Z220 no display and fans at max speed

[RAF75]

My Z220 does not post anymore.

One of the latest thing I did was to change bios setting from ACHI-RAID to AHCI ony.

After that change, the workstation worked for a while, then suddenly it stopped.

No display and fans at max speed.

If I take out ram, I get 5 beeps, so motherboard is not totally dead.

I've tried the procedure described here:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Crisis-Recovery-Ju...

However I didn't succed.

What I I've NOT tried so far:

Using an old PCI video card (So far I've used Intel integrated or nvidia K620)

Using a CD instead of USB KEY, since I don't have a CD/DVD player at hand.

Any suggestions?

[BeemerBiker]

The AHCI change you made would only affect the system if the disks were configured for RAID.  

I suspect something went bad on motherboard.

Did you see anything on the screen when you tried that bios recovery?   IMHO that type of recovery is for when a bios update fails and should not be used to try to fix a board that is not booting up after working for a long time.

Disconnect sata data and power cables to hard drives, optical etc.  With fans spiing and LED's on you have at least 12 and 5 volts

Pull all cards including video (if any).  Try motherboard video.  Anytihing happen?  Monitor says no cable and goes to sleep or does not even blink?

 If that does not work use another video card. Make sure you put that bios jumper back in the normal position.

HTH

[DGroves]

your flash the bios method of troubleshooting first is not a recommended method

trying to flash a bios in a situation like yours is a great way to dig a deeper hole by adding a trashed bios issue

your original issue that caused is either a memory/cpu issue or a failed motherboard

(taken from direct from the HP z220 service manual troubleshooting section)

next, the bios setting Raid+AHCI is the correct setting AHCI is not the recommended setting this also is covered in the service manual

you attempt to flash the bios while you were having problems may have add a corupted bios to the list of problems a crysis recovery should only be done after other steps are done

i recommend you take the time to read the service manual and if unable to get the board working you will have to replace the board and it may be better to simply replace the whole system and keep this one for spare parts

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-z220-convertible-minitower-workstation/5260575/manuals

[RAF75]

Whatever I do, I don't see anything on screen, both with integrated video or with external video card.

Bios recovery procedure goes only this far:

8 red beep

USB key flashing

possible reboot (since fans go off and the spin again)

8 red beep

fans spinning at normal speed instead of max speed, but still nothing on display

[DGroves]

the crysis recovery will not show a display while flashing a new bios because it ERASES THE EXISTING BIOS FIRST, after the flash compleats you remove the key and allow the system to reboot and at this point it will display a boot screen

SDH has written a rather good guide on the z620 recovery and has also done the z420 as i recall, i would wait for him to reply

or just buy a replacement z220 motherboard for 30.00 and be done with it

https://www.ebay.com/p/1291930232

[RAF75]

To DGroves

I was trying to use the machine as a hackintosh, AHCI setting (instead of AHCI+RAID) made MacOS boot, AHCI+RAID didn't.

I was not trying to recover bios for "troubleshooting", but as a LAST RESORT after trying everything else: I have pulled of the external graphic card, reset CMOS with reset button, pulled off CMOS battery....all the usual things you do on a system that does not display anything on screen (I'm not a beginner by the way)

[DGroves]

your current error code of 8 beeps is covered in the service manual and is a corrupt bios rather than spend hours on recovery 

(unless you like a challenge) i would simply replace the board (30.00 USD is not that much) as i have many other things that i feel are more productive, but that's just my opinion

[RAF75]

To DGroves

I agree with you and I gave up on trying to recover the Z220.

Unfortunately in Europe (I'm from Italy) there are less opportunities to buy a Z220 motherboard on ebay for cheap.

Ebay sellers from USA either don't ship to Italy or ship cost + import fees are way more than 30 usd.

I'm afraid my Z220 is now just a dust collector 😞

[RAF75]

To DGroves

Anyway, I get 8 beeps only with crisis recovery jumper and this is expected according to the guide by SDH.

Without crisis recovery jumper I get solid blue, with no beep, no display, nothing.

If bios is corrupted, I wonder how this has happened... 

The workstation was loading windows 11 (I saw the windows logo) and then it went all black, with fans spinning at max...

Really weird.