Dell Workstation Owners Club

[elzorroazul777]

Did the exact config work just fine in windows 10? And did you already get 11 installed and this is just the result of trying to boot into it?

Here is a post that I made on Reddit which expands on the situation, if you wouldn't mind taking a read I'd really appreciate some insight!

I have been running up against some strange behavior. I have ran through several motherboards for this machine for various issues (2nd CPU socket failed, DIMM slot failure, etc.) this 2nd hand motherboard came in the other day and we got off to a great start. It could detect all my ram and processors, so that was better than the previous.
I was able to install Windows 11, but my video card seemed to be incompatible with UEFI (Nvidia K420), even after updating the bios firmware on the gpu from a techpowerup.com source. The initial Windows install had to be done with mbr/legacy, not gpt/uefi. I have a newer GPU (5700xt) to test UEFI functionality, and with all the UEFI, TPM, and secure boot turned on + newer gpu I can boot into a test install of Fedora just fine.

With Windows, it's a whole other story. No matter what I seem to do, trying many different configurations, I can no longer get Windows to boot. It hangs during the splash screen. I decided to downgrade the BIOS from A18 to A14 just to see if it would make a difference and near the end of the firmware update I was shown an error message, "me firmware update failed" (I couldn't catch the failure code in time to write it down).

Now I know, when I first got this motherboard I updated the BIOS to A18 and was not met with a "me firmware update failed" type message AND Windows was able to boot into the installer just after this. I was able to install and run Windows just fine (legacy), had VMware Workstation running, and Windows Server inside a VM, all working fine.
Then suddenly, it broke, somehow. During a restart, the Windows splash screen froze and from that moment forward I have been completely unable to boot into different forms of windows (W10 installer, W11 installer, different usb flash drives, mbr/gpt, you name it - no luck whatsoever).

Any idea what may be going on? I'm thinking about just running Linux as the main OS and run a Linux KVM on top to solve my Windows needs. The thing I am concerned about with that, however, is I have had this similar problem before running proxmox with my first motherboard on this rig. Everything was running fine, I was able to play around with Windows VM's to my hearts content, then suddenly the Windows vm's would stop booting - same issue, freeze during splash screen.

I am using this rig for education purposes and I really can't afford to spend much more money or time on this. What are your instincts? Should I replace the processors? Is there something up with the ram?
Thank you for your help!

 

[frankr2994]

Here is a post that I made on Reddit which expands on the situation, if you wouldn't mind taking a read I'd really appreciate some insight!

I have been running up against some strange behavior. I have ran through several motherboards for this machine for various issues (2nd CPU socket failed, DIMM slot failure, etc.) this 2nd hand motherboard came in the other day and we got off to a great start. It could detect all my ram and processors, so that was better than the previous.
I was able to install Windows 11, but my video card seemed to be incompatible with UEFI (Nvidia K420), even after updating the bios firmware on the gpu from a techpowerup.com source. The initial Windows install had to be done with mbr/legacy, not gpt/uefi. I have a newer GPU (5700xt) to test UEFI functionality, and with all the UEFI, TPM, and secure boot turned on + newer gpu I can boot into a test install of Fedora just fine.

With Windows, it's a whole other story. No matter what I seem to do, trying many different configurations, I can no longer get Windows to boot. It hangs during the splash screen. I decided to downgrade the BIOS from A18 to A14 just to see if it would make a difference and near the end of the firmware update I was shown an error message, "me firmware update failed" (I couldn't catch the failure code in time to write it down).

Now I know, when I first got this motherboard I updated the BIOS to A18 and was not met with a "me firmware update failed" type message AND Windows was able to boot into the installer just after this. I was able to install and run Windows just fine (legacy), had VMware Workstation running, and Windows Server inside a VM, all working fine.
Then suddenly, it broke, somehow. During a restart, the Windows splash screen froze and from that moment forward I have been completely unable to boot into different forms of windows (W10 installer, W11 installer, different usb flash drives, mbr/gpt, you name it - no luck whatsoever).

