HP Elite 8300 SFF boot problem - 5 beeps, green light

[ethd]

I have an old HP Elite 8300 SFF with a Core i5-3470. I took out the processor and RAM out to test another motherboard (the motherboard didn't work, complaining about memory). I returned them to where they needed to go, taking care to apply some new thermal paste to the CPU, and upon turning it on, I get five beeps. The power LED stays green until about five seconds after the beeps, then it turns off. After another 20 seconds or so, the fans begin to spin up to their highest level. If I pull all four sticks of RAM, the power LED blinks red in sync with the beeps, but when I have even one of the sticks inserted it goes back to beeping with a green power LED. I have four 4GB sticks, and I've tried all four in the slot closest to the CPU.
Looking at the service manual, it doesn't say anything about five beeps without the blinking LED. With the LED, it means a memory issue. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Grzwacz · Accepted solution]

Greetings,

Welcome to the forum.

I am not a HP employee.

Five beeps on a HP system board manufactured in 2012  indicates possible RAM failure or system board/CPU failure.

Reference this HP document (LInk) for details.

Regards

[ethd]

Thank you! That was really helpful. And it turns out, that was my problem - a CPU failure.

Fortunately, the CPU failure wasn't major - turns out while taking it out of the other board, I managed to get a little thermal paste on the pads. (I, uh, mistargeted the thermal paste a little and got some on the socket cover.) Cleaned them up and now it's booting just fine again.

[Grzwacz]

Hi ethd,

You're very welcome.

Nice troubleshooting!

Good to hear no permanent damage occurred.

Regards

[SirOliver]

I also have HP Elite 8300 SFF with a Core i5-3470, my problem is when I turn on computer I dont have any beeps, only power led is on, hdd led doesn't turn on, I have blank screen and after 20-30 seconds cpu fan begin to spin up to their highest level.

I have two 4GB sticks, I try with another memory sticks but always is same thing. Also, I try with another processor but nothing has change. I hope that someone can help me with this issue...