Z820 no post, loud fans, solid blue led

[nano21]

I got Z820 and the issue is the pc wont boot at all. I press power and fans (cpu, mem) are blowing 100% really loud. Fans on the back ramp up but gradually. There are no beeps or led flash, blue led is constantly on, there is also green led on the psu.

Ram(ecc hp branded) and cpu are good as I tested them in other PC.

I did try this https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Boot-and-Lockup/Z820-Bricked-Bios-after-Firmware-update/td-p/5... usb thumb drive is not blinking and if I plug the keyboard in and press numlock key there is no led on the keyboard so it tells me that there is no power to the usb ports. 

There is no visual damage to the board and no bend pins on the sockets.

PC does beep 3 times and flashes 3 times red if I pull the cpu out.

Thats the confusing part for me, if the board "knows" cpu isnt in place, why doesnt it signal other issues as clearly there is an issue?

I dont want to buy new MB 😕

[DGroves]

you are describing the exact same symptions my z820 motherboard had, and sorry to tell you but board replacement was the only solution in my case so you may also be needing a new MB

[SDH]

EDIT.... read my addition to the post I link below, about clearing the CMOS (the BIOS settings) with our well known methods first before you proceed on to the Crisis Recovery Jumper method.  I think these are two different things.....  I believe the CMOS stores BIOS settings and that there is another EEPROM that stores the actual BIOS code itself.  That second EEPROM chip is what the Crisis Recovery Jumper method deals with, I believe.

I too had exactly your symptoms on a Z620 that was headed to the dumpster and it is now up and running rock solid.

Here is my post for the method used:  LINK

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

I'm sure this would not work in every case, but you have a workstation that is quite dead.  The one I was asked to salvage was in the same condition.  One benefit I had is knowing how to do the replicated setup process, which uses the same method of loading a file (the cloned BIOS settings file) onto a thumb drive and having that available for the HP BIOS to access at the right time.  Another similar method used by HP is updating BIOS from within BIOS ("Flash System ROM") where you have the BIOS .bin file on the thumb drive and use that to upgrade BIOS from within BIOS rather than from  within the operating system.

I don't fully understand the exact combination that worked, but it worked and I was able to try the method several times before I finally got it right.  I'd give it a try (or multiple tries) if I was you.  Think of it this way.... there is a predictable sequence of events that is going on for you even now, and it shows some organized function.  The resurrection I saw was quite impressive, from the same dysfunction.  So, there is hope..... and this might save you from needing to buy a new motherboard.

Let us know if you succeed.

[nano21]

Thanks for the replies. Did`t expect to be any 🙂

I saw post by Ashleigh-Paul. Also I did find some good read in the post about upgrading CPUs to IvyBridge. In that thread I found about E15 and E1 jupers. Years back I did update bootblock/bios on a XV9400 Opteron so it kinda refreshed my memory about HP bioses.

Not sure what to think about this but in my z820 on the E1 there is a small cable with 4wires (E1 3pin) and plug on each end (it wasn`t connected) 691362-001its a jumper cable. Not sure if there is one in every z820. I think that it might be left there by a service center.

SDH if you are sure that is bios issue, then it can be programed externally by an eeprom. I can remove bios chip from the board that not a problem. But will be there any issues with MAC address? I remember that on XV9400 you had to edit the flash file not to lose ethernet port.

I did test few times yesterday USB method with .bin file no luck will test again and report back. 

[SDH]

Keep trying... it took me a few times to "get in" also.  Use a smaller FAT32 thumb drive with nothing  but the .bin file on it.  I use an 8GB thumb drive for these purposes.

You want the thumb drive inserted when the workstation is off or it may not get recognized.

When I have time and a non-critical workstation available I'll dink with this, and try to come up with some clearer instructions. 

Of interest, I have found that there are crisis recovery pins on multiple older workstations, but they had 2 instead of 3 pins.  I'm guessing that HP realized it is handy to store the long jumper they use on pins 2-3, and that 3 is a dead pin.   When they only had 2 pins (pins 1 and 2) where would you store the jumper?  The proof will be if I take off the jumper from 2-3 and nothing changes at all in a Z420/Z620.  That 2-3 position would be a handy place to store the jumper that a clever HP engineer came up with.

[Rtorres]

Hi, did you happen to find out how to solve the issue. I have the same exact syntomphs on my HP Z820. All I did was upgrading from two E5-2630v2 to two E5-2696v2 and the issue came up. I have 2 of these workstations one has a 2011 boot block date, but this one has a 2013 boot block date, It was already running v2 processors so I gues it's not a compatibility issue.

Then I tried to go back to running the same old 2 E5-2630v2 and the issue remains. Got all components out and tried 1 single CPU on socket 0 (E5-2620v2) with 1 stick of 8 gbs of ram on DIMM 1 and I got prevideo memory error (5 beeps + 2 segs pause-, then tested 1 single cpu + 16 gbs of ram (DIMMS 1 + 😎 and still got 5 beeps... all memories are good and seated correctly, -tested them with my other HP Z820- ). Then I installed back the 2 cpus with memories on all black dimms and got rid of pre memory error but ent back to the starting point.

I've tried the "Crisis Jumper Method" But the Workstation keeps beeping 8 times per second and 2 segs quiet, the lights of the USB thumb drive keeps on during beeping, then when beeping stops it flashes quickly and then the lights shutdows and repeats all the beep coding again.

(I have tested 3 thumb drives all with 512 mbs partitions and FAT32 formating with J63_0395.bin on root directory of the thumb drive)

 If anyone has a suggestion I'm all ears. Thanks 😞