Any idea what may be going on? I'm thinking about just running Linux as the main OS and run a Linux KVM on top to solve my Windows needs. The thing I am concerned about with that, however, is I have had this similar problem before running proxmox with my first motherboard on this rig. Everything was running fine, I was able to play around with Windows VM's to my hearts content, then suddenly the Windows vm's would stop booting - same issue, freeze during splash screen.

I am using this rig for education purposes and I really can't afford to spend much more money or time on this. What are your instincts? Should I replace the processors? Is there something up with the ram?
Thank you for your help!

Sorry I don't think I'll be much help. Ive used k420s in win 7 machines for equipment running mbr. Don't know if I've tried one with UEFI. I know the k2000 and up work fine with uefi. Ive never tried win 11 with mbr and in a few cases I've set 10 up in mbr. It's usually temporary though as I only tend to use older machines to run older things. I have no idea how 11 is reacting to those settings. I do know the hardware bypasses can be setup using Rufus to create your install media. That's for tpm and chip generation though.

 

[elzorroazul777]

Sorry I don't think I'll be much help. Ive used k420s in win 7 machines for equipment running mbr. Don't know if I've tried one with UEFI. I know the k2000 and up work fine with uefi. Ive never tried win 11 with mbr and in a few cases I've set 10 up in mbr. It's usually temporary though as I only tend to use older machines to run older things. I have no idea how 11 is reacting to those settings. I do know the hardware bypasses can be setup using Rufus to create your install media. That's for tpm and chip generation though.

Thanks for the reply!
When things are going right, W11 seems to run flawlessly, however brief my experience was with the older hardware. That's a good tip about rufus, I didn't know that was possible. I need to narrow this down further. I'll keep working the process of elimination until I run out of reasonable options. I think this is a hardware problem but it's hard to narrow down what exactly the problem is, and even if I did I'm not sure I'd find a fix.

I know that certain configurations seem to be fairly resilient, like Linux, so I'll probably end up settling with that.

 

[frankr2994]

That's a good tip about rufus

It's in the newer versions to bypass hardware checks on the install. There's also bypasses for collected data.
In your position I'd try to redo it in UEFI and use your amd card since the 420 won't work with it. If you get it all setup that way and don't want to spend much or use your 5700 in this I'd buy a k2000 to stick in it. That card is my go to on testing pretty much everything.

 

[GarageMonster]

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.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Thanks for the reply!
When things are going right, W11 seems to run flawlessly, however brief my experience was with the older hardware. That's a good tip about rufus, I didn't know that was possible. I need to narrow this down further. I'll keep working the process of elimination until I run out of reasonable options. I think this is a hardware problem but it's hard to narrow down what exactly the problem is, and even if I did I'm not sure I'd find a fix.

I know that certain configurations seem to be fairly resilient, like Linux, so I'll probably end up settling with that.

The system you are trying to install Windows 11 to is unsupported, so Windows requires a fair amount of tweaking and customizing to get it running on such a system and not end up nagging you 24/7. For example, I run 11 on a Dell T3500 and it runs perfectly, but getting to that point took some doing.

The Rufus media creation tool is very handy to help get 11 installed and running. There is a thread here on TPU that has been a running dialogue for Windows 11 discussion, you take some time skimming through and chime in.

Windows 11 General Discussion

With the leak and/or release of the Alpha build, the announcements and release of the Insider builds of Windows 11 there has been a lot of discussions in other threads that seem to be getting very off topic for those threads. It seems like good idea for Windows 11 to have it's own general...

www.techpowerup.com

BTW, Welcome to TPU!

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.

This sounds like a bent pin. Have you checked all the pins in the connector sockets for that CPU daughterboard? What about the motherboard? Take some photo's and upload them and we'll see if we can't help you figure this out.

Also, Welcome to TPU!

 

[Canned Noodles]

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.

