HP Z240 Dual PCI VGA/GPU Run Help!

[RoyaltyTurk]

Hello,

I need some professional advice, actually on two issues.

I recently purchased a used HP Z240 workstation with the following specifications:
Xeon E3-1230 V5, 32 GB DDR4, 512 GB NVMe SSD, DVD-RW, AMD FirePro W2100, HP 80 PLUS Platinum 400W, LAN, 2 x Display Ports, 2 x PS/2, 6 x USB 3.0, 4 x USB 2.0, Audio Input/Output, Microphone.

The PC already has a graphics card installed, but I also want to use an Nvidia Tesla K40 for CUDA support. However, when I install the Tesla K40, I get a 3-signal error. Additionally, I'm unable to access the BIOS despite trying F10, ESC, and F1 keys.

1. How can I access the BIOS?
2. Is it possible to install and use both graphics cards together? How can I achieve this? Some forum posts mention that the BIOS does not have an option to enable the second PCIe slot, but I haven't been able to check this myself as I cannot access the BIOS yet.

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards.

[BeemerBiker]

According to tech power up, that tesla requires a 550 watt power supply

Your 400 watt is not sufficient unless your k40 is a scaled down version.

You might consider using an RTX-4060 instead which only needs 300 watts.  

https://technical.city/en/video/Tesla-K40c-vs-GeForce-RTX-4060

[RoyaltyTurk]

Hello,

Thank you for your response and for pointing out the power supply issue. I am aware that the Tesla K40 requires a 550-watt power supply, and I am willing to upgrade my 400-watt PSU if necessary.

However, my main concern is how to resolve the issues I’m currently facing and successfully run both the AMD FirePro W2100 and the Nvidia Tesla K40 together.

Could you please provide guidance on:

1. How to configure the system to work with both GPUs simultaneously?
2. Any steps to enable the second PCIe slot if the BIOS does not have an explicit option for it.
3. How to resolve the 3-beep error when the Tesla K40 is installed? (PS:Tesla working fine with another pc tested!)
4. How to access the BIOS, as I cannot seem to enter it with the standard keys (F10, ESC, F1)?

I would greatly appreciate any detailed advice or suggestions that could help me set up this configuration properly.

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

Best regards,

[BeemerBiker]

If the beeps come from the Tesla then it is under powered.  If I forget to connect the 8 pin PCIe power cable, my RTX board will beep at me.

If  beep is from the motherboard then

Beep codes and reset instructions
Click here for AIO or desktop codes

@SDH has experience with Z240 and can help you better than I.

Remove the k40 and see if you can re-enter the BIOS.

I looked here but was unable to find a bios simulator.

I suspect the 400 will not power the k40 but you could try limiting the initial power surge by

- remove the other video board, put the K40 in its place.

- disconnect power to all SATA HDDs

if you can boot, then look in the bios for a setting to allow 2-3 seconds delay between enabling the SATA HDDs to prevent a power surge.

This video might be helpful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-Po5u8GEgo&ab_channel=StraightforwardTech

[RoyaltyTurk]

Hello,

How can i contact or invide this toğic @SDH ? Actually with or withput tesla not login to bios. Try bios keys and not work bios nte keys.

[SDH]

Happy to help.... but I don't have a Z240. Remember to let us know the form factor... Tower? Small form factor? The power supply info for those is quite different.

I do have quite a bit of experience with the Z440 tower workstations so the following may help. Many of these HP workstations have unexpected ports for both mouse and keyboard attachment, the older PS/2 type (green and purple). Reportedly this is because certain 3-letter agencies fill the USB ports with epoxy and they need secure ports for keyboard and mouse.

When USB attachments are acting up these PS/2 devices can often get you up and running. it is a more primitive interface. In fact, when I'm building up a workstation I only use those and later can switch over to USB mouse/keyboard if I wish. You can buy brand new HP PS/2 keyboards/mice from eBay for very little cost, and I'd recommend that.

Another trick I use is to add 5 seconds delay to boot via the BIOS option usually present in HP BIOS (but you need to be able to get into BIOS to do that). The faster workstations can sometimes go faster than you so the extra 5 seconds can be nice to have.

Another tip to get into BIOS is this:

Fully shut down. Cold boot with your finger over the F10 key. The instant you see your monitor go from pure black to slight gray (the backlights came on) start tapping on F10 at a rate of about twice per second. Keep tapping at that rate until a boot window shows up (usually blue color). Stop tapping at that moment. If F10 did not work for that use the Esc key instead.

I have no idea why some workstations can be so hard to get into BIOS with, but it does happen, and I've never not been able to get into BIOS and fix that. Resetting BIOS to factory defaults can help and then fine tune from there. Clear CMOS can help too, plus new CMOS battery as part of that process.

