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HP Recommended
HP Z620

Hello community, I have a hp z620 Workstation, with 2 Intel Xeon E5-2620 processor and 64 GB RAM, I am upgrading the processor to Intel Xeon E5-2670 V2 or Intel Xeon E5-2640 V2, when placing to test both processor and I turn on the machine 5 seconds pass and then all the fans turn on at their maximum speed.

Something I did not do is put gray paste on the processors, I have just bought, I am just going to try I don't know if that has to do with it, on the other hand I pressed the CMOS, removed the battery and still follows the same process.

 

Note: to color again the same processor initially said, everything works normal.

 

Thank you all very much for taking the time to read.

9 REPLIES 9
HP Recommended

Is yours a version 1 or a version 2 Z620 motherboard?  Hint:  look up boot block date here, and check in your BIOS to see if you have the later version.

 

Second, yes you do need thermal paste between your processor(s) and their heatsinks.

 

Third, are you running the latest BIOS, or at least a version that came out after those processors were released?

 

 

HP Recommended

Hello, I have this over here.

 

hpz620bios.JPG

HP Recommended

It is a bit of a hassle, but you should run your processors only with fresh properly applied thermal paste.  You need to get in to BIOS, its first column, to see the boot block date.  What you have shown is the date of the current BIOS that is installed, which can run in a version 1 and a version 2 motherboard.  Only the version 2 motherboards, however, can reliably run the Xeon V2 processors certified by HP for the later Z620 workstations.

 

The motherboard self-protection scheme in these workstations seems to be to turn all fans on high if the motherboard is confused or has a wrong processor or wrong heatsink installed that would risk overheating injury.  That can also happen with BIOS corruption.  It is never welcome...

 

From our favorite HP engineer:

"If the BIOS boot block date is 03/06/2013, the Z620 supports the E5-16xx V2 and E5-26xx V2 CPUs PLUS the older versions (both the newer Ivy Bridge and the older Sandy Bridge HP certified processors).  If the BIOS boot block date is 12/20/2011, the Z620 supports only the E5-16xx V1 and E5-26xx V1 CPUs (Sandy Bridge).  The system will probably not boot with a V2 CPU, and even if it does, the system will be very unstable. "

HP Recommended

Never install a processor without the thermal grease... The fan speed is adjustable in the Bios Setup.

HP Recommended

It is a good point that if a prior owner goes into BIOS and sets the fans to the highest value that can cause the noise problem, and is easy to fix in BIOS.  Most of us run BIOS set to the lowest fan speed.

 

However, I took his statement "Note: to color again the same processor initially said, everything works normal." to mean that when he put back in his original processor the fan issue was resolved.  That would not happen if the BIOS fan settings were set to maximum the whole time.

HP Recommended

Hello, I turned on the machine with the bios and I found the following information.WhatsApp Image 2021-01-01 at 8.27.45 PM.jpeg

HP Recommended

Thank you for your response time, but I have the following questions.

1.- I looked for an HPZ620, thinking that they would support the processors that I announce in your pdf.

2.- On the other hand, can you no longer upgrade the board?hpz620spef.JPG

HP Recommended

On your first response you may have taken a picture of a BIOS page that includes your serial number and/or your UUID.  Moderators don't generally allow such "personal" information to be posted.  Just type out the boot block date from BIOS... as I cannot help you without that.  It needs to end with 2013.

 

When HP transitioned the Z420/Z620/Z820 family from the motherboards that were engineered to run on the version 1 Sandy Bridge processors they seemed to think that the later version 2 Ivy Bridge processors could be plug and play into the version 1 motherboards.  It turns out not to be the case, and yet they did not make it easy to know this or to identify on the case what the internal motherboard could run.  Then they changed over their brochures and QuickSpecs to include the v2 processors but did not make it clear that those would only work on the later motherboards.

 

We figured this all out.  Please note that HP has never supported upgrading processors... only adding in a second processor that was identical to the first one (in a Z620/Z820).  So far I have no idea whether you have a v1 or v2 workstation.  And you, specifically, cannot change the boot block date on your current motherboard.  You can, however, buy a new or used Z620 version 2 motherboard and swap that into your case if you currently have a v1 motherboard.  There are posts in here on exactly how to know you are buying a v2 motherboard.

 

So, what is your boot block date, typed out in a short reply?

HP Recommended

If you want to look into getting a version 2 motherboard there is a good introduction  HERE .  I have done that project on 4 separate version 1 Z620 workstations, and it worked fine the first attempt on each.  Three were done using properly selected used motherboards off eBay.  One was done on a brand new unopened motherboard that I had to learn how to "brand" for Windows (versus for Linux).  I followed my advice in that post, and I still agree with myself.  I can get that done on a used eBay motherboard in about 30-45 minutes.  There is a green topped black plastic tab that you have to rotate 90 degrees to give room to slide the old motherboard out and up... that is the one trick to know about.

 

In that post our friend Bambi who virtually always is right got his response a bit off, clarified in my follow-up post.  The key thing to know is that on the bar code label on the motherboard to the left of the motherboard battery you want its far right Assembly part number to be either AS# 618264-002 or -003... those always have had the later boot block date.  See the picture below.

 

Mtothaj, at the end of that thread, is a near-genius.  What he posts about is only for fellow near-geniuses who simultaneously are micro-soldering experts.  That is not you or me or virtually any of the rest of us here reading this thread.

 

s-l1600.jpg

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.