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Dell Workstation Owners Club

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Again, Thanks for all the replies, This has become my goto site for problems with my Precisions. Of which I have 4 and am buying another t-5500 with dual six cores. Before I could start messing with this one I ran into another problem with one of my t-3500's, I went to reboot before doing OS updates and every time I put in my password it would blink and put me right back to the sign in prompt. Totally bewildered by this I decided to go ahead and try to replace the cmos battery as I'm not sure if this was ever done before I purchased it. I looked at it and it didn't look like what the manual showed or any other battery sockets I had seen. So I took a small screwdriver and tried to pry the cover or whatever it was off and broke it. I felt so stupid, why didn't I come here before I broke something. You guys know more about these systems than dell's support gurus do. so I went and found a CL2023 battery holder with leads and am going to connect to the original battery electrodes via alligator clips. Yes, I'm insane, but it just might work. My T-7500 Died after I updated the ROM BIOS, no more POSTing for you. Then my refurbished HP laptop will now have to go to the geek squad for repair. But hey, I'm still cancer free so it's all good.

Thanks again for all you help and advice. It is greatly appreciated. GarageMonster
J/c did it look like this? That's on my 7810 board. I've been playing with dells for awhile and have a few here....I've never saw this before and can't figure out how to pop the battery out of it.
 

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GarageMonster

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Yup, That's exactly what I saw. Can someone explain how to replace the battery in one of these receptacles because the manual shows something else. I don't want to beak my other T-3500. I still cannot thank you all for your wisdom and knowledge. Keep up the good work. GarageMonster
 
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Hey someone on the greenpcgamers discord found this. Wanted to share it. For anyone wanting to add multi GPUs to one of our machines.

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/11eug9v
Yup, That's exactly what I saw. Can someone explain how to replace the battery in one of these receptacles because the manual shows something else. I don't want to beak my other T-3500. I still cannot thank you all for your wisdom and knowledge. Keep up the good work. GarageMonster
 
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System Name Dell T3500
Processor Xeon X5687
Motherboard Dell - 9KPNV
Cooling Dell U016F
Memory 12gb ECC 1333
Video Card(s) MSI rx480 gaming X
Storage 1tb WD blue
Case Dell T3500
J/c did it look like this? That's on my 7810 board. I've been playing with dells for awhile and have a few here....I've never saw this before and can't figure out how to pop the battery out of it.
Funny thing. Of all the used T3500 that have come through my hands, old part number KO95G to newest 9KPNV, none had that style battery holder. Only like in the manual. You just never know.
 

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Funny thing. Of all the used T3500 that have come through my hands, old part number KO95G to newest 9KPNV, none had that style battery holder. Only like in the manual. You just never know.
Well I can tell you I got the battery out of my 7810. Broke the holder though haha. Only broke the 1 side. Battery still is secure. How stupid.
 

GarageMonster

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Hey someone on the greenpcgamers discord found this. Wanted to share it. For anyone wanting to add multi GPUs to one of our machines.

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/11eug9v

Great, Thanks Frank. I've received the new(for me) T-5500 and found one stick of 8gb memory on the second processor daughter board. How did this thing operate on one stick on the daughter board? The listing on ebay said "DELL Precision T5500 2xIntel Xeon E5645 2.4GHz 1TB/8GB/DVDRW/Graphics Card". I figured it would have four 2GB sticks divided between the two processors. Totally confused now. Anyway, I've installed all 8 of the sticks I bought with it. Please wish me luck as I'm about to change graphics cards and fire this bad boy up and see what OS is on it. Thanks for all the help guys. GarageMonster
 
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Great, Thanks Frank. I've received the new(for me) T-5500 and found one stick of 8gb memory on the second processor daughter board. How did this thing operate on one stick on the daughter board? The listing on ebay said "DELL Precision T5500 2xIntel Xeon E5645 2.4GHz 1TB/8GB/DVDRW/Graphics Card". I figured it would have four 2GB sticks divided between the two processors. Totally confused now. Anyway, I've installed all 8 of the sticks I bought with it. Please wish me luck as I'm about to change graphics cards and fire this bad boy up and see what OS is on it. Thanks for all the help guys. GarageMonster

