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Hacking an HP Z800 motherboard into a standard PC case

Started by Andy Brown, November 01, 2014, 04:53:46 am

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msilveira

Quote from: Helgaiden on April 19, 2017, 02:39:19 pm
Quote from: msilveira on April 14, 2017, 11:12:07 pm
Hi !

I'm wondering these post messages make pressing F1 a requirement: ???

If yes, has anyone managed to get these ports "sensed".

I've just ordered a Z800 board and I need to get this problem solved, It'll be used as a server!


Have a look at Attilio's posts on page 14


Thanks a lot Helgaiden.

I've just looked into Attilo's posts and I wonder:
1.) How the heck does the MB sense the Front USB connection?
2.) Any pictures of this thermistor? Any specs? Type? NTC ? PTC ?

msilveira

Quote from: Andy Brown on April 23, 2016, 12:51:51 am
Quote from: lvoigt on April 20, 2016, 03:09:43 pm
Can anyone help me with determining what temperature sensor is used in Z800 (thermistor) power switch/speaker cable assembly?

Hi, Check out this post further back in the thread.


Hi Andy, I think the url reference is invalid.

msilveira

April 23, 2017, 12:10:54 am #347 Last Edit: April 23, 2017, 12:35:48 am by msilveira
About the cable sensing, I know it's by grounding the "detect cable" pin...
About the thermal sensor, here's some insight: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/HP-xw-SERIES-THERMAL-SENSOR-TRANSISTOR-SWAP-TUTORIAL/td-p/5156011
Pretty simple, huh? I just have to check for pinout in xw series service manual.

I've just got my board, it had some bent socket pins on CPU1, I'll fix it later when I get my hands on some test CPUs...
BTW, it's rev 03 :)

But I'll try to find a way to disable the BIOS BootBlock WP, I have all the tools to hack it and get it back in one piece. ;)

Of course I'll get it running before messing around  :P

Andy Brown

Quote from: msilveira on April 22, 2017, 11:43:55 pm
Quote from: Andy Brown on April 23, 2016, 12:51:51 am
Quote from: lvoigt on April 20, 2016, 03:09:43 pm
Can anyone help me with determining what temperature sensor is used in Z800 (thermistor) power switch/speaker cable assembly?

Hi, Check out this post further back in the thread.


Hi Andy, I think the url reference is invalid.


Yes it's invalid. It's Attilio's post on page 11.
It's worse than that, it's physics Jim!

Helgaiden

Quote from: msilveira on April 23, 2017, 12:10:54 am
About the cable sensing, I know it's by grounding the "detect cable" pin...
About the thermal sensor, here's some insight: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/HP-xw-SERIES-THERMAL-SENSOR-TRANSISTOR-SWAP-TUTORIAL/td-p/5156011
Pretty simple, huh? I just have to check for pinout in xw series service manual.

I've just got my board, it had some bent socket pins on CPU1, I'll fix it later when I get my hands on some test CPUs...
BTW, it's rev 03 :)

But I'll try to find a way to disable the BIOS BootBlock WP, I have all the tools to hack it and get it back in one piece. ;)

Of course I'll get it running before messing around  :P


All the tools to hack it? Like to modify the BIOS and flash a modded BIOS back to the board?

msilveira

Quote from: Helgaiden on May 03, 2017, 04:18:53 pm
Quote from: msilveira on April 23, 2017, 12:10:54 am
About the cable sensing, I know it's by grounding the "detect cable" pin...
About the thermal sensor, here's some insight: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/HP-xw-SERIES-THERMAL-SENSOR-TRANSISTOR-SWAP-TUTORIAL/td-p/5156011
Pretty simple, huh? I just have to check for pinout in xw series service manual.

I've just got my board, it had some bent socket pins on CPU1, I'll fix it later when I get my hands on some test CPUs...
BTW, it's rev 03 :)

But I'll try to find a way to disable the BIOS BootBlock WP, I have all the tools to hack it and get it back in one piece. ;)

Of course I'll get it running before messing around  :P


All the tools to hack it? Like to modify the BIOS and flash a modded BIOS back to the board?


Yup. But there's another topic about the BIOS hacking. I'm a bit inclined to give up on this because, unfortunately, even a second hand board is very expensive in Brazil.

msilveira

About the Main Power connector....
Did you notice that the manual's connector drawing doesn't match the official molex pins? ( Square / Chamfered )
Open the "HP Z800 Workstation Maintenance and Service guide" at page 220 and compare with molex's official 3d drawing for the 18 pin mini fit: http://www.molex.com/pdm_docs/adobe3D/39-01-2180.pdf
Should we reallly discard HP's drawings?

