Dell Workstation Owners Club

[frankr2994]

I don't have a multimeter and don't know how to use one so that I can't do. I tried however sticking two ram sticks in two white ram slots and it showed the same issue/lights also tried the last white ram slot and same issue. Tried also all the black ram slots and it will tell me a beep code 1-3-1 and 1-3-2 which both relate to ram

Gotcha. Well if you disconnected everything else I said to I don't know what direction to turn you. I had a similar problem with a t3600 years ago and it was totally my fault. I plugged in additional hardware to the vga power slot without considering pin assignment and gave it a dead short. It would try for roughly the same length of time yours does while heating up components before shutting down. Didn't hurt anything surprisingly because I tried booting multiple times with it shorted....I would suggest if you like tinkering to this level to get some cheap auto ranging multimeter and learn a few basic functions of it. Comes in handy around the house just as much as playing around with an old PC. I don't have or ever had a t5500 or 3500 or anything from that era so I was just going off of my basic diagnostics

 

[MrJunez]

Gotcha. Well if you disconnected everything else I said to I don't know what direction to turn you. I had a similar problem with a t3600 years ago and it was totally my fault. I plugged in additional hardware to the vga power slot without considering pin assignment and gave it a dead short. It would try for roughly the same length of time yours does while heating up components before shutting down. Didn't hurt anything surprisingly because I tried booting multiple times with it shorted....I would suggest if you like tinkering to this level to get some cheap auto ranging multimeter and learn a few basic functions of it. Comes in handy around the house just as much as playing around with an old PC. I don't have or ever had a t5500 or 3500 or anything from that era so I was just going off of my basic diagnostics

It sucks because Ive spent so much money to try and fix it. At this point im just thinking about buying a T7500 board just so i can use the parts I paid for to get this T5500 mobo working. I'll see if I do get a multimeter but I am really thinking that the motherboards ram slots might be faulty due to it freezing loading windows 10 the one time it booted and then all the ram changes + cap replacement. I might use this board as a thing to learn from when I full around with the multimeter

 

[frankr2994]

It sucks because Ive spent so much money to try and fix it. At this point im just thinking about buying a T7500 board just so i can use the parts I paid for to get this T5500 mobo working. I'll see if I do get a multimeter but I am really thinking that the motherboards ram slots might be faulty due to it freezing loading windows 10 the one time it booted and then all the ram changes + cap replacement. I might use this board as a thing to learn from when I full around with the multimeter

Excuse my ignorance but what's the difference between the 7500 and 5500 board itself? If you bought a bare board for either which I think with a little shopping you can get very cheap you have everything else to toss it together.

Motherboard swap info on your system.

 

[Susquehannock]

Excuse my ignorance but what's the difference between the 7500 and 5500 board itself? If you bought a bare board for either which I think with a little shopping you can get very cheap you have everything else to toss it together.

Motherboard swap info on your system.

T7500 board has different configuration and mounting screw pattern up top because of the onboard SAS controller and connectors.

 

[MrJunez]

Excuse my ignorance but what's the difference between the 7500 and 5500 board itself? If you bought a bare board for either which I think with a little shopping you can get very cheap you have everything else to toss it together.

Motherboard swap info on your system.

T7500 board has different configuration and mounting screw pattern up top because of the onboard SAS controller and connectors.

I think the capacitors are also more reliable on the T7500? Also would anyone know if I can change to any aftermarket power supply to connect the T7500 board?

 

[frankr2994]

I think the capacitors are also more reliable on the T7500? Also would anyone know if I can change to any aftermarket power supply to connect the T7500 board?

I thought that video pretty much said you can't install a 7500 board in a 5500 case. And Susquehannock confirmed that at least some of the mounting is different. I really wouldn't worry much about caps. I've used plenty of old Dell systems that had noticably popped caps and I could never find a way to make anything act up. Obviously If your having issues then i'd replace them.

 

[MrJunez]

I thought that video pretty much said you can't install a 7500 board in a 5500 case. And Susquehannock confirmed that at least some of the mounting is different. I really wouldn't worry much about caps. I've used plenty of old Dell systems that had noticably popped caps and I could never find a way to make anything act up. Obviously If your having issues then i'd replace them.

