Dell Workstation Owners Club

[MrJunez]

The T7500 board is different in that it has built in SAS controller above the northbridge, and an extra set of connectors for it. Upper edge of board has different shape and screw locations to match.

That troublesome T5500 board probably has bad capacitors even though they appear fine. Can see it has the infamous brown United Chemi-Con "KZG" series. Same ones which nearly destroyed Dell. When looking for another board my suggestion is to stick with the latest revisions. T5500 = CRH6C. That way you will get the better Rubycon caps.

P. S. - if memory serves the T7500 riser is different part number than T5500. Mainly more memory slots and larger fan which will not fit into smaller more narrow T5500 case.

View attachment 223430

I was seeing other capacitors and they have these strange black marks on them so I'm unsure what it is. Unsure if somebody marked it black or if something happened to them

 

[lexluthermiester]

I was seeing other capacitors and they have these strange black marks on them so I'm unsure what it is. Unsure if somebody marked it black or if something happened to them

Maybe it's an indicator that they've been previously checked? That is a bit odd.

 

[MrJunez]

Maybe it's an indicator that they've been previously checked? That is a bit odd.

All I know about this board is that my father found the computer in the scrapyard so I have no information on it. Service tag says warranty ended on 2015 that's about it. I thought it was the caps turning black but i took some alchohal and wiped it and turns out to be marker. so somebody previously checked off these caps for something. they appear throughout the board and only on the caps that hannock said dell got in trouble for (the brown ones)

 

[lexluthermiester]

All I know about this board is that my father found the computer in the scrapyard so I have no information on it. Service tag says warranty ended on 2015 that's about it. I thought it was the caps turning black but i took some alchohal and wiped it and turns out to be marker. so somebody previously checked off these caps for something. they appear throughout the board and only on the caps that hannock said dell got in trouble for (the brown ones)

Maybe that board needs a full cap replacement? Just a guess.

 

[MrJunez]

Maybe that board needs a full cap replacement? Just a guess.

I think I might just wipe all these brown caps and replace them all. I also notice some caps (like 3 brown caps and some other caps) have been marked off as green.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I think I might just wipe all these brown caps and replace them all. I also notice some caps (like 3 brown caps and some other caps) have been marked off as green.

That looks like deliberate testing was done.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

What does anyone know about the PowerEdge T430? I found this on CL, but the provided (awful) pics don't match anything I can find on GIS. Is it even worth following up on?

 

[lexluthermiester]

What does anyone know about the PowerEdge T430? I found this on CL, but the provided (awful) pics don't match anything I can find on GIS. Is it even worth following up on?

Those are solid machines and that is a seemingly solid buy. If it meets your needs and you like the price(which is fair), I say go look at it. Ask for more detailed specs.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Those are solid machines and that is a seemingly solid buy. If it meets your needs and you like the price(which is fair), I say go look at it. Ask for more detailed specs.

Turns out the most relevant spec is that it doesn't boot. No dual sockets for me...

 

[lexluthermiester]

Turns out the most relevant spec is that it doesn't boot. No dual sockets for me...

Damn. That would have been a good deal if it worked.

 

[MrJunez]

I got a question. is there a schematic for the T5500 Board? Just would like to see why the previous owner crossed these capacitors out and what do these capacitors do in their part. Would like to see
if there is a cap that takes care of booting the computer

 

[lexluthermiester]

I got a question. is there a schematic for the T5500 Board? Just would like to see why the previous owner crossed these capacitors out and what do these capacitors do in their part. Would like to see
if there is a cap that takes care of booting the computer

Dell as a policy never releases schematics. I never saw one even when I worked for them BITD.

 

[MrJunez]

Dell as a policy never releases schematics. I never saw one even when I worked for them BITD.

Well Dang. I'll stick to buying caps from Digikey and just one shotting all those brown caps that dell got in trouble for.

 

[Karlos]

Well, My dell t7500 has been having problems wondering if anyone especially @lexluthermiester may be able to fix. Since updating the bios, sometimes the system will hang after booting, reinstalled OS and stuff but it still does it; it even hangs going into the bios settings sometimes. Only fix ive heard is downgrading to A09 which I haven't attempted yet, Any solutions? Also is it worth enabling numa memory? I saw that it can boost performance in some places but I'm unsure!

 

[lexluthermiester]

Well, My dell t7500 has been having problems wondering if anyone especially @lexluthermiester may be able to fix. Since updating the bios, sometimes the system will hang after booting, reinstalled OS and stuff but it still does it; it even hangs going into the bios settings sometimes. Only fix ive heard is downgrading to A09 which I haven't attempted yet, Any solutions? Also is it worth enabling numa memory? I saw that it can boost performance in some places but I'm unsure!

Boot code errors? Some screen shots will also be helpful. Show me what your system is doing and I'll do my best to help.

