Z440 beeps 8 times on power-on

[hl108]

I also did some research on available Motherboards.

My own Motherboard carries this sticker:

On ebay I found one titled "HP MAINBOARD Z440 Workstation AS 710324-002 SP 761514-001 LGA 2011-3 DDR4 ECC"

So this looks promising, does it not?

Downside is the seller wants 90 Euros for it.

And I don't know whether it contains a Windows key.

[SDH]

I'd try to recover that one. The numbers on the left just represent the 3 possible brandings from HP at time of manufacture of the motherboard. Once branded you only end up with one of those options. Branding is a 1-time event. The third option shown means that the motherboard came with Win branding plus a firmware upgrade to TPM 2.0 from the factory. W8.x means it will be registered on the MS W10/W11 license servers as eligible for upgrade from 8 to 10/11. Yours is a newer motherboard from the 2-alphanumerics bottom right side of the barcode label. On the bottom of your case one of the stickers will have tiny letters stating the OS it was originally branded for.

I just downloaded the latest BIOS softpaq for the Z440. Once I ran that the first time It defaulted to opening making the USB drive for BIOS recovery. At least in the US I just google for Z440 drivers. A HP site is top of the list. Go there and navigate to W7 64 bit. Some of the others OS versions listed don't offer BIOS download (a mistake) but that one does. The BIOS downloads for all would be identical but HP screwed this up so go to the W7 listing to get it. Latest is 2.61. Only get that, you don't need the tools just below. Download manually at the next page. Get sp146166 on your desktop. Run that as admin. That is when the BIOS recovery page opened. Make sure to Fat32 format your small USB key before you do this, and you'll be doing the process on another computer. I used a 2GB small USB. 

That process also loads a SWSetup directory onto the root level of your C drive, and in that will be another directory SP146166. In there in a few places you can find the .bin file.... M60_0261.bin, 10, 240 kb. The USB drive it made also has that bin file in there. Let us know if that key worked as it was created.

Re updating BIOS from within BIOS you should not have to do that if you pull this off. Get back to me if you end up having to do that on a used eBay motherboard. You have a shot at pulling this off now... good find on that post. I still don't fully understand the process but I'd try to follow the HP directions first and there may be more in that folder on your root C drive to look at.

[SDH]

Just so you know... very rarely a used motherboard will luckily have a small square HP sticker attached on it stating something like "Replace with Spares Part Number 761514-601" and from reference to your bar code label you would then know that is a Win "branded" motherboard. I've bought several sealed "virgin" motherboards before and had to learn the branding thing... not something I'd ever advise but the codes to do that are on the labels on your case.

Second, the structure of that thumb drive that was created:

2GB Thumb/ Hewlett-Packard/ BIOS and Bios Update (empty)/ BIOS contained Current and New and Previous (Current has the new .bin file in it; the two others were empty)

[hl108]

OK, done all that. Got my Flash drive ready (it was a 8GB micro SD card in an adapter, because I didn't have anything else).

This did not work.

Then I remembered the post by Veit Marelli and moved the M60_0261.bin to top level.

It still did not work, but it took a lot longer for the beeps to occur. I tried a few times. This result could be reproduced reliably in the top USB slot on the front, but not in any of the other USB slots. I assume that it did find the file, copied it over, tried to restart, but it was still corrupted. To me this indicates a HW issue. What do you think?

[SDH]

Here comes the rabbit hole... many of the old links won't work.

Solved: Crisis Recovery Jumper Z620 Z420 Z820 Revealed - HP Support Community - 6658619

Note this was for earlier workstations and yet the BBR jumper exists also in the Zx40 workstations. Read that first post carefully and see if you want to try to force the process to begin. Note that I'd recommend having the USB drive created ahead of time by that SoftPaq I told you about (and that was created here). What was done for earlier workstations changed for the Zx40 and later but I assume that if you let the softpaq make that USB drive it will have made it correctly and if you follow the steps related to forcing BBR with the jumper it may work. As stated the BBR jumper is very poorly documented by HP both before and with the Zx40 workstations. However you have nothing to lose now. You can see where it is on the inside of your side panel, #33. It is black, above and to the left of your MB battery, below the lime green one. By default it will be bridging the 2 pins to the right (pins 2-3). Pin 1 will always have a tiny white triangle printed next to it on the motherboard.

EDIT Attached below may help. For doing my update of bios from within bios for these Zx40 workstations you build a nest of 3 folders with the .bin file being in the bottom one. The instructions from HP here do not include that. I'd try their way as detailed in the attached PDF first, and the post you found seems to suggest that worked too. Maybe the thing that will break this open is the jumper change. I'm sure a MB transplant will work too. 

p.s. I think you're making a mistake to not go get a real USB drive. This is hard enough without throwing in an adapter.

[hl108]

OK, tried that.

Located the jumper and switched it.

Inserted USB into top USB slot on the front

powered up

8 beeps followed by silence  --- normal behavior

LED on USB stick lights up (but does not flash as in the description)

after a while regular 8 beep pattern resumes.

after 5 iterations stops beeping but LED continues to blink.

after another minute or so Fan goes to top speed.

Then I power off the system

I guess this was not successful.

I repeated one more time -- no success.

On other USB slots USB LED will not light up, so I guess no reading occurs.

[SDH]

Well, great effort on your part but I agree on the hardware issue. Time for a new used motherboard. If anyone could have pulled off it would be you. At least the fix is not very expensive.

When you do the transplant take a few pics and notes. It is pretty simple. I like to tape up the cables as I loosen them, up to the edge of the case above where they came from. That gives you just enough free room to get the motherboards out/in without jamming things too much.

[hl108]

Not so fast my dear...

I tried again with a real USB-stick (64 GB, didn't have anything smaller).

It started reading the USB (LED flashing) -- twice -- just as described.

HP Logo showing up on the screen (first time anything was shown on the screen)

then it complained that the real-time-clock was reset (well because of the battery removal)

some more time passed

then it wanted authorization to change the secure boot setup -- I gave him that.

Now screen is black again -- no USB access anymore, but the fans are quietly humming.

Description said it would turn off by itself, but it hasn't done that yet.

Promising so far.

[hl108]

But not successful.

I switched off the power eventually, reset the jumper and powered up...

No improvement.

I guess I'll have to go for the new MB.

[SDH]

So close and yet so far. Some of the reports of success from the Crisis Recovery project included multiple failures and finally a breakthrough. You're probably tired of all this, but you might consider starting with the low level purge of electrons yet again. It will be more efficient the tenth time around...