Oh, I don't have any case. The case I used for another project but I took the internals and kept them to myself so now I am here trying to fix it but rather buy a T7500 board and use the parts from the T5500. Before I end up buying a T7500 Board I would like to know if I can replace the PSU with like a EVGA or Corsair 1000w psu and can the board fit into a EATX case

 

[frankr2994]

I didn't realize you were just benching all this. Did you have all the appropriate fans plugged in? J/c what is the purpose of this whole project? Are you just tinkering or do you need this computer?

 

[MrJunez]

I didn't realize you were just benching all this. Did you have all the appropriate fans plugged in? J/c what is the purpose of this whole project? Are you just tinkering or do you need this computer?

I planned on turning this into a server to host a website I have. Only one Fan was plugged into FAN_CCAG, the other fan I did not plug in which was FAN_FRONT and then there is one more fan slot labeled FAN_HDD but the system honestly only came with two fans from the first two.

 

[Susquehannock]

I think the capacitors are also more reliable on the T7500? Also would anyone know if I can change to any aftermarket power supply to connect the T7500 board?

Capacitors are same as the other boards. Question is whether the boards themselves were assembled before or after the known defective caps that Dell lied about, and changed to better parts in later revisions. Any other reason you want to go with a T7500 board?

Aftermarket PSU can be installed in Tx500 cases. Have two here running that way. Be sure the 8-pin EPS cable is long enough to reach the connector. As for the EATX, only done comparison with ATX boards. These Dell boards are not standard. Three of the screw mounts line up and that's it. Would only be two with a T7500 since they are different near the top.

Then there is the 40-pin proprietary cable from the front I/O panel to board where fan and temp sensors reside. System will show error codes and not go past POST without it. Plenty of custom modding required to make all this work, if at all.

 

[MrJunez]

Capacitors are same as the other boards. Question is whether the boards themselves were assembled before or after the known defective caps that Dell lied about, and changed to better parts in later revisions. Any other reason you want to go with a T7500 board?

Aftermarket PSU can be installed in Tx500 cases. Have two here running that way. Be sure the 8-pin EPS cable is long enough to reach the connector. As for the EATX, only done comparison with ATX boards. These Dell boards are not standard. Three of the screw mounts line up and that's it. Would only be two with a T7500 since they are different near the top.

Then there is the 40-pin proprietary cable from the front I/O panel to board where fan and temp sensors reside. System will show error codes and not go past POST without it. Plenty of custom modding required to make all this work, if at all.

No other reason so far. But will end up just buying a T7500 mobo and finding the right case for it. Thank you everyone for helping me out trying to bring something from the scrapyard back to life, unfortunately It gave me one last boot before it went out but I'll keep the board as a donor. I will be back if I have problems with the T7500 mobo.

 

[NoiseBox]

Checking in. My main system is a Dell T7610 with dual E5-2643 v2 Xeons, 64GB ECC Registered (IIRC) RAM, AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 8GB GPU, 2x PCIe nVME m.2 adapter cards (each holds 4 (again, IIRC) m2 nVME drives), and more SSDs/SAS HDDs than I can shake a stick at and a 1300watt power supply. I used the internal USB port for an LED light strip and the 3.5" slot for a multi-card reader (I'm a photographer)
Running Windows 9 (8.1 Industry Embedded Professional with a Windows 7 skin on it)

 

[frankr2994]

Checking in. My main system is a Dell T7610 with dual E5-2643 v2 Xeons, 64GB ECC Registered (IIRC) RAM, AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 8GB GPU, 2x PCIe nVME m.2 adapter cards (each holds 4 (again, IIRC) m2 nVME drives), and more SSDs/SAS HDDs than I can shake a stick at and a 1300watt power supply. I used the internal USB port for an LED light strip and the 3.5" slot for a multi-card reader (I'm a photographer)
Running Windows 9 (8.1 Industry Embedded Professional with a Windows 7 skin on it)

Very odd but very cool system. Can I ask why so many nvme drives? Having 8 if them and then more 2.5ssds just sounds nuts. I did a Dell t5810 for a photographer a little while back and used 1 nvme for editing and 1 m.2 Sata SSD for boot and programs and 2 4tb hdds for storage. Photography wasn't his main work though. Regardless I'd like to see a photo I love actually using up everything a PC has to offer as far as expandability.