Did you remember to plug the daughterboard power connector back in? I’ve made the mistake of forgetting to too many times

 

[GarageMonster]

Thanks for the replies. I have checked for bent pins in the connectors and have made sure the power cable is plugged in. This problem i s very confounding. I cannot take pics pf the unit as I don't have a cell phone. I have checked Dells website to see if it gives any resolution to my problem. This unit is my daily driver so to speak and I'm running Linux Mint on it. This is the first time I've had this problem after using it for over 4 years. Thanks again for the help.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Thanks for the replies. I have checked for bent pins in the connectors and have made sure the power cable is plugged in. This problem i s very confounding. I cannot take pics pf the unit as I don't have a cell phone. I have checked Dells website to see if it gives any resolution to my problem. This unit is my daily driver so to speak and I'm running Linux Mint on it. This is the first time I've had this problem after using it for over 4 years. Thanks again for the help.

Perhaps it was accidentally damaged after removing it?

 

[Susquehannock]

Thanks for the replies. I have checked for bent pins in the connectors and have made sure the power cable is plugged in. This problem i s very confounding. I cannot take pics pf the unit as I don't have a cell phone. I have checked Dells website to see if it gives any resolution to my problem. This unit is my daily driver so to speak and I'm running Linux Mint on it. This is the first time I've had this problem after using it for over 4 years. Thanks again for the help.

Have you tried running the system lying in it's side? The T5500 and T7500 are known to have possible problems with all that weight hanging from daughter board connector for so many years.

Other things to try. Uncheck the box for second CPU in the BIOS, start the system, then turn off and re-check that box.

Also consider the CMOS battery may be bad or going that way. Can cause all sorts of strange issues. Hope that helps.

[edit]
Re-installing the BIOS and Intel chipset drivers to help solve corruption of settings can help too.

 

[Hattu]

Got lucky some weeks ago, and managed to get Dell Tower 7810, with 2x e5 2640 v4 CPUs. 64GB of ram, but it's 2x16G + 4x8G and 2133MHz atm. I had to use what I found in my "buffer". There were no harddrives either, so for now there's only two old 128G SSDs, mirrored in zfs. No money, honey.

I'm running Ubuntu (22.04.2) rn and trying to learn something new. That mirrored zfs (for bootable OS) was totally overkill, for my brains, at least. Somehow it seems to be working. Copy-paste is rather good method of getting something working.

Don't have a clue what are VMs, Flex, containers or what ever. Next project is to build a file server. Ubuntu server or perhaps free/trueNAS. But not in this machine. Oh, LTspice is installed under wine, so maybe I got something right inside my head already. Haven't simulated anything yet, though...

Is it possible to run Photoshop/Lightroom under wine? Or something?

GPU is GT710 or similar atm, but there's Quadro K4200 waiting for going inside. Or GTX960. Or was it GTX950? But i don't game, so it doesn't really matter. Made a new power cable from leftovers for that GPU, as there weren't any of those inside, either...

Seems to be fine pc, alltough it was rather empty inside... And I missed a change of getting a T7820 instead (with lots of RAM) by some 10 minutes....

My only negative thought is that there's so few hdd-bays inside and maybe pcie slots. Time will tell. I want 10G lan for my future fileserver and maybe some NVMEs for my fotos/3D modeling locally....

 

[frankr2994]

Got lucky some weeks ago, and managed to get Dell Tower 7810, with 2x e5 2640 v4 CPUs. 64GB of ram, but it's 2x16G + 4x8G and 2133MHz atm. I had to use what I found in my "buffer". There were no harddrives either, so for now there's only two old 128G SSDs, mirrored in zfs. No money, honey.

I'm running Ubuntu (22.04.2) rn and trying to learn something new. That mirrored zfs (for bootable OS) was totally overkill, for my brains, at least. Somehow it seems to be working. Copy-paste is rather good method of getting something working.

Don't have a clue what are VMs, Flex, containers or what ever. Next project is to build a file server. Ubuntu server or perhaps free/trueNAS. But not in this machine. Oh, LTspice is installed under wine, so maybe I got something right inside my head already. Haven't simulated anything yet, though...

Is it possible to run Photoshop/Lightroom under wine? Or something?

GPU is GT710 or similar atm, but there's Quadro K4200 waiting for going inside. Or GTX960. Or was it GTX950? But i don't game, so it doesn't really matter. Made a new power cable from leftovers for that GPU, as there weren't any of those inside, either...

Seems to be fine pc, alltough it was rather empty inside... And I missed a change of getting a T7820 instead (with lots of RAM) by some 10 minutes....

