED blinking, monitor turns on, power cycle, etc. I left this running for about an hour with no luck. I also tried using a slightly older BIOS version (2.58) for the Crisis Recovery process, but it seems as though the older BIOS version would not be accepted by BBR (8x beeps/flashes, started reading from USB as indicated by fast blinking LED, and then went back to 8x beeps/flashes). I tried all of this with and without the password jumper.

Per your advice, I have removed all cables, CMOS battery, the 2nd CPU board, went down to 1 stick of RAM, removed the GPU, and removed all drives. I pressed the CMOS button for 30 seconds, and I have the power button held in the pressed position with copious amounts of tape. I will leave it overnight and will try again tomorrow after a couple more rounds of pressing the CMOS button.

[SDH]

EDIT: I'm going to pull the attachments and some info from this post. I need to work on them more to see if I can get things to work reliably here before anyone else uses them.

Something sounds very corrupted. 

I'd pull the lime green "password" jumper and keep it out for now. That actually does more than just allow you to clear a set password. It also is a lock mechanism to prevent certain BIOS changes... it usually should be kept in place, but not for right now. I got a used motherboard that was missing that jumper for months before I recognized it... no problem, but I got a spare and put it in for security purposes. When you're done pull the power cord and replace it onto its proper header bridging the 2 pins there.

Let's see how things go in the morning. Repetition of steps as I mentioned seems to chip away at the corruption that is there, maintained by even very low levels of charge keeping the current corrupted BIOS/ bad BIOS settings stuck. I've never seen your stuck-in-PXE problem.

I'm going to add to this post early versions of what I'm working on... you surely need some crisis recovery help. I've not yet checked on all the details myself so consider my info on the critical HP error and the proper nesting of 3 folders solution I provide preliminary. 

Here's the good news. You have a bad problem, likely solvable, and there always is the option of buying a used eBay Z640 motherboard that won't be haunted like this one.

[0bn0x · Accepted solution]

1. I tried the procedures you posted earlier for BBR. The BIN file needed to be in the "Current" folder, not New. Otherwise it would not find the BIN file. Either way, it seemed to find the BIN file both in the root folder or the nested "Hewlett-Packard\BIOS\Current" so either works. However, in my case the BBR was unsuccessful.

2. I solved the issue. I switched the GPU that came with my workstation when I ordered it (Radeon HD 6350) for one from a different computer (Dell AMD FirePro W2100). I hadn't tried this before because the Radeon is fanless and fairly basic, and the Dell AMD has a fan and SFF plate on it, and the computer I stole it from is my home internet router. Anyway, I removed the SFF plate to make it fit in the Z640 and was immediately able to get into the BIOS.

Edit: I tried the original GPU again. It has 3 display outputs--VGA, DVI and HDMI. I don't have any issues when I use VGA output to VGA monitor input. Originally, I was using the HDMI output to DVI monitor input. I have not tried DVI to DVI to HDMI to HDMI, but apparently the display protocol has something to do with it.

[SDH]

That is great news, and thanks for sharing the solution.

I'm curious... how did you come up with using "Current" as the name of the bottom folder in the nest of three that finally allowed the Boot Block Recovery jumper method to activate correctly for you? And, did you pull the lime green password clear jumper before you did that?