Dell Workstation Owners Club

[frankr2994]

Sure, plenty of people do. But in Dell PC's?

From my own experience I think I'm hitting over current internally with the vrm not letting me push the CPU any further. I'll test with a custom CPU harness here in the near future. But given that I cannot push enough power to the CPU to "need" water cooling. So I've had people discuss doing it but that's one of those things there just isn't much of a point other than to say you did it. But 90 percent of what I do with the machines is out of boredom and curiosity....if I come across an aio for a good deal maybe I'll hack my case apart and I'll do it.

 

[zgradt]

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.

My 7810 hasn't even arrived yet. I'm assuming it has the same cpu coolers as the ones in my 5810, which don't seem like much for the 135W cpus I'm going to put in. I'm mainly looking for info on what's a good cooler to get that fits the case. I mainly build my own PC's, but there seems to be so much proprietary stuff in these OEM boxes that I'm worried if the mounting hardware is even the same.

 

[frankr2994]

My 7810 hasn't even arrived yet. I'm assuming it has the same cpu coolers as the ones in my 5810, which don't seem like much for the 135W cpus I'm going to put in. I'm mainly looking for info on what's a good cooler to get that fits the case. I mainly build my own PC's, but there seems to be so much proprietary stuff in these OEM boxes that I'm worried if the mounting hardware is even the same.

7810 is a square ilm 5810 is narrow ilm. So no swapping between the 2. Mounting aftermarket is a little bit of a pain for either. The ilm isn't threaded. The PC case behind the motherboard is...so dells HS screws are longer than normal. How I got my supermicro HS to work was I drilled the holes out to fit the dells screws then shimmed the springs because there was a big difference in thin spring steel on the super micro vs the thick aluminum for the Dell.

 

[edx209]

Dell Workstations T3400/T3500 benchmarking 2 part video now up.
Tested with bought stock settings and then upgraded.
These were purchased off Kijiji in July of 2021 both for $120
If anyone is interested in the results you can check it out here on YOUTUBE

 

[zgradt]

7810 is a square ilm 5810 is narrow ilm. So no swapping between the 2. Mounting aftermarket is a little bit of a pain for either. The ilm isn't threaded. The PC case behind the motherboard is...so dells HS screws are longer than normal. How I got my supermicro HS to work was I drilled the holes out to fit the dells screws then shimmed the springs because there was a big difference in thin spring steel on the super micro vs the thick aluminum for the Dell.

And you mentioned earlier that there are 2 different part numbers for a 2x system because of clearance issues?

 

[frankr2994]

And you mentioned earlier that there are 2 different part numbers for a 2x system because of clearance issues?

Ya the heatsink for cpu0 has a step in it. It literally fits underneath the drive tray for the 5.25 slot. The sink for CPU1 is the full size and very well designed sink (in my opinion)

So CPU 0 sink

CPU 1 sink

And t3600 sink

What you can't see is the later designed sinks have the heatpipes very flush with the cold plate. No gaps and you can't feel them with your fingers if you run them across. The 3600 sink has gaps. Isn't flat. You can definitely feel the pipes. You have to be a little more deliberate applying paste as it can just fill the gaps in around the pipes instead of just spreading out

 

[GarageMonster]

I'm going to try to resurect(sic) my T-7500. After updating the BIOS it refused to POST. I'll try to reset the ROM BIOS first and hopefully that will fix it. Any comments, advice or past experiences would be appreciated.

 

[frankr2994]

I'm going to try to resurect(sic) my T-7500. After updating the BIOS it refused to POST. I'll try to reset the ROM BIOS first and hopefully that will fix it. Any comments, advice or past experiences would be appreciated.

My go to is try it with bare min components. Min ram some old Quadro GPU and no drives at all. Goal is to be able to just boot into the bios. I also have a PS2 keyboard and mouse so if USB is maybe causing problems.If the bios really is corrupt the only fix is an external programmer/new bios chip or a used motherboard.

And just curious did anything weird happen during the bios update? I've ran those from windows tons of times and not one problem ever. Now my power never failed or anything (I don't have a battery backup which is pretty stupid for what I'm usually doing)

 

[GarageMonster]

My go to is try it with bare min components. Min ram some old Quadro GPU and no drives at all. Goal is to be able to just boot into the bios. I also have a PS2 keyboard and mouse so if USB is maybe causing problems.If the bios really is corrupt the only fix is an external programmer/new bios chip or a used motherboard.

