z800 won't boot. No video post or any video activity.

[Pragmatic100]

z800 won't boot.  Green power light flashes several times, goes out.  No LED  light at all, then 1 beep, followed by 2 beeps,  then nothing.  In prior boot attempts, pushing function keys resulted in disk activity and occasionally we could remote desktop to workstation & log in, but never any video shown.  Now, can't get this to occur.

z800 with 2CUP's, 96GB, 1 SATA HD for system, 2 SSD's for virtual memory.  Standard Optical and sound card.

No LED at all with 1 beep, followed by 2 beeps.  This is not in HP maintenance manual or in call-center DB.

Have tried with no effect/no difference:

1)  Different video card.

2)  Stripping PC down to minimal memory with & without HD, SSD's or other peripherals.

3)  Replacing motherboard.

4)  Trying one CPU at a time with only 1 bank of memeory.  No difference with either CPU in CPU0 socket.

Any suggestions? 

[Dan_WGBU]

Pull the Z800 power supply from the chassis.  Look at the power supply connectors that are in the chassis.  Check that they are are mounted correctly in the chassis sheet metal, and did not get pushed out, which could cause an intermittent connection.  

You tried all the normal debugging steps, so this suggestion might not be the cause of your problem.  

[Pragmatic100]

Hi.  Thanks or the suggestion, but I had already tried that (forgot to add it to the list).  The fix was a bit more bizarre.  Early on, I had tried a different video card because no video would seem to imply a bad card.  Needless to say, it did not fix the problem, and the original card from teh z800 (ATI FirePro) worked in other HP systems.  So I purchased a replacement motherboard, installed it, and turned it on.  No results.  I'd already tried single CPU mode with minimal memory combinations with both CPU's and different memory sticks with no results.  So what to do?  Try a different video card again, and walla!  It worked.  But even more bizarre, the ATI FirePro works in the system I stole the video card from, so the only think I can assume is that the FirePro has a slight signal shape/timing problem, and the z800 backplane is just not as forgiving as the budget HP PC I stole the card from.  Since the CMOS had been cleared, I'm assuming its not some internal setup that was off.   Stephen.

[irj01]

Hi , I have the same problem with my Z800 , I tried another video card  ( nvidia quadro 4000) and the power supply and fans are working but no beeps no video and tried other monitors with different HP adapters , cleared the cmos and nothing worked so far , I was thinking of buying another board but before doing so I want to make sure it is the board.  If you finally have your z800 working was it with the new board or else... Thanks for taking time to answer me.  Regards.   irj01

[Dan_WGBU]

irj01, have you tried a video card in Slot 5 (a PCIe x16 slot) or Slot 7 (PCIe x8)?  If the "normal" graphics Slot 2 failed, the system should be able to work with the video card in another slot.

[irj01]

Hi ,

yes I tried .  I had a fx1800 before and when I tried to install the nvidia quadro 4000 it did'nt work.  The power supply is working  and the fans no beep .  I took off the ram and put it back in and tried , not working again.  I cleared the cmos.  Change the card from slot 2 to slot 5 still the same.  I am out of solution for now.  I don't want to buy another board if it isn't necessary.  If you have other suggestion please you will be more than welcome I will try it no problem . I am an old technician and can work with it no problem  . Thanks in advance for your help.  Most appreciate.    irj01

[Pragmatic100]

Hi.  Yes, replacing the motherboard was the solution.  I tried different video cards in other slots, changed the memory around, and none of it worked.  The PC also produced patterns of beeps and flashing lights that were not in any manual.   So if these are your symptons, buy a new motherboard.  It took about 45 min to pull everything out and replace it.  You should be careful regarding static when you do it.  If you've not been trained, basically, don't pick up any chip, card or board without first touching the chassis to ground yourself.   A static discharg can be over 500V and damage the electronics.  If you can,  pick up the memory chips in a holder first, and then touch the holder to the chassis, and then touch the chip.  This prevents any current flow from going thru a pin or wire trace.

Also, there are two barcoded numbers on the motherboard, make sure you get a repalcement that is identical to what you have.  The second number is the cmos board revision, and you want to make sure what you've got in your box is compatible.  Not every knows this, even some of the folks at HP parts were unclear about the differences.  I you want, you can give me a call at ( 2 one 3)   2 one seven - seven seven 64.  Stephen  I'm in Los Angeles.

[irj01]

Hi Pragmatic100,

thanks for your reply .  I was expecting an answer from  Dan WGBU since he reply to me yesterday but I think it will probably be to solution for me too and don't worry I am an old technician and will know how to install it since I did that so much times but it is always good to remind me to be carefull doing that.  Regards and thanks again for taking time to help me.  irj01

[FoxyPC]

I have the same problem on my Z800 bios ver3.6 motherboard 1.2 rev , it doesn't boot and i have 6 beeps paterns sounds on boot, no videos nothing.

i stripped it from all PCIe cards , changed ram, changed 2 CPUs X5672 with older X5560

performed CMOS reset and PSW reset. thied other GPUs FX1800 and FX580 also a AMD HD69xx series

with no luck...

the machine was showing wiered signs before with a Tesla M2090 GPU with  memory test warnings 209 errors on post on good ram dimms . i thing my latest bios config with NUMA  on and Allow compute on all PCIe made this happen. if any one knows it would be of great help. thanks