Z240 POST Message disable?

[Motif19076]

Hello,

My company recently purchased some Z240 SFF workstations and put in aftermarket multi-media card readers in the 3.5" slot. The card reader uses the internal USB 3.0 header, so I had to unplug the USB 3.0 cable for the for the front usb ports in order to get it to work. The media card reader works just fine in Windows, however, I get a POST error message on startup:

"Cable detection Error 41A- Front USB2 Not Connected. Front USB cable has been detached or unseatted from the motherboard. Press Enter to continue."

Is there anyway to disable POST messages? I can't seem to find anything in the UEFI/BIOS to do this.

[SDH]

One of the HP engineers who has been very helpful to us here has recently posted on a related question, and he has access to the schematics and the internal design details of these workstations.  His post is on this thread,  HERE :

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/HP-Z420-USB3-0-Head...

Dan tells how to jumper the header to make it believe the cable is still connected, and it would not matter whether you jumpered at the motherboard end or the far plug end, as long as you got the correct pins/plug holes jumpered.

Note his caution.... that seems to suggest that the pins on the motherboard are not as stout as the ones we are used to seeing.  A proper sized insulated wire jumper with a short segment of wire exposed at each end can be used as a jumper at the far plug end of a cable, rather than the little plastic jumpers we use at the motherboard pin end of thins.  If you carefully figure out the wire colors this should work.

The wiring of such headers/cables within a HP workstation family are usually the same, and things can stay the same from one generation to another, in my experience.

[Dan_WGBU]

The Z240 SFF blue front USB3 2x10 header pinout is the same as the Z420 front USB3 2x10 header, as SDH pointed out. 

This USB3 pinout uses the Intel-specified header and pinout.  The only difference is pin10, which HP front IO USB3 cable grounds to tell the motherboard that the cable is connected.  Others might disconnect this pin, or use it for a port power overcurrent condition, but I do not really know what other manufacturers choose to do with it. 

The standard pinout is why the aftermarket media card readers work in this header.  However, with a cable plugged into the header, it does not allow jumpering pin 10 to ground to fake the system into thinking the front IO cable is connected.  (I cannot recommend soldering wires to the motherboard to prevent this error message.)

[Motif19076]

Are there any manufacturers that make an adaptor that’s available for purchase? We don’t want to do anything that could damage the PC or void warranty.

[SDH]

As to your question... there is no market for that..... so no.

If you take a look at the schematic Dan provided you'll see there are several wires on both sides of that header that go to ground.  If you pull off the plug and look closely at the PCB of the motherboard the pin 1 spot is usually indicated by a little white printed triangle pointed at that pin, right next to it.  It will be small so get out a flashlight and (in my case) reading glasses.

I agree that soldering at the motherboard end is not a way I'd like to go, but at the other end of the cable...... That is a different story.

If you jumper in any way from the device end (far end of the cable) from the wire coming from pin 10 to one of the wires that is shown as grounded then you will have satisfied the motherboard's desire to see ground at pin 10.  It does not matter whether you do it at the motherboard end or away from the motherboard as long as you connect a ground path to pin 10.

You can imagine that a HP engineer cannot say some things in this forum, and please make sure you understand the wiring fully from the schematic.  You might even make a little map for us with the different colors of wires from each pin, and any blanks, etc. that might help others in the future.  I have a Z620 I could dig into, but this is better done by you so you understand the process fully.