And just curious did anything weird happen during the bios update? I've ran those from windows tons of times and not one problem ever. Now my power never failed or anything (I don't have a battery backup which is pretty stupid for what I'm usually doing)

Well, after cleaning all the dust out of it and reseting the ROM BIOS it still won't POST. As far as anything weird happening during the BIOS update, I don't remember that it was unusual. Of course i did it while Linux was installed and all of this was over a year ago. I've tried to get it to POST with and without memory, I either get just the 3,4 lights and no video with one stick of memory or 1-3-2 beeps without memory and no video. I know the graphics card works. I don't see any socketed chips on the mainboard, how do I go about replacing the CMOS BIOS chip or using an external programmer? The unit worked fine until I updated the BIOS. I'm not sure the fools at the geek squad at best buy can even fix this. Next I think is to find a replacement mobo. I'm so tired of this crap with the seller of the T-5500 who will not respond to my email. Monday I will call him on the phone to try and get this resolved. I hate to try to get Ebay involved. Oh well. I guess I should try to work on fixing the T-3500 battery issue. I'm not going to let this get me down.

 

[frankr2994]

Well, after cleaning all the dust out of it and reseting the ROM BIOS it still won't POST. As far as anything weird happening during the BIOS update, I don't remember that it was unusual. Of course i did it while Linux was installed and all of this was over a year ago. I've tried to get it to POST with and without memory, I either get just the 3,4 lights and no video with one stick of memory or 1-3-2 beeps without memory and no video. I know the graphics card works. I don't see any socketed chips on the mainboard, how do I go about replacing the CMOS BIOS chip or using an external programmer? The unit worked fine until I updated the BIOS. I'm not sure the fools at the geek squad at best buy can even fix this. Next I think is to find a replacement mobo. I'm so tired of this crap with the seller of the T-5500 who will not respond to my email. Monday I will call him on the phone to try and get this resolved. I hate to try to get Ebay involved. Oh well. I guess I should try to work on fixing the T-3500 battery issue. I'm not going to let this get me down.

Bios flashing via external programmer isn't the easiest but yes it's done with the chip soldered onto the board. You can usually buy these chips pre programmed and solder it on as a replacement. Which is probably way to hard for most. Best bet would be to get another board. I'm not sure if eBay or the seller can help you. Bios flashes can go wrong. That's not a fault of the seller. Especially on a system as old as that.

 

[GarageMonster]

Bios flashing via external programmer isn't the easiest but yes it's done with the chip soldered onto the board. You can usually buy these chips pre programmed and solder it on as a replacement. Which is probably way to hard for most. Best bet would be to get another board. I'm not sure if eBay or the seller can help you. Bios flashes can go wrong. That's not a fault of the seller. Especially on a system as old as that.

I think you are confusing two different machines. The T-7500 I've had for a number of years. The T-3500 also. The recent aquisition of the T-5500 is less than a month old in my hands. I can see where you got them mixed up. So far I have two T series machine that are up and running, a T-3500 that my partner uses daily and a T-5500 that is my daily driver. The T-3500 with the battery issue is the second we own. I also have an Asus ProArt with WIN11 which I hate with a passion and another Asus PC in a Lian Le case(ooh la la) with WIN10. I also have lots of computer junk in the basement including a Ti99/4a in the original box and a trash-80 from radio shack. Almost forgot the other workingg PC in the house that runs WIN XP for my security cams. These are just a small part of my junk collection.

 

[frankr2994]

I think you are confusing two different machines. The T-7500 I've had for a number of years. The T-3500 also. The recent aquisition of the T-5500 is less than a month old in my hands. I can see where you got them mixed up.

Your right. I have no idea what's going on lol

 

[GarageMonster]

Your right. I have no idea what's going on lol

Not a problem frank. I've purchased a T-7500 mobo and should get it on the 13th, hopefully this will solve the problem with this machine. I still can't believe it's so big and heavy. Almost reminds me of the IBM server i have in the basement, it's a dinosaur. I guess I need to find it a good home sometime.

Oh my god, I found 128GB's of memory for $128. I've been playing around with a ramdisc of 32GB, I want to find a way to put the Linux kernal on one when it boots up. With 128GB I can use 100GB for the ramdisc and fit the entire contents of my boot drive on it. Ram is like 4 times faster than a SSD. It says in the Dell literature that a T-5500 can only use 128GB of ram but if you multiply 16GB dimms x 9 slots you get 144GB. What's up with that? Anyone know how much memory you can stuff in one of these? Also this is ECC memory so it gives you added defense against errors. You can't get ECC SSD's. If I'm wrong on all of this someone please enlighten me. I'm a blonde, so sometimes I come up with some crazy ideas.

