z820 Dual processor dead? ...or bios issue? v1.03 MB I'... - HP Support Community

Nels0n · ‎04-16-2023

I've been at this for 4 days now trying to revive what was a $15k box.... so bear with me if I'm not writing well organized 🙂

just upgraded to Windows 10 from 8.1 where it was running for months. Suddenly nothing. After cleaning the system and all the contacts for mem, cards, etc, I now get 8 beeps and no video. Based on what I read from all the "crisis" threads and the fact I couldn't get video to come back even with a single monitor & lower end card (pulled the V7900 and triple monitors...) I went for the BIOS update/recovery. checked all the components as much as I could. Pulled all the ram except 2 2GB sticks in slot 1 of both CPUs.

So, if I plug the power in, the system starts up. no button press required. when the jumpers are normal I get 8 beeps for the corrupt bios and immediately after the 2 sec pause I get 16 beeps. Then it goes back to 8 beeps and stays there for subsequent repeats.

does anyone know what the 8 beeps then 16 beeps means? I'm having a time with this since the information is not crystal clear.

so, my board has jumpers E1, E49, E14 & E15.

so I clear the cmos. remove power at the prongs, press power until I don't see the blue light reaction anymore, hold the cmos clear button for 5 secs and get a single red blink on the back light (i assume that's my ack)

moving on...

so normal boot produces the 8 then 16 beeps.

so I move the crisis jumper, and with a FAT32 8GB USB2.0 partitioned with a 512MB primary in the USB2.0 slot on top in the front I put the prongs back on the power supply. The machine starts up but I never see the activity led on the usb get hit. nothing happens until the fans spin up

I cannot get this dang machine to wake up. help!

desperately awaiting ideas!

thx in advance....

DGroves · ‎04-16-2023

first of all lets consider that buying a bare bones z820 off ebay (case/MB/pwr supply) in the USA is usually cheaper than just buying a replacement v2 motherboard they usually cost around 150.00/250.00 so you now know the worst case cost to get your system running again

as for you beep code, never came across a 6 beep code? perhaps it's a 5 /4 beep code

The red light blinks five times, and then two, short white light blinks (5 long red, 2 short white)

This condition indicates that the embedded controller is missing valid firmware.

Remove recently installed hardware

Find product and serial numbers on the PC label or box

Reset the CMOS

Update the PC with HP Support Assistant

Replace the affected component

The red light blinks five times, and then three, short white light blinks (5 long red, 3 short white)

This condition indicates that the component cannot be not reached by the BIOS within the established time limit.

Reseat the component.
Test your system with a known good component.
Contact HP Customer Support for further assistance to replace the component or system board if the issue persists.

The red light blinks five times, and then four, short white light blinks (5 long red, 4 short white)

This condition indicates that the system board is not initializing quickly enough for component.

Confirm the correct power supply is being used for the computer.
Reset the CMOS.
Reseat components.
Test your system with a known good component.
Contact HP Customer Support for further assistance to replace any defective parts found.

we rarely had a z series workstation fail in all my time in "IT"

check the z820 service manual and the general troubleshooting section also

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-z820-workstation/5225041/document/ish_1997210-1528385-16

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-z820-workstation/5225041/manuals

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/lit_files/84876.pdf

https://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04205252.pdf

Nels0n · ‎04-16-2023

Thanks for the response.

so regarding the "cheap" motherboards: I understand that there are specific fields that are burned into the workstation which could prevent me from using the replacement motherboard with my chassis. Is this true?

regarding the beep codes: yea, I saw that list too. No idea when it'll be useful. I've never seen a mixed red/white semaphore. Only beeps, which I've been listening to since the 8088/8086 and are very useful when there is no other feedback. the 16 beeps is throwing me and it's predictable/consistent.

as for the manual....my undergrad is EE which might be a factor in my having exhausted resources before posting on this forum. Point being, I've tried everything that I can find in these threads EXCEPT placing a jumper on E14

...wish I could see the flow of the error reporting logic.