I'm a bit paranoid about this....

knightcrusader

Just wanted to point this out incase other people missed it, but after lots of research into wondering why one of my USB 3.0 cards wasn't achieving full speed I finally discovered that PCI Express Slot 3 is NOT PCI Express 2.0. It is 1.1, so it runs at half the speed.

All the other PCI Express slots on the board are 2.0... just not that one. Very weird.

knightcrusader

Quote from: knightcrusader on May 28, 2017, 01:13:33 am
Just wanted to point this out incase other people missed it, but after lots of research into wondering why one of my USB 3.0 cards wasn't achieving full speed I finally discovered that PCI Express Slot 3 is NOT PCI Express 2.0. It is 1.1, so it runs at half the speed.

All the other PCI Express slots on the board are 2.0... just not that one. Very weird.


So after pouring through the Intel schematics and docs, I finally figured it out. Others might have already known but it didn't really click until just now.

Our board is a Dual IOH board, which means it has two I/O Hub controllers (the 5520 chipsets). I only thought boards could have one chipset like this, but I guess I learned differently now.  ???

Each Intel 5520 can support 36 PCI Express 2.0 Lanes in x16/x16/x4 configuration. The ICH10R (southbridge) I/O Hub provides an additional PCIe 1.1 interface at x8 width and a traditional PCI bus, not to mention 12x USB 2.0 ports, 6x SATA II, and audio.

On our machines, the gigabit ports are connected to the southbridge I/O hub via PCI Express x1 for each port, and the firewire is attached to the traditional PCI bus.

I found a block diagram in a publication that HP released comparing the Z800 to the Z820. I modified it to add which slot is which on the diagram and am attaching it to this post.

There are a few things I found puzzling about the design:

  • Slot #4 should be a full x16. My hardware scanning utilities haven't found any other x8 devices attached to that IOH so I am perplexed as to why HP nerfed a slot to x8 when it didn't really need to. Would it really save that much money? Maybe they couldn't find a way to fit 8 more lanes on the PCB between the IOH and the slot?

  • It seems Slot #7 and the SAS Controller share a split x16 on the second IOH. If that's the case, where is the x4 from that hub? Why couldn't they make Slot #3 use these lanes instead of the ones from the southbridge that are slower? I hope the answer is engineering and not cost savings cause that would be aggravating.

  • Between the gimped Slot #4 and missing x4 on IOH #2 it seems like we could actually squeeze two more perfectly good PCI Express slots out of this motherboard.... which would be nice cause I currently need them.  :-[


roadrage99

I am piecing together this project now,  i have everything in the case and hooked up.  my issue is that when i plug in the PSU, the CPU heatsink fans immediately kick on and never go off, power button is unresponsive.  i have tried removing the power button cable and the same issue persists.  The PSA is an EVGA 850 G2.  Anyone have a suggestion for this one?

Thanks

bobdj_Z800

Hacked Z800 in its "own" case

Unfortanely long before Andy's great article I started hacking my Z800 in its own case.
I had a problem with the loud sound of the machine when I bought it. I like very quiet machines.

These are my mods that I made long time ago.

- CPU coolers 2 Noctua CPU coolers NF-B9-1600
adjusted the existing screws too lenght too fit the noctua
also I had to cut the memory fan holder plastic so the Noctua coolers could fit.
- 2 fans Coolink 92mm SWiF2-92P for back
- 2 fans Coolink 92mm SWiF2-92P for HD case
- 2 fans Coolink 80mm SWiF2-80P for power
- the memory fans are still factory, because of the pins and no color of the fan cables.
(This is something I still need to change. If somebody has an idea how too fit them in please let me know. see image about connector diagram)


The system works many years very stable without any issues.
After this mod the machine noise was acceptable. Nevertheless when in idle (from BIOS setting) the sound is actually what I want.

So I checked the ambient sensor temperature, it seems ok, in BIOS it shows some temperature.


Therefore I am not sure wether to change the transistor in the front cable.

So when the Fan Idle Mode in Thermal setting in BIOS is the highest (7 blocks) that is the fan speed all the time.
Only at startup the system is sounding like 1 block in Fan Idle Mode in Thermal.
After 30 seconds when the OS is loaded the fans start speeding full speed and sound like the 7 blocks in BIOS.

