Need help with a HP Z620 Workstation.

[cylix]

Need some help with a broken HP Z620 unit, i was gifted this workstation from a acquaintance because he knew i like PC tinkering. The unit is from his workplace, it got broken a while ago and was sitting around in some storage. He asked around and got an answer that the machine one day stopped working and when they stared again it didnt boot anymore and after some time the fans would start spinning at 100%.

 

So i got i today and started looking at it and it has:

800 W PSU

2 Xeon Cpus e5 2690.

32 Gb DD3 1600, 4 GB x 8 Sticks - 4 sticks on Mainboard and 4 on that riser card where the 2nd CPU is located. BTW how cool is that riser card for a 2nd CPU.

 No GPU,  and no HDDs, they took them out

 

First think i tried was to test that PSU- so i got it out and did that BIST test like HP said, plug it in and see if its working and the fan started spinning and the LED turned Green - so i think its working like HP said, if led is turning green all is good?

 

Can this maschine even Post without a GPU inside?

 

Also i took of both Heatsinks and checked the paste and CPUS and here i found some red WTF spots on both CPUs, looks like corrosion, havent seen anytihing like that before? Is this normal for xeons?

 

Everything looks ok, also i started the Workstation like this without GPU, HDD and its like he said. The blue light is turning on on the Mainboard and after 1 2 minutes the fans are starting to go very fast and loud.

 

Anyone has experience with HP Workstations? I am a total newb with servers

From what i heard is possible that the Mainboard is fried, i can get a cheap one from ebay so its no problem, also im looking at a cheap GPU aswell to test it.

 

Some pics with the CPUS spots and also with the machine, its heavy as hell but very nice build, its a shame to go to the dumpster, i would love to repair it and upgrade it a little bit for cheap. Think with some upgrades it can still be useful

[Reciever]

I believe you will need a gpu or it won't post since there isn't any iGPU. I think you got that part covered recently. 

 

Repairing this should be relatively cheap, workstations value drops like a rock about a year after release and this looks to be SB-E? 

 

I saw a few of these a while back in our decom, had fun messing around with it. 

[cylix]

Thx, yes I think I figured it out to be the mainboard,  I ordered one cheap from ebay, sadly it's just a v1 board but was cheaper, v1 supports only e5 v1 xeons but I saw there is a possibility to flash the hp v2 bios with the help of a programmer onto it. Also got a cheap 560ti to work with it.  Pretty stoke to see what this can still do in terms of compute power. Think the two e5-2690 can be a little overclocked with xtu aswell and maybe get some i9900 performance out of them. After I'll try to up the 32 gb to something like 128gb, these ddr3 ram are pretty cheap aswell, 50 euros for some 128 gb ddr3 1600 mhz is nice and cheap😅.

Also im trying to get a  cheap hp z turbo drive pcie card so I can boot from an m2. Nmve drive. This are a little more expensive than and scarce in Europe.

[cylix]

I got it working. And just my luck the board that I got and replace is a v2 board with the 2013 bios👍👍. So I can upgrade the xenons to v2 and also the ram to 1800 mhz. These boards are also more expensive.

But on the other hand I got a dud in the form of the 560ti..it has artefacts all over the place so I think it's memory is busted.. Win some lose some..

Now I need to get a cheap SSD and a new cheap gpu.

Right now I have a 7200rpm HDD inside.. O my God I forgot how slow hdds are 😂. Especially with win10

[Reciever]

From what I read the v1 boards are difficult to update to the v2 BIOS so that will save you a lot of head ache if you intend to upgrade the CPU's later 

[cylix]

Yes thats correct, it involves a Programmer and a lot of hassle, so it was a blessing when i saw 2013 in bios 😄. The GPU is busted, i opened the heatsink and look at the memory chips and one is chipped.. So thats 20 euros down the drain, but because the bios is a v2 i got over 100 euros back in the form of the board.

[Reciever]

28 minutes ago, cylix said:

Yes thats correct, it involves a Programmer and a lot of hassle, so it was a blessing when i saw 2013 in bios 😄. The GPU is busted, i opened the heatsink and look at the memory chips and one is chipped.. So thats 20 euros down the drain, but because the bios is a v2 i got over 100 euros back in the form of the board.

It's a shame you are in Europe I have too much workstation-esque hardware that would be a decent fit for that platform. 

[cylix]

Ah yes, there is a big difference in supply of server and server hardware between US and EU. I have found some more stuff in UK but with them out of EU i have to pay shipping and import tax now.

I got a new 1 TB Sata SSD and a used  GTX 1660 OC for 100 euros so the machine lives now. Works great right of the box with a new Win 10 install.

Did a stock C23 and this came up as a result. What do you think? Is it ok out of the box?

[Bobby65]

Hi Cyclix

 

was hoping you’d be willing to help me fix my HP z620 workstation as you seem to know what you’re talking about!

 

how was it that you were able to diagnose a PSU issue? I think mines gone (took it to a shop to diagnose and that’s what they think)

 

so I bought a replacement PSU and a 24 to 18pin motherboard adapter but think this might be a waste of time.. help pls haha

[cylix]

HI @Bobby65, you can try a a BIST TEST.

PSU test (BIST) by removing all power supply connections to the board, drives, (and anything else) connect power to supply and power on supply is the green light inside the supply by the exaust fan on?  If the Green light is on, that means the Power Supply is ok and something else is defective.

[Bobby65]

@cylix

 

Thanks for the info - I did as you mentioned and saw a green light for half a second before it turned off. Each time the power is turned on the green light flashes and I hear an audible click. The green light disappears and PSU appears to turn off after the click.

 

Is this enough to conclude the PSU is faulty, or if other parts were faulty would this quick shutting down still occur?

 

Thanks so much!

[cylix]

Yes i think the PSU is faulty, is the fan spinning aswell?