can't get to BIOS on HP z420

[jekemi2013]

I can't get to the HP z420 bios. The HP Logo comes up, says hit any key to enter setup. I've tried every key combination but no luck. However it quickly goes past the logo screen and I get some errors: Front USB not connected, Front Audio not connected, USB 3.0 not connected. I hit the F1 key and it boots to Windows 10 Pro with no difficulty. How do I force this machine to enter Setup? 

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

is this motherboard in the original HP case?

to enter bios press and hold "F10" key and then power on system continue holding f10 key 8 sec after hp logo screen appears 

[jekemi2013]

Original Case? What fun would that be? I have built at least 6 of these machines based on the HP z420 system board. I use 32 GB DDR 3 1600 workstation RAM, EVGA GTX 970 graphics cards, LEPA 240mm Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler (CPU temps 55F to 65F), multiple 120mm LED case fans, various 700 watt PSU's using 24 to 20pin power cord adapter, and Samsung 500 GB SSD's. I have used custom cases of various shapes and sizes. I use the HP z420 front panel IO connector and HP z420 power switch (both available on eBay cheap). I typically use the Intel xeon E5-2670 or in one case a 2690 CPU (really fast but going up in price dramatically). Because the cases I use are various sizes, I custom cut an 1/8" thick acrylic panel, glue thin 1/2 inch wide magnetic strips around the edge (magnetically attaches to case edge). I like to cut a 120mm hole in the middle of the acrylic panel and mount a blue or red LED120mm exhaust fan (looks really cool).  I use WinKeyFinder to find the Windows product key, then install Windows 10 Insider Edition (free). These machines run fast and are good gaming PC's. This is the first time I have had trouble getting to the Setup BIOS. 

[BambiBoomZ]

Jekemi2013,

While proprietary workstations are designed and configured for relibility, substantial improvements are possible that improve performance enough to extend their useful working life a long while and at relatively low cost.

In 2017, to replace a z420 / E5-1660 v2 system, it was possible to build a  new z620 / E5-1680 v2 system. I purchased a new, unused  z620 chassis /power supply  ($180), a used z620 v2 motherboard, a NOS E5-1680 v2- from the DoD!, a used z420 liquid cooler, used 64GB PC3-14900R, a new HP Z Turbo Drive 256GB M.2 (Samsung SM951 AHCI), Samsung 860 EVO 500GB, HGST 7K6000 4TB, and used the Quadro P2000 from the z420. 

The results were very good as the E5-1680 v2- and the 1650 v2, and 1660 v2, are among the very few modern Xeons that may overclocked using the free Intel Extreme Tuning Utility ("XTU").  The z420 liquid cooler fits the z620 with some air flow obstruction:

Overclocked to 4.3GHz on all eight cores, which idles at about 31-33C and at all cores at 100% for 20 minutes is  73-75C- results on Passmark Performance Test are very good:

HP z620_2 (2017) (R7) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-core@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid Cooling / 64GB DDR3-1866 ECC Reg / Quadro P2000 5GB _ GTX 1070 Ti 8GB / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB AHCI + Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe 500GB + HGST 7K6000 4TB / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 sound interface + 2X Mackie MR824 / 825W PSU /> HP OEM Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)

[ Passmark Rating = 6280 / CPU rating = 17178 / 2D = 819 / 3D= 12629 / Mem = 3002 / Disk = 13751 / Single Thread Mark = 2368 [10.23.18]
[Cinebench: OpenGL= 134.68 fps / CPU= 1234 cb [10.27.18]

A primary focus of this system was the single thread performance for 3D CAD modeling. The 2368 mark is quite good, but I'd like- Iike to see if I can make it to 2500. As proprietary workstations are not accommodating to adding internal liquid cooling- except the HP z420 and z820 AIO liquid coolers, I've purchased an 360mm, 6-fan external cooler, an Alphacool Eiswand (= "Ice Wall"):

https://www.amazon.com/Alphacool-Eiswand-External-Cooling-System/dp/B01MDQMS1J

The radiator /fan/pump/reservoir unit was purchased seperately unused ,open box, and the waterblock (Alphacool)  is all Copperand connectors metal instead of plastic as in the package.  The intention is to overclock an E5-1660 v2 to 4.6GHz, calculating that it might pass a single thread of 2600.  The E5-1680 v2 has been overclocked by several users to 4.6GHz, but the all core clock speed is 3.4GHz whereas the E5-1660 v2 all core speed is 3.9GHz. As the rendering software is hybrid CPU/GPU accelerated rendering, it seems that 6-cores at 3.9HGz would be guranteed to run as fast as 8-cores at 3.4GHz.

If this works properly I don't see that I'd need to upgrade to change systems for a least a couple of years.

I've upgraded a number of z-X20 systems, having had five.  My recent upgrade is to the large imaging /media system, a z420.  This arrived as:

HP z420_3: (Original) Xeon E5-1607 (4-core / 4 Thread @ 2.8GHz) / 4GB (1X 4GB DDR3-1866 ECC unbuffered / NVIDIA GeForce 7100 GS / WD Blue 500GB / 400W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (HP OEM ) > HP 2711x 27" 1980 X 1080
[Passmark System Rating: = 569 / CPU = 5492 / 2D = 538 / 3D = 60 / Mem = 1117 . Disk = 864 ] [Single Thread Mark = 1509]  9.27.17   ($136)

Yes, the 3D of 60 is correct!

And now on Revision 10:

HP z420_3: (2014) (R10) Xeon E5-1620 v2 (4C@ 3.7 / 3.9GHz) / 16GB (4X 4GB DDR3-1866 ECC unbuffered / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB/ Samsung 850 EVO 250GB + HGST 2TB / ASUS STX Essence soundcard / Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers / 600W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (HP OEM ) Samsung 40" 4K
[Passmark System Rating: = 4715 / CPU = 10118 / 2D = 738 / 3D = 9662 / Mem = 2548 Disk = 4961 /Single Thread Mark = 2075 [4.24.19]

This is the winner of my personal "Most Improved" system award.

This ran a GTX 660Ti (3D= 4640) until a couple of weeks ago.

Next week, 4X 8GB of PC3-14900R will arrive. The increase from 16GB to 32GB is because this system, running a 40" 4K monitor can make and edit higher quality image exports from 3D modeling and the 16GB system ran out of RAM opening a particular 190MB 3D model.

I'd be interested to see what future projects you undertake. 

BambiBoomZ