Thats a 3 channel memory system. So dual CPU you need 6 or 12 dimms. For it to run in triple channel mode anyways
 

GarageMonster

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Thats a 3 channel memory system. So dual CPU you need 6 or 12 dimms. For it to run in triple channel mode anyways
Well, there are only 9 slots, 6 on the mobo and 3 on the daughter card. anyway, I tried to boot it up and it start to complain about missing drives in the RAID array. I couldn't get any further than that so I need to clear the ROM BIOS and install a new battery. Soon I will have it running with 72GB of RAM, woo hoo. I am going to install Linux Mint 21.1 and start folding on it. Great work everyone. GarageMonster
 
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Well, there are only 9 slots, 6 on the mobo and 3 on the daughter card. anyway, I tried to boot it up and it start to complain about missing drives in the RAID array. I couldn't get any further than that so I need to clear the ROM BIOS and install a new battery. Soon I will have it running with 72GB of RAM, woo hoo. I am going to install Linux Mint 21.1 and start folding on it. Great work everyone. GarageMonster

Ya I had to pull the service manual up. I see that for single or dual CPU the 6 dimms in the motherboard works the same. So you can run 3 , 6 or 9 memory modules to stay in triple channel config.
 

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Badgerz

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Hello, I'm new here and have a problem. I have a Dell Precision T-5500 with two processors. I recently pulled the second processor daughter board out to access an expansion slot. After reinstalling the daughter board I'm getting the 2 3 4 front panel error lights flashing and it won't POST. If I pull it back out it POST's and boots up normally. I really need that second processor though. Hopefully someone can give me some advice to solve my problem. Many thanks in advance for any help here. I have two T-3500's a T-5500 and a T-7500. I really like these workstations and hope to keep them running for a long time. Thanks again GarageMonster.

Hi, also new to this forum
Hi, I am also new to this forum, great to be here. I have one T-7500 dual cpus, One T-3600, one T-5500 Planning on adding a 2nd CPU to it, and four T-3500s (i mostly use Xeon X5675), except for my one of them i run them with Linux Mint. has anyone on this forum run thiers with Linux? Also i assume no other BIOS can be flashed to the Dell motherboards (issues with fan control on Linux), no real CPU voltage control or overclocking it seems. any advice appreciated . Thanks
 
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Hi, I am also new to this forum, great to be here. I have one T-7500 dual cpus, One T-3600, one T-5500 Planning on adding a 2nd CPU to it, and four T-3500s (i mostly use Xeon X5675), except for my one of them i run them with Linux Mint. has anyone on this forum run thiers with Linux? Also i assume no other BIOS can be flashed to the Dell motherboards (issues with fan control on Linux), no real CPU voltage control or overclocking it seems. any advice appreciated . Thanks
If you want to dive deep into the bios (I don't even know who made the bios for those machines maybe phoenix??) There are tools out there that can let you change some settings. I will assist if you want to go down that dark road lol. But to answer your question you can't just flash a different bios. Make sure yours is on the latest version.
There are some Linux programs out there for CPU control. Not really any experience but I think it's called corefreq?
 

GarageMonster

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Well, Unfortunately this T-5500 i just purchased will have to go back as I cannot seem to get it to work at all. When it arrived it had one 1TB drive, one 8GB stick of memory in the daughter board and a Dell sourced ATI 102 Radeon graphics card, as well as a DVDRW drive. I installed 8 8GB memory sticks and a 480GB SSD. The first time I started it it balked because the other drives from the RAID array had been removed and it instructed me to press control-I to enter the setup for the RAID array. After pressing control-I I got no response. So I shut it off and attempted to restart it, the fans came on full tilt and it started to cycle through shutting off and restarting repeatedly. I then unplugged it and thought what could be wrong. I then unplugged the 1TB drive to get around the RAID issue, but I could not enter the ROM BIOS as it would not respond to my key presses. Now this would be the fifth Precision that I own so I'm not a newbie when it comes to these machines. Then I connected a USB keyboard and was able to get it to enter the ROM BIOS but after a few seconds it locked up and refused to respond. Totally perplexed I removed all but two sticks of memory leaving them in the dimm1 slots on the mobo and daugher card as per the manual instructs and disconected the DVDRW drive also, same results. I have now concluded that the seller never tested this machine. I've checked every plug and recepticle on the mobo and rear panel as well as all the expansion slots and cannot find any problems and even reset the ROM BIOS as per the manual. After all of this I'm sending it back. I wish it would have worked but alas it was not to be.

