HP XW8600 workstation not entering bios / hanging

[SezBulent]

Hello,

I recently bought an XW8600 workstation, which was previously working with an HDD and 2.5" SSD. Those storage drivers were removed, and now I am trying to attach a new SSD, but unfortunately it does not boot, and nor I can get into bios.

The error I'm getting when the SSD is attached is on HP Ethernet boot Agent v10.4.6: "One or mote SATA devices are improperly attached. Connect devices to the SATA 0 ( dark blue) and SATA 1 ( black ) connectors before the SATA 2 ( black ) and SATA 3 ( black ) connectors."
From the previous owner I understood that it does not require an primary HDD to boot.

The problem is, that even when I have no SSD attached, HP Ethernet boot Agent v10.4.6 hangs and I can not even press "Ctrl-S to enter configuration menu" - I also get the "F1: Save Changes" in the lower left, but again, pressing that does nothing. I even tried pressing F10, F8, F2, ESC upon booting the PC and also removed the CMOS battery to reset the BIOS, but I can not manage to enter the BIOS at all. I'm really struggling to make this work.

What is it that I'm doing wrong?

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

i suspect you are using a usb keyboard and not all usb keyboards are compatible, try a different usb keyboard or better yet the xw8600 was designed for a ps2 type keyboard use that

the BOOT device MUST BE on SATA 0 as you have noticed or you will get a error msg and the boot device must be under 2.1GB due to bios limitations

note that the xw860 is nowadays well past its's prime, keep this in mind when spending any money on it

[SezBulent]

Hi @DGroves,
While opening this thread I suspected about this problem and got a new USB non-rgb keyboard, which managed to work greatly.
Seems like my previous RGB keyboard had some issues, and I suppose the drives were loading after the bios post messages, or not loading at all, and that's why it didn't work.

And indeed, xw8600 is pretty old, but managed to get it for a good price and always wanted to put my hands on a workstation.

Thank you very much for your answer!