HP

[Deluxecars41]

Hi there everyone, I have a HP XW9400 Workstation. Whenever I turn it on it has a fatal red light with a beep and turns off. The second time I turn it on it posts to BIOS but after a couple of seconds the system turns off with the red light constantly blinking with an interval of 2 to 5 seconds. I recently washed/cleaned the liquid cooler that covers the two AMD Opteron CPUS and I believe that's why this problem is happening. Could new thermal paste or replacement of the liquid cooler do the trick. I don't have much money to spend on a new cooler, a new cooler is worth more than the desktop itself. If a cheaper yet effective alternative will work then I will be happy. This model once again is the XW-9400 With 2x Opteron AMD, Liquid Cooling pipes and radiators that have been washed. Thanks and any tips will do
Thanks

[Deluxecars41]

I am Hoping that a quick solution can come shortly as this machine is my favourite so far.
Thanks

[DGroves]

did you disconect any power leads while cleaning? if so dbl check that you reconnected all of them and that they are sitting corectly on the mating pins and not shifted over by one pin

when talking about beeps and blinking power lights YOU NEED TO BE PRECISE IN YOUR DESCRIPTION, for us to determine what the audio/visual code means your haphazard description means i can not determine what error code the system is self reporting

error codes are covered in the service manual for your model

[Deluxecars41]

Hi there, thanks for your reply. I recently bought this on eBay with no knowledge of this problem prior to buying it, I was told to put new thermal paste on the 2X CPU and I'll do that where I'll report back here. Sorry for the unclear description, I'll post a video on YouTube describing the nature of the situation, I'll even show the motherboard and all of its connections at their respective places.
Thanks

[DGroves]

I am well aware of where the fan/sata/memory/cpu sockets are this motherboard, you don't need to post this.

what you do need to post is the number of beeps and the number of red light flashes

please download the HP service manual for the xw9400 and read the sections on beep codes and power supply self test before reposting here

http://content.etilize.com/User-Manual/1010902951.pdf

if you have never applied thermal past before

1. carefully clean the existing past from the cpu top and heatsink using lint free cloth and 99% denatured alcohol

DO NOT REMOVE THE CPU'S from the sockets LEAVE THEM IN!!!

2. apply very small  drops near (but not at the edges) all four cornors and one drop in the center of the cpu heat spreader

now reattach the heatsink(s)

[Deluxecars41]

Hi there again, I have changes the thermal paste and checked everything on the board and it's still beeping 5 beeps with a time interval of 2 seconds with the red LED. Here's what the manual states what the problem could be

Ensure DIMMs are loaded in correct slots.
2. Reseat DIMMs.
3. Replace DIMMs one at a time to isolate faulty module.
4. Replace third-party memory with HP memory.
5. Reseat CPUs.
6. Replace system board.

Do you think the best option is to return the product to the seller because they didn't want to let me test it on pickup. Thanks

[DGroves]

remove all ram, install just 2 dims in each bank for a total of 4 (if dual cpu) or just  2 dimms in bank 0 if one cpu and then power on you have a bad memory module or a module not seated in the socket right

note that each module has a notch that matches the notch in the memory socket

Use only PC2-5300 ECC DIMMs (what are the numbers on a memory module?)

start reading from page 69 of service manual, it will show you the correct memory slot load order, what you want to do is install the bare minimum of modules and then pwr the system on, note the responce. you are trying to isolate which module is bad or which module(s) are in the wrong sockets

if you have diffrent sized modules IE-2gb modules and 4gb modules each size must be installed in pairs for each bank

you can not mix a 4gb module and a 2gb module in the same bank

https://jp.ext.hp.com/lib/doc/manual/workstation/xw9400/xw9400strg_e_c00774787.pdf

[Deluxecars41]

Hi, it has all same RAM DIMMS (2gb) each of the exact same make and brand. Again the error beeps are 5 beeps with a interval of 2 seconds. I'll try to swap around the AMD OPTERON CPU and reset the CMOS tomorrow morning . AUSTRALIAN TIME. Please tell me if what I'm about to do will help otherwise the seller opted to return the Workstation even though I don't really want to.
Thanks

[DGroves]

did you follow my instructions and remove and only install 2 modules per bank

[Deluxecars41]

Put 2 modules per bank as you've instructed and report back to you, currently it's midnight in Australia so I'll do it early morning before returning it to see if it works. I'll even put back the original GPU and try to swap both CPUs around incase they have a configuration. I hope to be able to fix this PC as I'm not keen to return it to the seller.