I'm going to try to put the T-3500 that I broke the battery holder back into service. I've gotten the external battery holder and I planned on using alligator clips to attach it to the now exposed terminals. Sounds dicey to me but what choice do I have? Has anyone here ever replaced the plastic battery holder on the mobo? Do I have to remove the mobo to do it or can it be done in situ? I know someone here has the answer I need. I'd rather fix it right but I don't want to replace the mobo. Please advise me of my options. You guys have more knowledge about these machines than I've found anywhere else. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
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T7810: can I use Noctua U12? Will it fit?

Same question as above but for T7910.

Thanks.
 
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T7810: can I use Noctua U12? Will it fit?

Same question as above but for T7910.

Thanks.
I use a supermicro heatsink with a 92mm fan that doesn't fit all that great. Not enough clearance under the removal side panel. No way a 120mm sink can work.
 

zgradt

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So, I got a t5810 a few months ago and slapped in a 2650 v4, 128gb of RAM, a 92mm exhaust fan, and a few 12TB hdds. It's been running 24/7, and I love it. I had a few bucks burning a hole in my pocket, so now I snagged a t7810 on ebay and a couple 2690 v4's. Its not even here yet, but I'm already worried about about the CPU heatsinks. I found a post here that mentioned t3600 replacements, but what's the goto cheap replacement for 130W CPU loads in a t7810? Are they the same?
 
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I use a supermicro heatsink with a 92mm fan that doesn't fit all that great. Not enough clearance under the removal side panel. No way a 120mm sink can work.
Is this for 7810 or 7910? (I think 7910 is a bit wider compared to 7810 a Noctua u12 might fit?)

Thanks again.
 
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but what's the goto cheap replacement for 130W CPU loads in a t7810? Are they the same?
Do you plan on having anything in the 5.25" bay? If not you may be able to run dual 2nd CPU heatsinks. I'll check mine tonight. I only have 1 CPU in my 7810 and I'm running the 2nd sink on cpu0. The 7810 2nd heatsink is actually a really nice sink.

Is this for 7810 or 7910? (I think 7910 is a bit wider compared to 7810 a Noctua u12 might fit?
Thanks again.
7810. I know the 7910 is a lot wider but I thought that was just because of the quad drive bays. But I don't own one and can't say for sure.

So, I got a t5810 a few months ago and slapped in a 2650 v4, 128gb of RAM, a 92mm exhaust fan, and a few 12TB hdds. It's been running 24/7, and I love it. I had a few bucks burning a hole in my pocket, so now I snagged a t7810 on ebay and a couple 2690 v4's.

I have a 5810 with a 1680v3 in it that I overclock.
My 7810 I recently bought I'm still on the fence with buying a pair of 2696v3s or 2697v4s. Running for about the same price on ebay. I might be able to run the v3s faster. Haven't decided if it worth the hassle yet or I should just go with the v4s and just be happy.
 
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7810. I know the 7910 is a lot wider but I thought that was just because of the quad drive bays. But I don't own one and can't say for sure.
I think you’re right. The extra width is consumed by the PSU. The space available for a heatsink seems smaller on the 7910 (comparing the rear view of both 7810 and 7910).

thanks for the reply.
 

zgradt

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Do you plan on having anything in the 5.25" bay? If not you may be able to run dual 2nd CPU heatsinks. I'll check mine tonight. I only have 1 CPU in my 7810 and I'm running the 2nd sink on cpu0. The 7810 2nd heatsink is actually a really nice sink.
No plans as of yet for the external bay, but I like to keep the option. I've seen some OEM heatsinks on ebay going for close to $100, but I figured there was a cheaper option like the t3600 one mentioned.