 

[GarageMonster]

I received the T-7500 mobo yesterday and am going to install it today. I cobbled the battery holder and alligator clips for the T-3500 and tried to get it to start. I've decided to go ahead and buy a new mobo for it also. My partner got an email from the seller of the T-5500 and they wanted to know what the problem was. They totally disregarded my email even though I referenced the order No. and my partners name(purchaser). Needless to say he will not get his 5 star review. The T-3500 did start but it says the CMOS battery is low, so I'm not going to try to make it work with the funky battery fix. Has everyone gone on vacation, there hasn't been any new posts for a few days. I still can't thank you all enough for the advice I've received here. Keep up the good work guys.

 

[SiggiTheHun]

[...]
It says in the Dell literature that a T-5500 can only use 128GB of ram but if you multiply 16GB dimms x 9 slots you get 144GB. What's up with that? Anyone know how much memory you can stuff in one of these? Also this is ECC memory so it gives you added defense against errors. You can't get ECC SSD's. If I'm wrong on all of this someone please enlighten me. I'm a blonde, so sometimes I come up with some crazy ideas.

Hello there.
Regarding your CPU´s supported max. memory size, see: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...name/54534/products-formerly-westmere-ep.html
Dell seems to stick to the DIMM specifications that were available (e.g. 8 GB) when your workstation was up-to-date.

Apart from the odd sector sizes like 520/528 bytes (extra bytes for RAID or checksums?) every HDD and SSD sector includes some bytes for ECC:

Advanced Sector Format of Block Devices - Thomas-Krenn-Wiki-en

This article describes the new sector formatting (Advanced Format) that is being used by all of the major hard drive manufacturers and what should be kept in mind when using such hard drives. Advanced Format (or 4K) sectors offer advantages for hard drives with higher capacities and is now...

www.thomas-krenn.com

Regards, Siggi

 

[GarageMonster]

Hello there.
Regarding your CPU´s supported max. memory size, see: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...name/54534/products-formerly-westmere-ep.html
Dell seems to stick to the DIMM specifications that were available (e.g. 8 GB) when your workstation was up-to-date.

Apart from the odd sector sizes like 520/528 bytes (extra bytes for RAID or checksums?) every HDD and SSD sector includes some bytes for ECC:

Advanced Sector Format of Block Devices - Thomas-Krenn-Wiki-en

This article describes the new sector formatting (Advanced Format) that is being used by all of the major hard drive manufacturers and what should be kept in mind when using such hard drives. Advanced Format (or 4K) sectors offer advantages for hard drives with higher capacities and is now...

www.thomas-krenn.com

Regards, Siggi

Hey, thanks Siggi I did not know that. It seems there is a lot I don't know. After replacing the mobo in the T-7500 I've run up against the wall again. I must be doing something profoundly wrong. I'm just about ready to give up on these workstations, maybe I'm in over my head. After trying to get it to POST on the first time, it would not let my enter the ROM BIOS. Every time I pressed F2 it would just beep. Then I tried using a USB keyboard, Then it would not POST at all. I messed up my back moving the thing so I need a few days before I try to figure out the problem. I may have put too much thermal paste on the chipset before attaching the cooler. I used brand new RAM, although that is not an indicator of reliability. I am just real puzzled right now. I feel like a real idiot at this point.

 

[frankr2994]

Hey, thanks Siggi I did not know that. It seems there is a lot I don't know. After replacing the mobo in the T-7500 I've run up against the wall again. I must be doing something profoundly wrong. I'm just about ready to give up on these workstations, maybe I'm in over my head. After trying to get it to POST on the first time, it would not let my enter the ROM BIOS. Every time I pressed F2 it would just beep. Then I tried using a USB keyboard, Then it would not POST at all. I messed up my back moving the thing so I need a few days before I try to figure out the problem. I may have put too much thermal paste on the chipset before attaching the cooler. I used brand new RAM, although that is not an indicator of reliability. I am just real puzzled right now. I feel like a real idiot at this point.

You managed to buy "brand new" memory for that machine??

 

[lexluthermiester]

You managed to buy "brand new" memory for that machine??

Sure. New old stock for DDR3? Totally doable currently.

 

[frankr2994]

Sure. New old stock for DDR3? Totally doable currently.

Didn't realize. I assumed any 1066 ecc would just be server pulls with maybe a new sticker on it.

 

[Mr Bill]

Didn't realize. I assumed any 1066 ecc would just be server pulls with maybe a new sticker on it.

It's amazing how some of the old school PC's and OS's are still in demand. I personally believe it has a lot to do with our economy in the US. I'm in the A/C business, and I still see businesses on some of my calls using windows 7, hopefully just for holding information and running programs like Excel. Word, etc. and not on the internet, but I'm not sure. I'm still using my 4th gen. 4790K build, and it's still great, and plenty DDR3 still out there new and used. The old school PC's if you set them up right, and can still get all the component's, are just as good if not better than the new stuff, "IMO" unless you're a gamer, "which I'm not". I also have a Xeon 5790 build with the Asus P6T Deluxe V2, I love it!

