HP Z840 Clean Install

[CinéMatica]

Hello everyone,

As my Windows 10 Pro 1909 is running slow (please see my other messages), I want to do a clean install on my HP Z840.

After a little bit of searching I found some information on the HP Support page. See below.

HP Workstations - Installing Windows 10 

Is the very last point on this page the correct procedure to follow for a clean install?

Can someone please guide me in the right direction about which HP drivers and software I should install from this webpage to create a smooth running system?

HP Customer Support - Software and Driver Downloads 

I have already downloaded Windows 10 Pro 1903 V2 64-bit from the Microsoft website. If a better version is preferred, please let me know.

Thank you very much.

Friendly Greetings!

[Z440Roger]

When i do a clean install i use the latest Windows version from Microsoft and use  Win 10 Pro 1909 without issues today.

When done, i install Chipset, Network and Audio drivers from HP and graphic drivers directly from Nvidia. I don´t RAID my discs so i don´t install any Storage drives, iow Intel Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise, since they cause some errors and dissconnect and re-connect disks from time to time.

[DGroves]

the difference between win 10 1903/1909 is quite minor with 1909 having only a few new applications in fact you can update from 1903 to 1909 by simply using a KB file, unlike all previous updates that were major changes and required a full os replacement

next instead of downloading all of the drivers separately, go to the link below and grab the complete driver pack for your system/os in one go

a win 10 install in general is the main OS, then the video driver, and then the RST driver with reboots for each driver

the other drivers do not really have a load order as win 10 has all required drivers as part of it's core OS, so all you are doing is updating the drivers in win to to later ones

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/cmit/HP_Driverpack_Matrix_x64.html

the only exception to this is the intel AMT driver package (which you will not be using!!) disable AMT in the bios

or,....for the z840 and later models download the HP cloud recovery client, and it will create a factory restore image on a usb key, note the program requires a 16gb key, and a valid serial number to download the image

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/CloudRecovery/crsupportedplatform.html

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05115630

for the z820:  sp85318

[CinéMatica]

Hello Z440Roger,

Thank you very much for your help.

Unfortunately I have 4 HDD's set to RAID 5 in the lower bays that I want to use as audio/video storage for the moment. Later this year I will be purchasing a QNAP TVS-872XT for this purpose.

Friendly greetings!

[CinéMatica]

Hello DGroves,

Thank you very much for your detailed help.

I will give it a try shortly.

Friendly greetings!

[DGroves]

consider this, what's the current cost for 2 two 10gb drives in a raid 1 one config (you have redundancy) along with speed and compatibility with all motherboards/controllers 

now do the same with 4 or 6 10gb drives in raid-1, total up the cost and compare to the Qnap price

unless you are archiving the data and require access by various other parties the Qnap is not the best solution

having the drives connected to your system using a SATA/SAS controller in raid-1 may be a better alternative

[CinéMatica]

Thanks for the tip DGroves! I'll keep it in mind and think it over.

[DGroves]

the Intel RSTe (enterprise) driver is well tested and mostly bug free as  it's a enterprise not a consumer driver if you have drive connect/disconnect issues it's not from this driver as it's included on the windows 10 install disk and all you are doing is updating the driver and installing the "GUI" control panel to set cache mode and monitor errors and config new arrays via gui vs cmd line

[BambiBoomZ]

CineMatica,

Before reinstalling Windows 10, have a look at this advisory /alert that is specific to poor performance on z840 having  E5-2699v3 processors with Hyper-Threading enabled.  This is  referring to Windows 7 and 8.1 systems, but the solution may be worth trying on the Windows 10 system.  The relevant phrase appears to be, "This can be an issue for applications that use legacy Windows OS APIs that don't support more than 64 logical processors."  Note in the description below that the performance deficit relating to the dual E5-2699v3 processors is not related to specific applications, in effect, it is general to dual E5-2699v3. In that regard, I would mention the earlier reference to the AVID notations of versions E5-26XX v3  being limited to 12-cores. 

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04471641#a6726614-c6d3-42f3-af48-7fb46e15b87e

Document ID: c04471641

Advisory: HP Z640/Z840 Workstation - May Have Performance Degradation with Specific Processor

Notice:: The information in this document, including products and software versions, is current as of the release date.The document is subject to change without notice.