DGroves · ‎04-17-2023

a very few motherboards were sold branded (marked) for linux these boards lacked the embedded HP SLIC code in the bios for windows 7/8 OEM activation. Other than that there are no other differences between the boards except the board revisions. you don't want a ver 1 motherboard

even if you get one of those linux bios boards you can still do a win 7 to 10 to 11 upgrade and link a MS digital license to the board

or simply log into the board using a valid MS online account and the Os will also activate

Nels0n · ‎04-18-2023

What about the bios reporting? 8 beeps/red lights, 2 sec pause then 16 beeps/red lights. Anyone have a reference from the low level design to look that up? Thx

DGroves · ‎04-18-2023

your beep codes are not valid HP codes, i asked a HP engineer about this while i was on the phone with them on another issue

all valid HP beep/led codes are listed in the z820 service manual i linked to

Nels0n · ‎05-02-2023

Thx for responding

still have that board. Still behaves the same. It's not out of the question that an unexpected/unintended beep code can be reproduced. microcode could've had a bad instruction/variable corrupted. checksums can have collisions like certificates.

thanks for checking. Moving on.

I've purchased a duplicate MB and installed. this one reports that the CPU fans aren't spinnning in the fan shroud. could explain root cause for the other previously discussed issues - but again...moving on :).

appears I need to replace the 2x8 (16pin) partitioned pins header that drops into the MB from the fan housing above the RAM/CPU section. I'm looking for the cable pigtail with that 24x5mm 2x8 pin femaie drop in connector that breaks out into the individual fan connections.

it has 642167-001 revA stamped on a label wrapped around it. but I'm not getting hits. New fan shroud as a unit is more than the MB lol.

I'm looking to find that connector or the connector and the pigtail.

thoughts on where??

Thanks in advance,

N

DGroves · ‎05-02-2023

the z840/820 fan shrouds are the same part and interchange between systems and cost around 30/40 dollars

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115784220013?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28

i've seen many shrouds where the shroud was not aligned properly and then forced in place, this causes the alignment tabs on the motherboard side connector to become damaged preventing proper alignment, and non spinning fans check for this, a proper connector will have just a tiny bit of play in all four directions the shroud connector should slip into the MB fan connector with very little force and sit flush next to the power supply edge

and as for your beep code statement, no a defined hardware failure beep table in the bios will not suddenly add more beep codes you are not interpreting the beep codes correctly

Nels0n · ‎05-04-2023

the z840/820 fan shrouds are the same part and interchange between systems and cost around 30/40 dollars

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115784220013?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28

Excellent point. stopped wasting time with the 2x8 header and bought a used shroud for USD$45. thx!

i've seen many shrouds where the shroud was not aligned properly and then forced in place, this causes the alignment tabs on the motherboard side connector to become damaged preventing proper alignment, and non spinning fans check for this, a proper connector will have just a tiny bit of play in all four directions the shroud connector should slip into the MB fan connector with very little force and sit flush next to the power supply edge

no question, people in general under-rate the importance of treating these carefully engineered with the precision due. However, I fear it was the tech last in it from HP when he replaced the motherboard. I bought 5/5/5 with the box originally. so I just let HP in and walked away. regardless, the connector/amphenol/header had pin 15 with no plastic guide shell and only half of the copper sleeve. Failure was imminent.

and as for your beep code statement, no a defined hardware failure beep table in the bios will not suddenly add more beep codes you are not interpreting the beep codes correctly

sort of insulting, but heh, you don't know me - so NBD. However, I *AM* reporting them exactly as they are presenting. As far as interpretation....well, that's what I was soliciting from you 🙂

thanks for the responses. shroud will be here tamale. TTFN

->N

DGroves · ‎05-04-2023

regarding the beep codes, the HP oriented "IT" service company i work for has several clients with over 5k computer systems

as such we have direct access to HP engineers if the circumstances require a call to them, and as i stated previously i asked the HP engineer about your beep codes relating to a z820 and was definitively told that no such beep codes as you state exist and that he knew of no reasonable way the embedded bios codes could be altered

i own two z820's and still service z840 and newer systems on a daily basis so i'm quite familiar with these specific systems

again what you think you are hearing is most likely not the correct sequence I've had personal experience trying to listen to HP beep codes numerous times and usually have to listen several times or ask another tech to listen due to me finding the codes go by rather fast making it hard to determine the exact sequence of fast/slow beeps