[RoyaltyTurk]

Thank you for showing interest and responding to my question. I will continue by answering the points you mentioned.

First, the product I bought is this ATX case. I bought it as second-hand from a computer shop, and there is no issue with the USB ports because when I press the keyboard too much, as you mentioned, it starts repeating and giving a "DIT (beep) DIT (beep)" sound when I press any key, indicating the keyboard buffer is active. Additionally, even though I press the CMOS button for 20 seconds and also remove the BIOS battery for 1 minute to discharge the capacitors, unfortunately, the F10 and ESC keys still don't work, meaning I cannot get to the BIOS screen.

Normally, I have HPZ840 and ML350 versions, and I can enter BIOS without any issues on them, but I can’t figure out if there’s a different process for this workstation. I’m thinking about trying something additional.

Also, I wanted to ask if I can use two graphics cards together, and if so, do I need to put the ATI card in the upper PCI slot and the Tesla in the lower PCI slot? Right now, even though I’ve installed them, I’m getting three beeps, and the Tesla remains powered on, which normally doesn’t happen until the system reaches performance mode without booting into BIOS and before consuming 235W.

The things I want to learn are:

• What can I do to enter the BIOS? If I can’t enter it, what could be the cause or causes of the problem?
• Will this computer support running both the ATI graphics card and the Nvidia Tesla K20 graphics card simultaneously?
• Since I can’t access BIOS, I can’t boot from USB, and thus I’m unable to install an operating system.

[SDH]

Go search for Z240 QuickSpecs PDF and find the latest you can. Under the graphics section there is a bunch of listings. There are 2 PCIe graphics sockets on your motherboard. The majority of the graphics cards listed show only one can be used. A few show that two of those can be used. That usually means that the motherboard's power capacity is limited and what you want to run is high power instead. I believe you have the wrong workstation for what you want to do.

I'd get a Z420 or a Z4 G4 instead with a higher power capability.

[DGroves]

for the z240 systems

Could you please provide guidance on

How to configure the system to work with both GPUs simultaneously?

when installing a add in video card the bios by default will select it as the primary display to change this enter the bios and you should be able to enable the onboard CPU based display to secondary (note some system auto disable the onboard)

Any steps to enable the second PCIe slot if the BIOS does not have an explicit option for it.

there is no PCI-E enable setting, all slots are enabled by default

How to resolve the 3-beep error when the Tesla K40 is installed? (PS:Tesla working fine with another pc tested!)

for the z240 tower model only it's possible to replace the HP specific power supply with a  standard ATX supply and use a adapter to convert the ATX 24 pin to the HP 7 Pin google  amazon z240 atx power supply adapter

How to access the BIOS, as I cannot seem to enter it with the standard keys (F10, ESC, F1)?

if a add in video card is installed and display only shows once windows is loaded then you most likely have the monitor cable connected to the secondary video display port instead of the primary video cards display port

last the K40 card is a server based card as such it has no active cooling and will overheat in other systems unless you mod the card to have active cooling see the ebay link for one such fan mod

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313527520178

[RoyaltyTurk]

I mean no disrespect, but the people responding here either lack proper English skills or sufficient knowledge!

My question is very simple:

1. I cannot enter the BIOS using ESC, F1, or F10 keys, even though I’ve reset the CMOS and removed the BIOS battery. I want to access the BIOS because:
   a) I need to set USB as the boot option to install an operating system from USB.
   b) The motherboard has two PCI slots for graphics cards, which should easily allow me to use two graphics cards simultaneously. Even if this stupid HP doesn’t allow me to disable the onboard Intel integrated graphics card, it should at least allow me to configure PCI slots for two graphics cards from the BIOS settings.

I am asking you about the BIOS, but you’re telling me unrelated things!

I already know that the graphics card draws power and requires a large power supply. Currently, I am testing with a 750W PSU.

When I install two graphics cards, not only does the first card not provide any display, but I also encounter error beeps.

Clearly, no one here has experienced or resolved a BIOS access issue before!

Additionally, I am not new to using NVIDIA Tesla graphics cards.
I use the following setups:

• 1 NVIDIA M60 on a Dell T5820
• 1 NVIDIA M60 on an HP Z840
• 2 NVIDIA M60s on an HP ML350 G9

On this workstation, there is:

• 1 PCIe Gen3 x4 slot (x16 connector)
• 1 PCIe Gen3 x1 slot (x4 connector)

Based on this, I intend to use the Tesla GPU (which is designed for server use and has no display output) on the x4 slot and the other GPU that will provide display output on the x16 slot.

If you don’t have the knowledge or experience, please don’t confuse the issue or waste my time with unnecessary comments. I’m seeing ridiculous and unrelated answers here, and it’s frustrating.