 

[NoiseBox]

Very odd but very cool system. Can I ask why so many nvme drives? Having 8 if them and then more 2.5ssds just sounds nuts. I did a Dell t5810 for a photographer a little while back and used 1 nvme for editing and 1 m.2 Sata SSD for boot and programs and 2 4tb hdds for storage. Photography wasn't his main work though. Regardless I'd like to see a photo I love actually using up everything a PC has to offer as far as expandability.

I got carried away
It was long before the current worldwide shortages of everything, and I got the parts for a steal, so I figured I'd build the most insane overkill Ivy Bridge system I could.
And I'll see what I can do about taking a good pic of it for you.

 

[frankr2994]

Gotcha. Ya before the shortages I was buying 150 dollar gtx1650 supers for everyone then wishing I bought a couple for myself lol.

 

[frankr2994]

Just fyi my kids bday is coming up. I myself have a Dell t5810 with a gtx 1070 and I just bought him the same get up....16gb ram instead of my 32 and he's not getting a quad nvme drive any time soon. Both e5-1650 v3 xeons. Going to be a big step up from his optiplex 7010 i5 with some ancient amd card in it.

 

[Hbombqueso]

Need some help I have a T3500 motherboard and wanted to know if that CPU backplate heatsink come off if so how

 

[Aaron_Henderson]

I can't remember how I removed it, but it does come off. I removed the one on my TT3500 motherboard so I could use an aftermarket CPU cooler. I forgot about it and when I switched from W3570 to W3680 I almost fudged the CPU socket. I'd take my PC apart to check how I did it, but it's a real pain...all the cables are mashed behind the motherboard tray so hard I'd practically have to disassemble everything to get to the socket area. It's doable though (removing he backplate), just be careful not to mash the pins in the CPU socket when you forget you've done it. You'll see what I mean when you get there. If I can recall, there were 4xtorq holding it all together, but it also holds most of the CPU socket together? I really can't recall exactly...

 

[NoiseBox]

Regardless I'd like to see a photo I love actually using up everything a PC has to offer as far as expandability.

Apologies for the delay, (and the potato quality of the pic, I didn't feel like using my dSLR for a single shot of a workstation)
The green glow in the lower right is from the power led on the back of the small screen (to be used as a sensor panel when I get around to it) and the light up top comes from a LED strip connected to the internal USB port.
Also don't mind the dust (one of many things I need to do when the weather warms up)

 

[frankr2994]

Apologies for the delay, (and the potato quality of the pic, I didn't feel like using my dSLR for a single shot of a workstation)
The green glow in the lower right is from the power led on the back of the small screen (to be used as a sensor panel when I get around to it) and the light up top comes from a LED strip connected to the internal USB port.
Also don't mind the dust (one of many things I need to do when the weather warms up)

Awesome. I'm guessing that there are 2 Asus hyper nvme adapters up top. And some random fans in there too. I like it. And ya dust. I have my minimum fan speed at 35 percent. That's as high as tolerable by me. Gets loaded with dust/dog hair fast. I'd love to figure out a clean way of using a filter I could clean weekly.

 

[NoiseBox]

I'm guessing that there are 2 Asus hyper nvme adapters up top

That would be correct, not cheap, but they have their own chip in them so I can boot from that on a system that normally doesn't support booting from m.2 (since there aren't any on the board)
Since I"m not a gamer, this system will last me until it dies, and given the quality of the workstation hardware, that'll be another 10 years or go

EDIT:
The fans is because those nvme adapters, despite having a fan built-in, still run a tad to hot for my taste, so the extra fan is to help. Taped on top of the fan tunnel for the RAM chips, very makeshift but it works well.

