Riser on z620 not being recognized anymore

[Kaydee58]

Dear community,

I am reaching out to you in order to get support with following problem:

My dual CPU setup was working fine within the last years but suddenly the Z620 will not boot anymore without the CPU riser board being installed. With the riser board installed, the fans spin up but I don't get any video signal from the GPU. I have exchanged GPU but the problem still exist. If I keep the Z620 running with the riser board installed after 2min the fans become really loud. What could be the reason? The Z620 works totally fine without 2nd CPU riser board installed. Do I need to get a new riser board?

Best,

kaydee58

[DGroves]

if the system starts with low fan speed and then in about 6-10 sec ramps up to full speed without any beeps/flashing power light, it's possible that the bios is corrupted  (or the board has failed) wait for "SDH" to comment as he has a good deal of experience with this model workstation, i primarily work with the z820/z840 systems

[Kaydee58]

Thank you for the info: I will definately try that. As I already mentioned: without riser board the computer just works fine.

[DGroves]

if the system works without the riser board then the bios is fine DO NOT REFLASH as it will be pointless

i've also read that the connector on the riser to the motherboard connectors can overheat or fail to make proper contact inspect both connectors for signs of overheating or poor connections if it looks ok then the issue is most likely the riserboard itself has failed

[SDH]

Agree with that. I've never been a big fan of that riser/mini-motherboard. The complex plug-in connection versus the on-motherboard second processor socket of the Z820/Z840 has been a source of issues for others in the past. We here luckily have not seen that in our dual processor Z620/Z640 workstations.

I personally prefer to not use the riser approach and agree with DGroves that for dual processor builds the Z820/Z840 is a better solution.

[DGroves]

i also suspect that the cost of a z620 riser board will be very close to the cost of a working z820 (v2 system)

and very close to the cost of a barebones z840 system (you add cpu(s) ram and storage)