HP Z400 Wokrstation BIOS PCI compute leads to graphics-card is not recognized anymore (6 beeps)

[RoWi_93]

Hi all,

i made the mistake to set all PCI(e)-ports of my Z400 to "compute=yes" in the BIOS-settings. The result is that my graphics-card isn't recognized anymore which my machine tells me by beeping six times without giving any image or going any further. I also tried another graphics-card with the same result (both of them are PCI-e-cards).

I wanted to reset the BIOS-settings to default. So what i've done so far is:

• A CMOS-Reset by diconnecting all wires, pressing the CMOS-reset-button for a few seconds, plugging in the stuff again and booting
• Removed the CMOS-battery for a few days
• Set the jumper "Crisis Recovery", landed in BIOS-recovery-menu, flashed the bios-image version 3.57 again (did this by setting up a recovery CD with this image: http://support.harlander.com/artikelsupport/computer-und-workstations/hp/hp-z400-workstation.html#dr...). Flash was successful.

But all of these points didn't fix the issue in my case.

A few guys have already had this problem and solved it by using an old PCI-graphics card (VGA). But i don't think that this is going to work in my case because all  my PCI-ports are set to "compute", not only the PCIe ones.

The question now is: how can i really reset my BIOS-settings, so that this "pci-compute"-option will be set back to "no"? I found a few good answers here: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktops-Archive-Read-Only/z400-workstation-gives-6-beeps-amp-red-ligh... , but nothing helped in my case.

Thank you guys !

[SDH]

The only thing I can think of that you did not mention is pushing the power-on button and holding it for 10 seconds (to drain capacitors), and I cycle through things about 3 times, and the power cord obviously is fully disconnected as are all other items that could get power to the motherboard.

I have seen an internal LED kept lit by current feedback through a DVI cable from a monitor that was plugged in.... can't remember if it was an LED on the motherboard or the card.

So, I'm thinking you're out of luck.  However, the good news is that a used Z400 motherboard from eBay is only about $40.00 USD, and if you go that route make sure to get a v2 one.... the ones with 6 DIMM slots are v2; those with 4 are v1.

Keep us posted.......

[RoWi_93]

Hey, thanks for your answer.

Well i pushed the power-button a few times when all cords have been disconnected to make sure the capacitors are drained. I also think that i was able to "reset" the BIOS in a way, because when i first jumpered the "Crisis Recovery" a screen came up which tells me that my BIOS was corrupt (or not installed). I then flashed the BIOS again by setting up a recovery CD from the mentioned image. That brought my BIOS back but the "PCI-compute" options are still not reset... very strange behaviour in my opinion? I would expect the BIOS settings to be completely set to default when flashing a new one.

[SDH]

Not sure if you can get into the BIOS where under the first tab you could use Replicated Setup.

If you can then you might want to have a thumb drive with a good cpqsetup.txt file (all the bios settings) and load them from there.  If you have another Z400 you can capture that easily.  If you want me to send you mine then PM me through the forum with your address and I can attach it to an eMail.

You'd put that on a thumb drive, have that in place for a cold boot, F10 into BIOS, and go down that first tab to select the thumb drive to clone my settings onto your BIOS.  Mine don't have Computer enabled......

This allows you to exactly clone someone else's BIOS settings, and maybe this would work.  The .txt file is quite small, but it has all the settings in it, and you can even print it out and compare side to side from a good one to a bad one.... can be handy to know about.

[RoWi_93]

Unfortunately i can't access the BIOS, because the machine is just beeping six times and doing nothing else if i don't jumper the crisis thingy.

But recovering the settings by generating an appropriate textfile sounds interesting. Do you know if i can start this kind of "import process" without launching the BIOS-screen?

[SDH]

You at least need to be able to get into BIOS and work in that.

[Minh75]

I personally had this problem any anyone encounter this just get an old vga on PCI slot  (not PIC-E ) when install in the PCI slot  power it up it will reset the vga bios setting some how ... but it did the job..I tried all the reset thing on the mother board it never worked but the PCI vga card works. and just remember not to do the compute setting on PCI-E in bios again...

good luck

[RoWi_93]

Hi guys,

in the end the approach provided by Minh75 was successful ! I bought myself a (very) old VGA PCI (no express) graphics card for about 10$. I plugged it into a free PCI-slot (the gray ones) and was then able to access the BIOS again and therefore I could remove the "compute-options" from the PCI-e slots. Finally i put my PCI-e card back in and had a normal screen like usual.

So to summarize things a bit:

• PCI(e) compute option of the HP-BIOS settings seem to break PCIe-graphics cards, because they're not recocnized anymore
• CMOS reset and all kinds of removing CMOS batterie doesn't help
• (Re)flashing a new BIOS doesn't help (seems to me, that these settings are placed in a piece of persistent storage)
• Old PCI cards are recognized even if the slot has the "compute" option set in the BIOS settings

Ok now i know: never, never set the "PCI-compute = true" options to ALL of the slots synchronously, it will cost you a lot of time and nerves 🙂

PS: thread can be marked as SOLVED

[Krrissna]

I have solution 100% working
mail me krsflorist@gmail.com

[SDH]

The way things work here is that it is a peer to peer help group.  We rarely get input from HP on this forum, but we appreciate it whenever it happens.

If you have something to contribute please post it here openly to help others, as the rest of us have done over the years.

Thanks.....