HP Z600 Will no longer boot, 6 Beeps with Red Power Button

[Peter_Geary]

This is my first post here so apologies for any missing details or mistakes,

The problem I'm having is that my recently purchased Z600 Workstation is no longer booting, when I go to power it on the system shows no video output and just beeps 6 times in a row with an accompanying flashing red light on the power button, according to the HP manual for my system this indicates that there's a bad pre-load video error, what I'm confused by is the fact that I was using my PC, I went it the bios, changed a few options (an option on the PCIe slot for my GPU was turned to "Compute" mode) then I saved and restarted, now the system won't boot, I've reset the CMOS (with power cable disconnected) even removed the battery, nothing, it can't even load the BIOS, have I broken a software setting or has my motherboard really just died on me? Or is there something else I'm missing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, this is my second system to go this year, my motherboard on my other system still needs to be replaced......

[savvy2]

first and formost on all old PC is the RTC CMOS Coin cell bettery, replace it test it.  can be 8 years old today, 1 more than thajn the   pink bunny says, is (end off life  curve) 2.9vdc or more, below is the deathh cliff....on them all.

BIOS dead, screens INOP. F10,Esc key, F11, etc.

6 flash, codes. error.

fans run?

remove all DDR ram sticks and try them 1 by one in lot bank 0.

some memory  of the main systems are shared with the video GPU card  (of the 9 used new some may)

is this a 2 processor WS? or 1.  some have 2.

the ram speed must  match or exceed the processors used,  check that carefully. hint lots of processors to choose.

base ram is

PC3-10600 DDR3-1333 ECC Unbuffered DIMMs CTO:

9 choices of  GPU cards where  offered day one new,  which one do you have.?

is it in the correct slot that GPU card? per manual.

what monitor  is there, makers name model.

test the monitor?>  if older than 2010 , push menu button on monitor front, turn off old, power saver and timer.

try a diffent GPU card.?

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01709709

[Peter_Geary]

I fixed the problem in the end, it turned out to be used error, I just reset the CMOS properly and all was fine in terms of booting up the GPU, thanks anyway

[MyYl_myYl]

I just resetted the CMOS "properly".. What did you do? Because I am I've done the same as you hahahahaha

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@Peter_Geary wrote:
I fixed the problem in the end, it turned out to be used error, I just reset the CMOS properly and all was fine in terms of booting up the GPU, thanks anyway

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Yah bless

[DGroves]

it's recomended that you try using this forums "search" function before asking a question as there is a good chance it's been asked/answered allready

in your case i personally have answered this question several times here on the forum

the compute option tells the bios to ignore the video aspect of the card installed in that slot and only make use of it's gpu as a compute device (not what you want on your primary/only video card)

changing bios settings you really don't understand is not something you should be doing!! in the future find out what a setting does before changing it

as you have noted, once the compute option is enabled that pci-e slot will no longer allow a video device to output a video signal, and this setting is retained even if you reset the cmos.

you have 4 fixes avaiable

1. move the card to another pci-e slot that does not have compute enabled, change all slots back to compute disabled, and then move card back to primary slot

2.  install a PCI video card (if you did not change this option on all slots) and again disable compute on all slots shutdown remove pci card and reboot

3. find someone willing to give you a "blind" step list of keys to press without video that disables compute for your model computer

4. replace motherboard

[MyYl_myYl]

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@DGroves wrote:

it's recomended that you try using this forums "search" function before asking a question as there is a good chance it's been asked/answered allready

in your case i personally have answered this question several times here on the forum

the compute option tells the bios to ignore the video aspect of the card installed in that slot and only make use of it's gpu as a compute device (not what you want on your primary/only video card)

changing bios settings you really don't understand is not something you should be doing!! in the future find out what a setting does before changing it

as you have noted, once the compute option is enabled that pci-e slot will no longer allow a video device to output a video signal, and this setting is retained even if you reset the cmos.

you have 4 fixes avaiable

1. move the card to another pci-e slot that does not have compute enabled, change all slots back to compute disabled, and then move card back to primary slot

2.  install a PCI video card (if you did not change this option on all slots) and again disable compute on all slots shutdown remove pci card and reboot

3. find someone willing to give you a "blind" step list of keys to press without video that disables compute for your model computer

4. replace motherboard

Thanks for you advice. Because of the wisdom of Yah and your advice I was able to get back into the bios again. HalleluYAH. 

Here's what I did

I have a HP z600 with a nvidia quadro 600 graphics card....

I turned compute mode in the bios of my z600 thinking it would enhance graphical performance ROFL! 

Was I wrong? Yes indeed, as mentioned above in the quote, that mode disables the video aspect of it so long story short when booting up I got the 6 beeps even after CMOS reset and all of that. 

Here's what I did:

I got my quadro 600 and placed it in the smaller PCI express solt, I believe x8 slot (since I had turned on compute on both larger x16 PCI e slots).

Yes the card is way larger than the slot but the first few inches or centimeters of the card fitted in.

So I booted up my PC and VOILA! I WAS ABLE TO GET BACK INTO THE BIOS MAKE SURE EVERYTHING  WITH ALL THE SETTINGS WAS GOOD.

MAKING SURE COMPUTE MODE IS TURNED OFF AND THEN SAVED THE SETTINGS. TURNED OFF MY PC AFTER IT EXITED THE BIOS 

CHANGED THE CARD BACK TO THE RIGHTFUL X16 SLOT AND NOW IT IS WORKING AS PRIOR

YAH BLESS?

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