My only negative thought is that there's so few hdd-bays inside and maybe pcie slots. Time will tell. I want 10G lan for my future fileserver and maybe some NVMEs for my fotos/3D modeling locally....

I also just picked up a 7810 for next to nothing 1 CPU, 2 8gb sticks of ram and no drives...cheap enough to beef up though. I want to do a file server/ game development. Storage bays do suck. Really wanted a 7910. Trying to find a deal on an external SAS enclosure. So inside the 7810 I want to run a Tesla p40, nvme adapter and a SAS card. I plan on it being headless so the Tesla card in theory should work out lol.

 

[thorny]

Just joined the forum...

I would like to ask if someone had tried combining the CPU power (highlighted green and assuming the below mods) together with the VGA power and create a single 8 pin cable using cable adapters or 2 perhaps separate 8 pin cable

- rewired CPU cable to be the same pinout as VGA
- Sensing pins to be set as ground

DELL T5610 Power Distribution Board

CPU Port MOD

GOAL is to have 375W coming from the below ports:

PCIe MB Pin = 75
VGA1 = 150W
CPU2 = 150W

Would this be feasible?

Thanks...

 

[frankr2994]

Just joined the forum...

I would like to ask if someone had tried combining the CPU power (highlighted green and assuming the below mods) together with the VGA power and create a single 8 pin cable using cable adapters or 2 perhaps separate 8 pin cable

- rewired CPU cable to be the same pinout as VGA
- Sensing pins to be set as ground

DELL T5610 Power Distribution Board
View attachment 287102

CPU Port MOD
View attachment 287105


GOAL is to have 375W coming from the below ports:

PCIe MB Pin = 75
VGA1 = 150W
CPU2 = 150W

Would this be feasible?

Thanks...

Why do you want to use both ports into 1 8pin? The actual rail assignments on those are 1 rail on the vga port. 18 amps at 12v 216 watts. I don't know on the eps port. My 5810 has 10 pin eps ports with 2 rails. So if you have 2 rails that 432 watts available. Note again on my 5810 between the 2 eps ports there are 3 rails. So 1 is shared.

And if it helps I regularly run a GPU off a homemade harness going to my eps port.

 

[thorny]

Thanks for the confirmation. It seems I can buy a 5810 PDB, and convert 1 EPS port into GPU power, thus allowing me to have 2 cables with 8 pins, and connect the 2 cables in the GPU. Right?


Another query which I believe will be more beneficial in the future....

I saw the T7610 PDB (Power distribution board) and it have 3 GPU Ports but with 20 pins power for CPU (2 Processors). By looking at the pin layouts, it seems that I can plug the T3610 CPU Power cable directly to the T7610 PDB on the yellow highlighted area only since the pin shapes are identical, and assuming that the lines are only 12V and GND per line. Is my understanding right?

Legend:
S - Square
NS - Not Square

If it is possible, now I have to figure out if the 24 pin power layout is exactly the same as my T3610, I'm hoping it is the same since it was released on the same year and it came from the same T series...

Imagine having 3 GPU Power and 1300W power supply...

Noob question: can you please educate me on the 'rails' as I do not understand it...

 

[frankr2994]

Thanks for the confirmation. It seems I can buy a 5810 PDB, and convert 1 EPS port into GPU power, thus allowing me to have 2 cables with 8 pins, and connect the 2 cables in the GPU. Right?


Another query which I believe will be more beneficial in the future....

I saw the T7610 PDB (Power distribution board) and it have 3 GPU Ports but with 20 pins power for CPU (2 Processors). By looking at the pin layouts, it seems that I can plug the T3610 CPU Power cable directly to the T7610 PDB on the yellow highlighted area only since the pin shapes are identical, and assuming that the lines are only 12V and GND per line. Is my understanding right?

Legend:
S - Square
NS - Not Square


View attachment 287647


If it is possible, now I have to figure out if the 24 pin power layout is exactly the same as my T3610, I'm hoping it is the same since it was released on the same year and it came from the same T series...

Imagine having 3 GPU Power and 1300W power supply...