 

[SiggiTheHun]

@GarageMonster

You say "F2" -- typo?
Should be F12, also to get access to device configuration or on-board self tests.
If those like Dell´s ePSA are available on your T7500.
New motherboard plus new RAM... Seeing the 1100W PSU´s wire harness, I break out in sweat.
Maybe better test the integrity of the new memory moduls on one of your other workstations first and install/update the new mobo´s BIOS with the old memory moduls installed.

Don´t give up yet.
You may end up as the personalized merger of intellectual and raw physical strength.

Get well soon & regards.

 

[GarageMonster]

@GarageMonster

You say "F2" -- typo?
Should be F12, also to get access to device configuration or on-board self tests.
If those like Dell´s ePSA are available on your T7500.
New motherboard plus new RAM... Seeing the 1100W PSU´s wire harness, I break out in sweat.
Maybe better test the integrity of the new memory moduls on one of your other workstations first and install/update the new mobo´s BIOS with the old memory moduls installed.

Don´t give up yet.
You may end up as the personalized merger of intellectual and raw physical strength.

Get well soon & regards.

Thanks for the well wishes Siggi. If you've ever worked with one of these T units the first screen that pops up if you haven't installed a OS instructs you to press F1 to continue, F2 to run setup or F12 to get a boot menu. I tried to use the RAM that the machine was using before I unsuccesfully(sic) updated the ROM BIOS. Then I tried using the RAM that I bought for another machine, same results. Like I said previously I may have used too much thermal paste on the chipset. I have built numerous PC's without any problems and even upgraded an old IBM server. These problems are extremely baffling. I have never had so many problems with any computers that I have ever worked with. I first started out with a C-64. Yes, I'm old but I've been playing with computers most of my life. I have the Dell service manuals for T-3500,T-5500 and T-7500. The front panel codes and beep codes have not shed any light on what the problem is sad to say. I do appreciate your input though.

 

[frankr2994]

Thanks for the well wishes Siggi. If you've ever worked with one of these T units the first screen that pops up if you haven't installed a OS instructs you to press F1 to continue, F2 to run setup or F12 to get a boot menu. I tried to use the RAM that the machine was using before I unsuccesfully(sic) updated the ROM BIOS. Then I tried using the RAM that I bought for another machine, same results. Like I said previously I may have used too much thermal paste on the chipset. I have built numerous PC's without any problems and even upgraded an old IBM server. These problems are extremely baffling. I have never had so many problems with any computers that I have ever worked with. I first started out with a C-64. Yes, I'm old but I've been playing with computers most of my life. I have the Dell service manuals for T-3500,T-5500 and T-7500. The front panel codes and beep codes have not shed any light on what the problem is sad to say. I do appreciate your input though.

The F12 boot menu can also let you into the bios config. There are other options there as well. The epsa is dells preboot diagnostics. Personally ive never had it catch anything more than a failing battery in a laptop but it runs through all the hardware test. Nice first thing to do when getting a new-used machine.

So to recap on what I was saying earlier. Let me know if you tried this exact scenario. Try to get it to post with just 1 CPU, 3 sticks of known working memory, no hard drives at all, known good GPU (old quadro preferred) zero USB devices, PS2 mouse and keyboard. So thats barebones. Nothing other than what I listed should be attached. This includes CD/dvd ROM drives. Yank the sata and power cables off of them. If it doesn't post you can swap the CPU and memory but that's about it.

As far as applying too much thermal paste unless you were using liquid metal there are not too many paste on the market that are electrically conductive. It may look like a sloppy job but that's all the more damage it can do.

 

[Tech215Studios]

I'm a Dell Certified Repair Technician at work. AAAAFLEX!!! LOL. J/K. I mean I am one, but it's no big deal. I just wanted to drop a comment. You guys can all make fun of me now.......Begin. LOL.

 

[frankr2994]

I'm a Dell Certified Repair Technician at work. AAAAFLEX!!! LOL. J/K. I mean I am one, but it's no big deal. I just wanted to drop a comment. You guys can all make fun of me now.......Begin. LOL.

Make fun of you?? Nah. I know Dell certified guys at various places of work. You're not the incompetent asshats answering the phone when we call Dell....
Of course if someone has a problem at your job are your steps "restart the PC. Is the problem still present? Ok let's go ahead and reinstall windows" then there is grounds to rip on you