Z400 5 beeps despite no change in RAM

[SDH]

For the Z400 v2 I'd first make sure you have your BIOS upgraded to the latest (3.61). There is a way to upgrade BIOS from within BIOS. It can be risky to do that from within the W10 operating system rather than from within BIOS. If you're already at the latest then great.

A lot of the literature from HP talks about certain things being supported and others not... this sometimes has to do with HP doing their extensive conformance testing and finding that what they tried did not work. However it can also have to do with what would not be practical for real world use for a particular workstation at that time. Much of what forum members here have accomplished discovering undocumented capabilities of the HP workstations subsequently has been by just trying reasonable things and reporting that they worked or did not. The Z400 was the lower end workstation in this family, then the Z600 and the Z800. So, the idea of running 8GB ECC unbuffered RAM in the Z400 was not officially conformance-tested, was so expensive at that time, and thus was not officially "supported" by HP. That does not mean it won't work... and it can, but you need to do this conformance testing yourself.

I've attached an old post on the topic, plus a couple of HP documents on memory use in the Z400 v2. The basics are that you would want to use dual rank ECC unbuffered 1333MHz DDR3 (and I'd pick Micron, or Samsung). You can find Micron technical PDFs for your current 4GB unbuffered memory sticks.  Look in there for the dual rank 8GB version, then search for 6 matching recycled sticks of that. Related, I did try 8GB ECC buffered (registered) sticks in the Z400 v2 and those would not work, but they did work fine in the Z600 v2... due to memory controller differences. Micron's current memory configurator online utility does mention that 8GB ECC unbuffered sticks work in the Z400 v2 but they don't have any for sale now. They did in the past.

You sure you don't want a Z420 v2 or a single processor Z620 v2? Or, even a Z440/Z640 single processor box? No v1 or v2 issue for those ZX40s. Those all have really come down in price, especially the ZX20s.

See the attached 3 PDFs, below. The "Dan_WGBU" in that forum post PDF about using 8GB sticks/48GB total is an experienced HP Z engineer who used to help us quite a bit with excellent insight... you'll need to pay attention to case cooling if you do that.

[SDH]

Peter, attached below is the Micron PDF for your current memory. You don't get any benefit from running 1.35V DDR3L memory... but may pay a cost for that in terms of money. These workstations can't run at the L option's 1.35V and will automatically default up to using the standard 1.5V. So also go do the same search for the non-L standard memory to compare prices. I found the L version costs more...

Also, wise to add in the black plastic Z400 HP optional memory airflow baffle (591213-001) for better memory cooling. That uses the power supply's fan to guide front cooling air up and out over the memory bank.

Also, make sure to have a Z400 front case fan too. I can get you part numbers for that if you need.

See attached PDF... it should be pretty easy to also find the 1.5V standard unbuffered Micron memory.

[SDH]

Found the standard 1.5 volt Micron PDF, below. 

You usually can run the faster memory but it won't ever run faster than 1333MHz in your workstation. Note after your memory's ID code's hyphen the "-1G4". For the 8GB Micron sticks you'd want to at least have that speed grade, or -1G6 or even -1G9. Turns out for 8GB sticks there is no -1G4 speed grade, but you can go up 1 or 2 speed grades.

You can review 1.5V 4GB sticks on page 1 of the attached PDF... since you'll end up with a processor that can run at the max the box can (1333MHz) you'd want any of the top 3 speed grades for 1.5V 4GB sticks, whichever is cheaper. However, for the 8GB sticks (bottom of page 2) there are only 2 speed grades available... MT18JSF1G72AZ-1G6 and MT18JSF1G72AZ-1G9. So now go search for those, and I'd get the -1G6 version. I'd not mix speed grades or voltage grades.

[bamber2000]

Thanks.  I have the airflow guide and added the front case fan a few days ago. after having read posts here.

I’ll follow your advice when I buy my 48GB RAM.  Is there any performance disadvantage if the two memory banks have slightly different DIMMs, say, three from Micron and three from Samsung?.  It’ll probably be cheaper to buy threes (or twos and singles) than to buy sixes.

Regarding higher model workstations, I have that possibility in mind if Flight Sim’s performance doesn’t please me, but first I’ll extract the best I can from my Z400.

[bamber2000]

Just bought an X5690 from China. 😌

[SDH]

Regarding the 3 from Micron and 3 from Samsung... I've seen odd results with a mix and match approach in the past. You'd probably get away with it, but I personally would stick with all being the same (either all Micron or all Samsung, all non-L, all dual rank, all same speed rank, all unbuffered). During your search you may be able to find some that have the HP part number(s) on them on a HP side label, originally for another HP computer that was officially certified for use of ECC unbuffered 8GB sticks. Supposedly HP does higher level "binning" of their memory so those are nice to get if possible but I've not set that as a high priority more recently.

[bamber2000]

Okay, I’ll go for six identical modules.

There aren’t many 1.5V Micron 8GB DDR3-1333 modules on eBay so I’m going to expand my search to include the 1.35V versions, even though my motherboard can’t make use of the lower voltage, lower power, less heat benefit.  From one of the data sheets you kindly found, that’s the MT18KSF1G72AZ-1G4 module.

[bamber2000]

Update

I put in a single, new (to me) 4GB stick of RAM just in case all five sticks had been damaged.  5 beeps. 🙁

I performed a CMOS reset (with the power cord out as the manual says).  5 beeps. ☹️

Refurb. motherboard ordered.

By the way, why does the power cord have to be out to perform a CMOS reset?  (I assume the reset is powered by the coin cell on the motherboard.)

Peter

[DGroves]

you need to remove the power to the supply because all current motherboards  are able to go to sleep, however even in sleep mode the power supply provides power to the "power on" circuit so the system can then power up fully when the power button is pressed

this trickle current will sometimes prevent the cmos settings from being discharged/reset if the power supply is still connected to the AC mains

[bamber2000]

Thanks for that.