Release date : 03-Oct-2014

Last updated : 03-Oct-2014

DESCRIPTION

If an HP Z640 or Z840 workstation is configured with Dual E5-2699v3 processors and Hyper-Threading enabled, as described in the SCOPE section, some Windows ISV software will have reduced performance.

SCOPE

Information in this document applies to the following:

Systems:

• HP Z640 Workstation
• HP Z840 Workstation

Operating Systems:

• Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
• Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro

Parts:

• 780016-001 : IC uP HSW E5-2699v3 18C 2.3GHz 145W

System BIOS:

• Hyper-Threading is enabled

RESOLUTION

An E5-2699v3 dual processor system with HT enabled has 72 logical processors. This can be an issue for applications that use legacy Windows OS APIs that don't support more than 64 logical processors.

To workaround or resolve this issue, please perform one of the following methods.

1. Modify Application to use updated Windows OS APIs that support more than 64 logical processors. Additional information on updated APIs and application modifications required to support greater than 64 logical processors can be found in the following Microsoft article. ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn653313(v=vs.85).aspx).

2. Disable Hyper-Threading in the System BIOS Setup so that there are less than 64 logical processors in the system.

Hardware platforms affected : HP Z640 Workstation, HP Z840 Workstation

Operating systems affected : Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) (deleted)

Software affected : Not applicable

Support Communication Cross Reference ID : IA04471641

<END

The No. 1 solution of modifying applications to use more than 64-logical processors is somewhat detailed and complex, but seems worth trying . It would be a pity and a waste of resources to disable hyperthreading, in effect reducing the thread count from 72 to 32.  In that case, the AVID recommendation of dual 12-cores with hyperthreading would still provide 48 threads, but the 12-core E5-2650 v3 has lower clock speeds than the E5-2699v3 (=2.3 / 3.0Ghz). 

A quite bizarre, specific problem with the exact CPU's in your system.

BambiBoomZ

[CinéMatica]

Hello dear BambiBoomZ,

It looks ike you hit the nail on his head with your last post!

The Dual E5-2699v3 processors withHyper-Threading enabled seem indeed to be the big problem!

As test I disabled the Hyper-Trading, and everything seems to work much faster and smoother in the first place.

Context menus can be opened as good as normal in Avid Media Composer. Something I coudn't do before.

After enabling the Hyper-Trading again, the system becomes really anoying slow again.

Here are some test results after someone on the Avid Forum suggested me to run this.

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_WinSAT

CPUScore              : 9,4

D3DScore              : 9,9

DiskScore             : 8,2

GraphicsScore         : 1

MemoryScore           : 9,4

TimeTaken             : MostRecentAssessment

WinSATAssessmentState : 1

WinSPRLevel           : 1

PSComputerName        : HP-Z840

The WinSPRLevel is the worst score ever! The also very helpfull guy on the Avid forum got a score of 8.1 with his HP Z420 Intel Xeon E5-1650 v2, 6 cores @3.50GHz, 40GB RAM.

WinSat graphicsformal

Direct3D Batch Performance                   42.00 F/s

Direct3D Alpha Blend Performance             42.00 F/s

Direct3D ALU Performance                     42.00 F/s

Direct3D Texture Load Performance            42.00 F/s

Direct3D Batch Performance                   42.00 F/s

Direct3D Alpha Blend Performance             42.00 F/s

Direct3D ALU Performance                     42.00 F/s

Direct3D Texture Load Performance            42.00 F/s

Direct3D Geometry Performance                42.00 F/s

Direct3D Geometry Performance                42.00 F/s

Direct3D Constant Buffer Performance         42.00 F/s

Dshow Video Encode Time                      0.00000 s

Dshow Video Decode Time                      0.00000 s

Media Foundation Decode Time                 0.00000 s

Total Run Time 00:00:01.16

The first point of the solution is completely out of my reach. I work with computers since 1998 and already played with them since my father bought his Radio Shack TRS-80 in the very early eighties, but such a thing is not my kind of thing.

The second point about disabling Hyper-Trading I am also not very enthusiastic of. Having such a powerful system and not be able to use it like it meant to be.

This is a big problem that I certainly didn't expect. I guess nothing leaves me than to contact the vendor of the sytem, and ask them if they will replace the current Dual E5-2699v3 processors with Dual E5-2683v4 chips. These have been approved by Avid in their configuration guide. Hopefully he can still find them.

Thanks again so much for your time and fantastic help BambiBoomZ! If this really seems the solution I owe you a big one BambiBoomZ!

Very friendly greetings,

Ivan