 

[Karlos]

Theres No actual error codes to be honest, Ill try and describe it as best as I can. When booting sometimes it'll randomly just hang after the dell splash screen has loaded where it'll just be a black screen with a blinking line and my peripherals will all just turn off. This can even sometimes happen if I try go into the bios settings itself and it will just hang and peripherals will turn off. Sometimes it'll boot after a hard reset, sometimes it takes many hard resets, there is definitely a pattern. Although this started when I upgraded to a17 bios but I'm afraid to downgrade the bios while the computer is already having boot issues as it may brick my bios. This is a problem that has happened to others and I have no clue what it could be.

Actually i forgot to mention that when the system boots after a hang, it was briefly flash that the previous attempt to boot failed at checkpoint wake I believe.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Theres No actual error codes to be honest, Ill try and describe it as best as I can. When booting sometimes it'll randomly just hang after the dell splash screen has loaded where it'll just be a black screen with a blinking line and my peripherals will all just turn off. This can even sometimes happen if I try go into the bios settings itself and it will just hang and peripherals will turn off. Sometimes it'll boot after a hard reset, sometimes it takes many hard resets, there is definitely a pattern. Although this started when I upgraded to a17 bios but I'm afraid to downgrade the bios while the computer is already having boot issues as it may brick my bios. This is a problem that has happened to others and I have no clue what it could be.

Actually i forgot to mention that when the system boots after a hang, it was briefly flash that the previous attempt to boot failed at checkpoint wake I believe.

After you updated the BIOS did you remember to clear the CMOS and reconfigure all of your settings? Also, are these hangs happening after a sleep or hibernate? That's what the blinking power light usually indicates, a sleep or hibernate session.

As for downgrading the BIOS, there's generally no reason to do this so keep that as a last option.

 

[Susquehannock]

Did you also update the Chipset driver for that T7500? Often over looked. Worth a shot.

 

[Karlos]

Did you also update the Chipset driver for that T7500? Often over looked. Worth a shot.

I actually didnt I'll try this

After you updated the BIOS did you remember to clear the CMOS and reconfigure all of your settings? Also, are these hangs happening after a sleep or hibernate? That's what the blinking power light usually indicates, a sleep or hibernate session.

As for downgrading the BIOS, there's generally no reason to do this so keep that as a last option.

I didnt clear the cmos which i actually should try as the newer bioses remove some options and introduce new ones. Ill try this later

 

[lexluthermiester]

I didnt clear the cmos which i actually should try as the newer bioses remove some options and introduce new ones. Ill try this later

Cool. If that doesn't fix it and you are not having Sleep/Hibernation problems, chime in and let's work the problem a bit more.

 

[slaine_mcroth]

So i have updated my T3500 with 24meg of ram and the xeon 5690 but it seems that there is no improvement at all...


Anyway, now i will focus on my new toy the dell T7910, need a couple of upgrade...

View attachment 220541

So i have updated my T7910 (GPU, RAM + CPU) but i'm still wondering how do i choose which GPU will be used when i launch a game, i tried to change setting in nvidia control panel but it's always the quadros P5000 that are used never the GTX 1080 ti, any advises ?

 

[lexluthermiester]

So i have updated my T7910 (GPU, RAM + CPU) but i'm still wondering how do i choose which GPU will be used when i launch a game, i tried to change setting in nvidia control panel but it's always the quadros P5000 that are used never the GTX 1080 ti, any advises ?

A common Dell BIOS setting is which GPU is selected for Boot. Also, the system will default to the GPU that is connected to the display. If you want to use the 1080, connect the display directly to the 1080.

 

[slaine_mcroth]

A common Dell BIOS setting is which GPU is selected for Boot. Also, the system will default to the GPU that is connected to the display. If you want to use the 1080, connect the display directly to the 1080.

Currently, each GPU is connected to a display so i need to disconnect the quadro ?

 

[lexluthermiester]

Currently, each GPU is connected to a display so i need to disconnect the quadro ?

Make sure the main display is connected to the GPU you want to use as the gaming display. The easiest way is to make sure the main display is assigned to the primary desktop and in the setting is monitor 1.

 

[tomhampton]

*deep breath* - OK, here goes...

So I've spent about an hour now reading through this thread and getting acquainted with some of the conversation, and - man, you guys know your $h!t AND you're generally nice, respectful folk. great to see.

So here's why I stopped in.

About a year ago, I "inherited" (rescued from recycling) a Dell Precision Tower T7810 - largely stock from Dell with a 64GB RAM upgrade, but everything else still the factory configured hardware.

It shipped with a Quadro K4200 GPU and I'm getting ready to upgrade his video card for Christmas - I've got an EVGA RTX3060 awaiting pickup, but it uses a 16 pin PSU connector, and the old K4200 has a different connector. I did do some reading about power consumption and such before pulling the trigger on that card, and most of what I read seems to support the notion that the factory 825W PSU will carry the card's power requirements, but I'm not crazy about going much further down that road without getting some advice.

(also - just as a general talking point - the RTX3060 is PCI-x 4.0, but the factory Dell mobo has 3.0 slots...any of you have any real world experience in the degree of performance difference between the two platforms?)

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer, folks.