[z420 Win7] "XXX not found / Press F1 to Boot" error removed: reset all PCIe slots to maximum rate

[BambiBoomZ]

The system concerned:

HP z420_3: (2015) (R12) Xeon E5-1650 v2 (6C@ 4.6GHz) / z420 Liquid cooling / 64GB (HP/Samsung 8X 8GB DDR3-1866 ECC registered) / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Samsung 860 EVO  500GB + HGST 7K6000 4TB / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 recording ADP + Logitech z2300 2.1 / 600W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (HP OEM ) > Samsung 40" 4K monitor
[Passmark PT9 System Rating: = 6337/  CPU = 15851 / 2D = 862 / 3D = 11147 / Mem = 3072 / Disk = 13629 / Single Thread Mark = 2540 [11.29.21]

After installing the original system the OS and programs- from the pristine oirginal on a 1TB 3,5" mechanical  drive, z420_3 began displaying "Front USB ports not connected cannot boot / Press F1 to boot".  Though there was no problem starting, it was annoying to have an extra step requiring two inputs to boot and worrying that something was deeply wrong; meaning BIOS-related. 

After trying clear CMOS BIOS cleanup, every possibility of settings and , the error message could not be eliminated.

Trying every possibility, it occurred to me that if I made a change in BIOS and saved the change, it might clear the error. The first change I tried worked:  In BIOS, Slot Settings, all PCIe slots were changed from Auto to the highest rate possible, e.g., "Slot 4  Gen 3 (HP ZTurbo Drive) / 8GB/sec" 

Several cold starts and restarts have not displayed the front ports not connected error.

However here is new one, the "hardware acceleration not supported" error will not allow starting Sketchup thereby preventing me from using an important 3D CAD modelling and rendering applications.  Fortunately, the main system z620_2 (2017) is fully functional but I've the ability to queue renderings- sometimes three-five hours each, while I work on modelling.

1. I would be interested to hear if the resetting slots in BIOS method works elsewhere.

2. And, any known solutions to the "hardware acceleration not supported" error message extremely welcome.

John Poultry

[SDH]

Bambi, good to hear from you.

I have seen BIOS settings get "stuck" in a corrupted/incorrect status. I've never tried your approach but have instead done the "deep" type of CMOS reset with battery out, disconnected from mains, disconnected from all peripherals that could conceivably provide charge to capacitors on the motherboard, repeated presses of yellow CMOS button, repeated presses of power on front switch, connect power supply ground peg to a true ground with mains disconnected, etc. This has resulted in clearance of the stuck corrupted CMOS and gets you back to factory defaults.

One idea on that new message... instead of Auto all your slots are now set to fastest. Might this not be seen by BIOS as demanding "acceleration" for a slower device? Maybe set BIOS to factory defaults now and reboot... I believe if you looked after doing that you'd find slots back to Auto.

Remember that some of the HP workstations have an option in BIOS to bypass recoverable errors and proceed with boot so you don't get pestered with the F1 stop. I forget it the Zx20 family has that option. Default on that is disabled.