Hp 6300: How to disable POST error messages / hardware monitoring?

[hp6300pro]

I'm running an HP Compaq 6300 Elite Pro as a headless router (pfSense).

Due to the low CPU overhead, and desire for silence, I've disconnected the motherboard and power supply fans. The i3-3220 is running nice and cool at 42C with the passive cooling. However, on bootup, the POST insists on presenting the 515-no system fan and 511-no CPU fan error messsages (obviously, since I disconnected the fans). Although I can easily still boot the system with "F1", since this is a router that needs to reboot itself if the power goes out, I'd really like to be able to bypass this behaviour.

Question: How may I completely disable these messages and / or the hardware monitoring? There aren't any options to do so in the stock BIOS. Some searching suggests that one can access the appropriate settings in the advanced BIOS using ctrl+F10, but that doesn't seem to work on this model's BIOS.

(ref: http://retrohelix.com/2012/09/how-to-fix-the-f2-system-fan-error-on-some-hp-computers/)

Any help or guidance much appreciated!

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

It's not a good idea to run without fans.  I am surprised that your PC even boots up.

You probably have already looked over these ideas. Look in the BIOS for a parameter to by-pass POST and/or POST messages. Set the POST time to none. Also, consider enabling F1 by-pass at boot time.

Typing a specific key sequence to locate hidden BIOs screens needs to be done almost immediately after selecting the BIOS on the HP PCs that I have done this on.

Thanks for posting on the forum.

[hp6300pro]

Cheers Big_Dave. I'm grateful it at least lets me boot past the error

Given the low power use state (1-2% of CPU only usually) and efficient i3-3220 design (TDP 65W, and able to idle down to 400Mhz), the CPU is running at a cool 41C during standard operations, so the lack of a CPU fan is not immediately concerning. At any rate, the OEM design has the CPU fan distant from the cooling block, with air routed via a baffle, so not exactly the most thermally efficient set up as stock.

I am a little more mindful of disconnecting the power supply fan - although again, at 240W only, and with a pretty low draw (no DVD drive, no graphics card and I intend to put an SSD in there), it's not exactly taxing the PSU. I may look at getting a passive or semi-passive PSU if I can find one that will fit.

And yeah, sadly I have already scoured the exiting BIOS parameters without success - there is no setting to disable hardware monitoring, and "bypass  F1" relates to hardware config changes, but does not bypass all POST errors, including the lack-of-fan ones. POST time is set to '0' already.

In the meantime, I will keep trying keyboard-ninja tricks to see if I can get to more advanced settings on the American Megatrend-coded BIOS that's on there. I've even tried moving jumpers around on the mainboard, as was suggested in the thread I linked to above. Hopefully someone from HP will chime in with the secret code for the HP Compaq 6300 Elite Pro, or confirm that "no there are no such settings, even secret ones which we don't want to reveal" to put me out of my misery! 🙂