As to the filter, I looked into HEPA filters, but they reduced airflow too much and the case is already lacking in that regards, so I just leave the side panel off (the small screen prevents the side panel from being on anyway) and deal with the dust

 

[frankr2994]

That would be correct, not cheap, but they have their own chip in them so I can boot from that on a system that normally doesn't support booting from m.2 (since there aren't any on the board)
Since I"m not a gamer, this system will last me until it dies, and given the quality of the workstation hardware, that'll be another 10 years or go

Exactly why I have one. I can't run 2 like you in a 5810 though lol. Right now I have a nvme boot drive and an adapter in the adapter running an Intel wifi card with leads coming out to external antenna. Those cards only work on machines with bifurcation otherwise you have to buy the really expensive Dell quad adapter. Other nice thing is they take m.2 22110 cards so we can buy "cheap" server grade nvme. My 1tb nvme cost me 75 bucks on Amazon. I'm working on a deal getting a couple more for 60 each.

 

[Aaron_Henderson]

That would be correct, not cheap, but they have their own chip in them so I can boot from that on a system that normally doesn't support booting from m.2 (since there aren't any on the board)
Since I"m not a gamer, this system will last me until it dies, and given the quality of the workstation hardware, that'll be another 10 years or go

I am eyeing up another Dell server / workstation motherboard for my next personal build...I really want to go dual CPU. I don't really anything these days that needs it, but I just like building oddball computers. My current T3500 based setup has been in service for 5+ years already for me alone, who knows what is was put through before that. It's a 10 year old system that's been beat to heck and still chugging along like a champ. I've owned other workstation / server stuff, and Dell is, by far, my favourite OEM. I think it was a T5610 motherboard I was looking at last...just for something new to build. It would allow me to use my DDR3 RAM, it's dual 2011, I think V2...and there are 8C/16T with decent clocks for, like, $30-40 each. I'd have to do a bit of modifying to my case again, but I have space to do case mods again where I am living now, and the tools to do it. I think the upgrade will cost me less than $150, more than double my core count, at similar clocks. I'd also really like to upgrade my storage...I still use a HDD+SATA 2 SSD. My current PC is still plenty fast for what I do with it (internet and basic gaming...Quake Champions and single player games)...I'm just bored with it and want something new (to me) to mess with that will last me as long as this thing has.

 

[frankr2994]

Just fyi my kids bday is coming up. I myself have a Dell t5810 with a gtx 1070 and I just bought him the same get up....16gb ram instead of my 32 and he's not getting a quad nvme drive any time soon. Both e5-1650 v3 xeons. Going to be a big step up from his optiplex 7010 i5 with some ancient amd card in it.

Got the system on Thursday. Came with the wrong cpu. E5-1620 v3....now trying to get the seller to respond. I have to get it setup today regardless. Hopefully they give me some money back or send me the right cpu.

 

[NoiseBox]

I am eyeing up another Dell server / workstation motherboard for my next personal build...I really want to go dual CPU. I don't really anything these days that needs it, but I just like building oddball computers. My current T3500 based setup has been in service for 5+ years already for me alone, who knows what is was put through before that. It's a 10 year old system that's been beat to heck and still chugging along like a champ. I've owned other workstation / server stuff, and Dell is, by far, my favourite OEM. I think it was a T5610 motherboard I was looking at last...just for something new to build. It would allow me to use my DDR3 RAM, it's dual 2011, I think V2...and there are 8C/12T with decent clocks for, like, $30-40 each. I'd have to do a bit of modifying to my case again, but I have space to do case mods again where I am living now, and the tools to do it. I think the upgrade will cost me less than $150, more than double my core count, at similar clocks. I'd also really like to upgrade my storage...I still use a HDD+SATA 2 SSD. My current PC is still plenty fast for what I do with it (internet and basic gaming...Quake Champions and single player games)...I'm just bored with it and want something new (to me) to mess with that will last me as long as this thing has.

Amen to that. Plus saying you have a dual CPU workstation is simply cool. Dell's consumer stuff is pretty naff, but their workstation gear is A++, wouldn't use anything else any more (as my main system) Once you understand how and why Dell did things, it's pretty easy to spiff them right up.