Z240 SFF Beep Code 3.3 (Graphics)

[JGalloway]

Greetings,

We've purchased Dells for years but recently started giving HP a look. The first unit I received just stopped working during deployment testing and gives me 3 long beeps (red LED) with 3 short beeps (white LED). According to the manual this translates to, "The embedded controller has timed out waiting for BIOS to return from graphics initialization." I couldn't find any specific troubleshooting steps for this error so I did the following based on the testing I was doing:

- Cleared CMOS

The system wouldn't boot after applying BIOS settings using the HP BIOS Configuration Utility so maybe something went wrong there. That said, I applied settings with this tool multiple times before on the same system without issue but thought it was worth a start. Here's my config file:

BIOSConfig 1.0
Legacy Boot Options
	Disable
	*Enable
Legacy Boot Order
	HDD:USB:1
	CDROM:SATA:1
	HDD:SATA:1
	NETWORK:EMBEDDED:1
UEFI Boot Options
	*Disable
	Enable
Configure Legacy Support and Secure Boot
	*Legacy Support Enable and Secure Boot Disable
	Legacy Support Disable and Secure Boot Enable
	Legacy Support Disable and Secure Boot Disable

- Swapped video cards (Nvidia Quado K420) with a known good card. We bought two units for testing so I had an identical system to swap from.

- Swapped memory.

- Reseated all cables.

Any ideas on what else I should try before sending it back?

Update 08/08: Another IT unit in our organization has reported the same beep code with one of the Z240s they just purchased. For them the BIOS refused to save any settings and failed to boot afterwards.

Update 08/09: 

Another machine died today. Same deal, the techs were just trying to configure BIOS settings. Another detail is these were shipped with BIOS version 01.24. I'm recommending to our techs that they update to version 01.27 for now but the notes don't mention a specific fix for what we're seeing. I'm hoping someone from HP can jump in here soon...

Product No: L8T14AV

[JGalloway · Accepted solution]

For anyone who might stumble across this thread...I was able to reproduce the issue by going into Secure Boot Configuration and unchecking the box next to "Enable MS UEFI CA key." After talking with HP Support it was determined that we shouldn't be touching this option at all. This option is intended for graphics cards configured for Microsoft Device Guard. 

Additionally, there's a bug in BIOS version 01.24 that prevents the Clear CMOS button from functioning properly, so there's no recourse for someone who makes the mistake of adjusting the above option. HP will provide an update in revision 01.28 to prevent folks from shooting themselves in the foot. It's recommended to update systems to 01.27 for now.

Lastly, we don't have an answer for what happened to the systems that failed to save BIOS changes and subsequently faileed to boot. I will update this thread if that becomes anything more than an anomaly.