I have a 5810 with a 1680v3 in it that I overclock.
My 7810 I recently bought I'm still on the fence with buying a pair of 2696v3s or 2697v4s. Running for about the same price on ebay. I might be able to run the v3s faster. Haven't decided if it worth the hassle yet or I should just go with the v4s and just be happy.
I went with the 2690v4 after a quick performance / value analysis. I was looking at the 2683v4's for an insane thread count, but decided the hit to clock speed probably wasn't worth it.
 
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No plans as of yet for the external bay, but I like to keep the option. I've seen some OEM heatsinks on ebay going for close to $100, but I figured there was a cheaper option like the t3600 one mentioned.

So I have that heatsink too. T3600,t5600,t7600 I think it was for. I haven't tried it. Looking at it I wasn't all that happy with it. But I can give it a whirl if you want me to. Do you know how many watts your typically pulling under load? I can toss my 1680v3 in there and just overclock it until it runs that wattage and let you know how it works. I'm probably going to un brick my 7810 on Saturday. (Bad bios mod that I've been dragging my ass on fixing) so it will be operational after. Wish my 5810 had a square ilm.
 

GarageMonster

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So I have that heatsink too. T3600,t5600,t7600 I think it was for. I haven't tried it. Looking at it I wasn't all that happy with it. But I can give it a whirl if you want me to. Do you know how many watts your typically pulling under load? I can toss my 1680v3 in there and just overclock it until it runs that wattage and let you know how it works. I'm probably going to un brick my 7810 on Saturday. (Bad bios mod that I've been dragging my ass on fixing) so it will be operational after. Wish my 5810 had a square ilm.
Doesn't anyone do water cooling anymore. I know if clearance is a problem sometimes that is the only solution. I've wc'd many pc's but never a workstation. But if you're overclocking sometimes it's the best solution. I just don't know where you'd find a water block for a xeon. I don't overclock my workstations because I want them to last as long as possible. I know overclocking can stress other chips on the mobo.
 
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Doesn't anyone do water cooling anymore. I know if clearance is a problem sometimes that is the only solution. I've wc'd many pc's but never a workstation. But if you're overclocking sometimes it's the best solution. I just don't know where you'd find a water block for a xeon. I don't overclock my workstations because I want them to last as long as possible. I know overclocking can stress other chips on the mobo.

I never said I had cooling problems. I also don't use my 5810 for anything productive. So don't care about stress. I use a supermicro 4u air cooler with a chassis fan mounted on it instead of the stock fan. I can push over 200 watts and stay in the 70c range. I was only offering to test the cooler I don't use because it was mentioned on being cheap and maybe being decent.

As far as water blocks go that's not too hard. The xeons are just lga 2011-3 (x99) so ya. But mounting a rad somewhere is not too easy. Have a few people talking about it on discord but no one has pulled the trigger.
 

GarageMonster

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My bad, I should have responded to Vipers post. I'm still a little new to posting on forums, also I'm an old curmudgen. I don't have a cell phone and I don't want one either. I'm still getting used to using an mp3 player so I don't have to listen to commercials. I haven't watched TV since 1999, so movies and the internet are my only forms of entertainment. Oh, and I love my train sim. Very good, carry on.
 
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My bad, I should have responded to Vipers post. I'm still a little new to posting on forums, also I'm an old curmudgen. I don't have a cell phone and I don't want one either. I'm still getting used to using an mp3 player so I don't have to listen to commercials. I haven't watched TV since 1999, so movies and the internet are my only forms of entertainment. Oh, and I love my train sim. Very good, carry on.

All good. And a little more info at least for a Dell workstation. I have these because they're bought cheap and seem indestructible. I just bought my 7810 for 45 bucks lol. Now it was almost barebones but ya. My 5810 didn't cost me much but the CPU did. I got a 1680v3 because it was the most badass unlocked chip you could buy for that time. Bought specifically for playing with overclocking. That 5810 motherboard has pushed over 1.4v to that CPU and it has been shorted out (accidentally) a few times and the bios has been flashed I don't know...200 times either by software or an external programmer. (Just a little trial and error) I'm starting to think it's unkillable. If my board catches fire. I'll buy another off eBay for like 20 bucks. Still working on that btw. Have to make another custom harness. I think the CPU trips the 18 amp rail in the PSU when I'm trying to overclock. I'm not going to stop pushing it until I can melt down the mosfets on the board :)
 
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