View attachment 287648
Noob question: can you please educate me on the 'rails' as I do not understand it...

That 7610 pdb is physically too long. If you figure out how to use it I want to know lol. The rails I talked about are each individual circuit in the power supply. Each one has an 18amp breaker. So for example if you have 100 amps of available output from a PSU and you go over 18 amps on one rail then the PSU trips. I can take a picture tonight of the GPU harness I unpinned and used a 10pin eps connector on

 

[thorny]

Let's see if it will work, or I will be left with a fried MoBo...

Thanks for the info by the way. Will wait for the GPU harness photo...

 

[frankr2994]

Let's see if it will work, or I will be left with a fried MoBo...

Thanks for the info by the way. Will wait for the GPU harness photo...

I forgot to take one that's better. But I took one when I made it. It was from an EVGA modular PSU. I used a Dell 10pin eps connector.

 

[thorny]

Wow, that's a nice looking homemade harness. Looks professionally done...

Thanks for sharing...

 

[Hattu]

Got some (16pcs) 32gb mem sticks a few days ago. It didn't boot after changing them. And now the old ones are problematic too. And I can't remember their original positions.

Maybe I burnt something? Saturnus is in wrong position?

I don't know. I'm quite pi**ed off right now.... I've been building and tinkering PC's since 386 era. This might be the first time to break something.

Meh. I need a beer now. None available, thou... Damn...

 

[thorny]

Update:

I received the T7610 distribution board and it is indeed very long. However I have noticed the below while testing the pins for continuity test using multimeter .

A1 pin is connected to A2 pin, B1 is connected to B2, and so on...., however A, B, C, D and E pins are totally isolated from each other. I wonder why it is like that.

And based on my earlier pin-outs, I can connect my 4 pins to (B1,B2 and C1,C2)

The problem now is finding an extender from the PSU to the T7610 PDB as it cannot be mounted in the PDB slot.

I guess soldering 64 pcs of #12AWG wire from the 1300W PSU to the T7610 PDB will be the only way...

 

[frankr2994]

Update:

I received the T7610 distribution board and it is indeed very long. However I have noticed the below while testing the pins for continuity test using multimeter .

A1 pin is connected to A2 pin, B1 is connected to B2, and so on...., however A, B, C, D and E pins are totally isolated from each other. I wonder why it is like that.

View attachment 288669


And based on my earlier pin-outs, I can connect my 4 pins to (B1,B2 and C1,C2)

The problem now is finding an extender from the PSU to the T7610 PDB as it cannot be mounted in the PDB slot.

I guess soldering 64 pcs of #12AWG wire from the 1300W PSU to the T7610 PDB will be the only way...

I may have a slightly less hackish idea. Waiting for someone to test out. Dell t5820 PSU and pd board. It's the right size, has 2 8 pin pcie connectors and 2 10 pin eps connectors. You need to have both items and the case of the 5820 PSU needs changed as the slot engagement is different. There is another connection on the 5820 pd board that I cannot find out what it's for...or if it's needed. Both parts seem to sell cheap and the PSU is a 950w.

The other idea maybe up your alley is to make the PSU a common rail PSU and use a separate breakout board. Basically solder a bridge on all the unused contacts on your current pd board so they add power from the PSU. Then take both CPU connectors and the 1 pcie connector and run wires to another board that has terminals so you can add as many connections as you'd like.

 

[thorny]

Thanks @frankr2994 , the T5820 route seems more complicated for me...

 

[frankr2994]

Thanks @frankr2994 , the T5820 route seems more complicated for me...

Then I'll continue trying to get someone else to test it lol. Someone out there wants to waste money on an experiment haha.

 

[GarageMonster]

Have you tried running the system lying in it's side? The T5500 and T7500 are known to have possible problems with all that weight hanging from daughter board connector for so many years.

Other things to try. Uncheck the box for second CPU in the BIOS, start the system, then turn off and re-check that box.

Also consider the CMOS battery may be bad or going that way. Can cause all sorts of strange issues. Hope that helps.

[edit]
Re-installing the BIOS and Intel chipset drivers to help solve corruption of settings can help too.

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