HP Z420 Bricked Discussion

[warprider]

Hello,

Getting No post beeps, fast fans after 30 secs, and tried all the Block Recovery methods with the .bin file on a flash...  I never get any beeps or flashes on the portable drive... Had Windows 11 installed updated to latest bios, machine locked up, had to force power down... This was the result... ATM all ram, drives, and an older legacy GPU installed... Nothing but fast fans after 30 secs... HP z420 ...  Is it bricked?  I read not to give up...  Thanks!

[SDH]

I'll assume you read up on the long method of resetting CMOS (with the battery out, etc.). And, also about how to use the Crisis Recovery jumper.

And my guess is that you did not read up on how to flash BIOS from within BIOS... this became especially important with the advent of W10 (and obviously W11 too).  Upgrading BIOS from within the operating system hugely increases the chances of bricking your motherboard.

It is not too bad of a project to buy a used Z420 version 2 motherboard off eBay and install that.  Make sure you only buy a v2 motherboard.  It has been posted in here multiple times about how to do that using the motherboard's bar code label and the hyphenated part number on the right hand side of that label.

[warprider]

Thanks for the reply...  I had to screw around to get Windows 11 installed... Thinking wow, I will update the bios to help with all this...  Um, not a good idea...  So leaving the battery out overnight, then proceeding with MOBO replacement, if no luck...  The main reason for my post was the lack of sound... Most threads refer to sound/beeps... Not getting any post beeps...

Thanks!  I would buy a V2 mobo but from other readings, my CPU would not be compatible...  Could definitely be wrong...

[itsmyname]

@warprider -- all ram, drives, and an older legacy GPU installed

I am not sure that you have a "BIOS Issue". 

Do you have another HP computer that will accept the RAM from your computer?

If so, run the HP Hardware Diagnostics on that computer, with your RAM installed, to prove that your RAM is OK.

Do you have another computer (any brand) that you can connect your disk-drive as a "secondary" disk-drive?  Then, you can run the HP Hardware Diagnostics on that "secondary" disk-drive, to prove that the disk-drive is OK.

Do you have another computer (any brand) that you can connect your GPU ?

Then, will that GPU work on that computer?

If all the above tests reveal nothing bad, then it is possible that your motherboard (or your power-supply) is the cause of your issue.

[SDH · Accepted solution]

"I would buy a V2 mobo but from other readings, my CPU would not be compatible..."

Wrong, so don't hesitate on upgrading to a v2 motherboard based on that idea.

The v2 Z420 motherboards can run all the HP certified processors that the v1 Z420 motherboards can, plus faster better v2 ones.  And, also can run faster better memory (or still run the memory that you already have).