Doe anybody have a suggestion for lowering the speed of the fans.

I have read about the Noctua na-src7 Low-Noise Adaptor, or should I still be changing the ambient temp transistor?
Noctua low-noise-adapters link: http://noctua.at/en/products/accessories/na-src7/specification
ambient transistor post: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktops-Archive-Read-Only/HP-xw-SERIES-THERMAL-SENSOR-TRANSISTOR-SWAP-TUTORIAL/td-p/5156011

The images of the hacks speak for them self.

BIOS Settings





Sensor temps



HD case fans



Adjusted screws CPU cooler


Back fans



Fans used Coolink SWiF2-80P and SWiF2-92P


Memory fans with cut-to-fit plastic


Noctua CPU coolers



Thanks!

My System:


System:    Host: archz800 Kernel: 4.9.29-1-lts x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 Distro: Arch Linux
Machine:   Device: desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Z800 Workstation
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 0AECh v: D BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: 786G5 v03.57 date: 07/15/2013
CPU(s):    2 Hexa core Intel Xeon X5650s (-HT-MCP-SMP-) cache: 24576 KB
           clock speeds: max: 2661 MHz 1: 1596 MHz 2: 1596 MHz 3: 1596 MHz 4: 1596 MHz 5: 1596 MHz 6: 1596 MHz
           7: 1596 MHz 8: 1596 MHz 9: 1596 MHz 10: 1596 MHz 11: 1596 MHz 12: 1596 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GT200GL [Quadro FX 4800]
           Display Server: N/A driver: nvidia Resolution: 209x55
Audio:     Card Intel 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.9.29-1-lts
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3
           Card-2: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 6001.2GB (2.7% used)
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 38.0C mobo: 33.0C gpu: 52C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 683 fan-2: 1980 fan-3: 1878 fan-4: 1982
Info:      Processes: 252 Uptime: 13 min Memory: 1514.4/48286.4MB Init: systemd Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.8


Andy Brown

Quote from: bobdj_Z800 on June 28, 2017, 09:50:22 am
Unfortanely long before Andy's great article I started hacking my Z800 in its own case.
I had a problem with the loud sound of the machine when I bought it. I like very quiet machines.

[...]

Does anybody have a suggestion for lowering the speed of the fans.


Hi, have you tried setting up a SpeedFan profile? Instructions here:

http://andybrown.me.uk/forum/index.php/topic,113.0.html
It's worse than that, it's physics Jim!

bobdj_Z800

Forgot to mention, the machine is a multi OS setup. Windows 7 & 10, archlinux and macos(hackintosh). So I was looking for a more low level solution.
(Your links are not working.)
Thanks

jesustadeo850

Hi everyone, i've been following this post and forum (Thanks Andy!) to build my setup, I did almost two years ago, it's a modest build, -002 board, 2x E5540, 24GB RAM, Quadro 2000. Everything worked fine at first except for the PSU, I was using a Delta Electronics 1050W (DPS-1050CB A), it was defective and couldn't hold the current at first, so I had to turn my system on several times until it remained on, when it was working it was completely stable. This situation worked for about 6-7 months, until the PSU finally died, the 12V rails started to raise up to +12.5V and then turned off completely.

My system remained unusable until now when I was able to buy another PSU, this time a Delta Electronics 800W (TDPS-825AB), which I saw in the forum, someone was using and it worked great. The problem I have right now is, my system boots and works for some time and suddenly shutdowns, using or not using the CPU/GPU power, just happens randomly, I've discarded the PSU, also removed one set of CPU/RAM (swapped them too) and also tested with another basic GPU.

Finally I was testing with the PSU_ID signal, adding a small load, but after I removed it, a MOSFET (presumably) exploded. I wonder if anyone could let me know the part of this component (Q150) on the board -002. Also if anyone had a problem similar to this.

Also have to mention my board seems to be sulfated in some areas, which is weird, anyone had the board sulfated? I live in Venezuela, maybe is something related to the humidity in the air.

Thanks!




Andy Brown

I think the destroyed part is probably an OnSemi NTD4809N - photo attached of the same part on my V2 board. I'm not sure about that residue on some of the other parts. My first reaction would be to say that its stuff that was thrown out by the explosion but it looks from your photo like those parts were shielded from the blast by one of those inductors or maybe more things have exploded than we can see here.
It's worse than that, it's physics Jim!