- Joined
- Aug 27, 2021
- Messages
- 47 (0.05/day)
New member here, I have a HP workstation Z400 that suddenly stopped working 2 days ago, it is mainly used for blender and gaming.
Specs are:
HP z400 WS
475w PSU
Xeon x5670 6c/12t
12GB (3x4GB DDR3 1333)
RX 480 4GB
500GB SSD, 1TB HDD
I was literally watching YT when it turned off completely, I tried to start it again and it wouldn't post, the fans spun up 100% with no display, I have tried resetting the BIOS by removing the battery and it will show a post message about a change in the memory or HDD's and to press "F1" to continue, then it goes back to restarting and no screen/fans running at full speed. So far I have replaced the CMOS battery with a new one, taken out all RAM sticks bar 1, swapped SATA cables/SATA power cables, unplugged SSD tried to boot to HDD and vice versa, no change?
I got some minor respite when I swapped out the CPU with the old one I upgraded from W3520 and I managed to get into the BIOS, set the time and date and install Windows 10 YAY problem solved? nope, after that it stopped booting into Windows and I got an "inaccessible boot drive" error, I tried fresh installing Windows on both the SSD and HDD and would end up with this error.
I'm now inclined to think the motherboard has bitten the dust and taken the chipset out (which is on the MB not the CPU like modern systems) hence the same issues regardless of whether I load Windows from the HDD/SSD and have ordered a replacement motherboard though would welcome any other opinions or suggestions on what might have happened? I guess the last piece of the puzzle would be the HP 475w Gold PSU though I have decided to bet all my ghips on the motherboard and hope I'm right as even at $40 for a replacement, for a 10 year old system, it's not exactly money spent wisely if I am wrong
Specs are:
HP z400 WS
475w PSU
Xeon x5670 6c/12t
12GB (3x4GB DDR3 1333)
RX 480 4GB
500GB SSD, 1TB HDD
I was literally watching YT when it turned off completely, I tried to start it again and it wouldn't post, the fans spun up 100% with no display, I have tried resetting the BIOS by removing the battery and it will show a post message about a change in the memory or HDD's and to press "F1" to continue, then it goes back to restarting and no screen/fans running at full speed. So far I have replaced the CMOS battery with a new one, taken out all RAM sticks bar 1, swapped SATA cables/SATA power cables, unplugged SSD tried to boot to HDD and vice versa, no change?
I got some minor respite when I swapped out the CPU with the old one I upgraded from W3520 and I managed to get into the BIOS, set the time and date and install Windows 10 YAY problem solved? nope, after that it stopped booting into Windows and I got an "inaccessible boot drive" error, I tried fresh installing Windows on both the SSD and HDD and would end up with this error.
I'm now inclined to think the motherboard has bitten the dust and taken the chipset out (which is on the MB not the CPU like modern systems) hence the same issues regardless of whether I load Windows from the HDD/SSD and have ordered a replacement motherboard though would welcome any other opinions or suggestions on what might have happened? I guess the last piece of the puzzle would be the HP 475w Gold PSU though I have decided to bet all my ghips on the motherboard and hope I'm right as even at $40 for a replacement, for a 10 year old system, it's not exactly money spent wisely if I am wrong
