HP Workstations Owners Club

[PhilYHC]

Hey all, just finished a HP Z440 in my awesome bequiet case, will happily post pics tomorrow, meanwhile i wanted to share this pic i knocked up in photoshop to solve the front usb error, you bridge the pins illustrated in 1 with a jumper, and plug your usb 3 front ports into into 2.

Ok, here is my finished HP Z440 workstation to desktop project.
Please bear with me, as although i'm a fairly experienced geek/hacker type who's been tinkering for the last 20 years, this is the first time i've ever shared a build or project of mine.
Pics are attached in order of paragraph.

It was definitely time to upgrade my aging system, which in its final form was an Intel i7 3770k with 32gb of ram.
I don't game on my desktop, it's strictly used for maintaining my media collection, photoshop, magix vegas, encoding video etc.

The case is a BeQuiet Pure Base 600, PSU is a Corsair 850w Platinum, GPU is an Nvidia GTX 1650.

So i decided to go the route of a workstation conversion and purchased an Hp Z440 for £209, specs are attached.

Luckily, my trusty BeQuiet Pure Rock 2 cpu cooler came with the correct fitting for the xeon socket, you will need to trim the guide rail on the cooler plug, then you just plug it into the top 4. after repasting and fitting, my peak temp during video encoding dropped from 70 degrees C to around 42, significantly better.

I purchased a BeQuiet Pure Wings 3 pwm fan to clear the rear fan bios error.

I have also used a server/desktop PSU convertor cable bought for around £20, seen in pic 2 and 4.

So for around £240, or the price of a single component, i have created a monster!

 

[kilo]

I have also used a server/desktop PSU convertor cable bought for around £20, seen in pic 2 and 4.

I'm very interested in knowing what converter you got, if you can specify.

What CPU did you upgrade to? If you didnt upgrade the cpu yet, I would recommend E5-2698v3, which were $22 USD about a week ago on Amazon.

 

[PhilYHC]

Sure, i got these ones: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B092VDHVK4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
there are cheaper options available in ketchup and mustard, but i wanted black to match the system.
I did run into a snag with these, one of the wires had come out of the block so i had to find a high res image and re-seat it, but all is well.
My CPU is the one that came with the system, Intel Xeon E5-2680 v4 @ 2.40GHz 14 Core 28 Thread.

 

[bibikalka]

Alright, a quick note to all. I was able to get Z620 into this state: MANAGEMENT PLATFORM (ME) IN MANUFACTURING MODE

Quick update. Working together with @BillDH2k on GitHub, we were able to mod Z620 bios to include:

1) Old 2014 faster(?) microcodes (a version with the latest 2020 microcodes is also available)
2) NVME boot module (tested - works)
3) ReBar module, tested, works with RX 580, all 8GB

All this can be flashed purely in software (including BootBlock 2013) if the board is running a v1 Xeon. For v2 Xeon the software method is still in progress, the current workaround is to swap to v1 Xeon temporarily, to do the software only BIOS update. This can be easier than messing with the chip clip. Here is the modding thread:

BIOS modding - NVME boot, etc: · Issue #13 · SuperThunder/HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BootBlock_Upgrade

@BillDH2k OK, 3 BIOSes are attached for Z620. All are based on J96. All modding is done with "MMTool Aptio V4". The microcode downgrade is inserted manually, by replacing the microcode module padde...

github.com

Big thanks to @silentbogo for sharing a working bios with the NVME mod - good confirmation that modding can work, and Z620 will boot an unsigned modded bios.

With these mods, Z620 becomes almost a Z640, LOL!

The porting of the same bios mods to Z820 is in progress.

P.S. If there are additional suggestions for other good BIOS mods - please share those while the work is still active. One could totally see creating a LibreBoot bios for this if somebody puts in the effort.

P.S.S. Here is how implemented ReBar looks like, on vs off

 

[Xeon]

NVME support for Z800.

 

[bibikalka]

NVME support for Z800.

Z800 does not appear to be AMI UEFI BIOS, the tools cannot open it for modding.

But - Clover boot for NVME is just a tiny bit less convenient. If you grab a cheap motherboard USB2 adapter, you can have that Clover USB inside the case:

Motherboard Female Header to USB 2.0 Male /Female - Google Search

Extra bonus if you track down a small ancient USB drive to it's still MLC flash memory!

 

[Xeon]

Thanks for the tip. Try to publish your work on FB group - HP Z Workstation users, probably going to get a bit more exposure.

 

[bibikalka]

Thanks for the tip. Try to publish your work on FB group - HP Z Workstation users, probably going to get a bit more exposure.

Thanks! I did not know there is a FB group out there for HP Z Workstations!

I am collecting early feedback for now, plan to put together a more friendly how-to once we mature everything a bit more.

 

[bibikalka]

Alright, a quick note to all. I was able to get Z620 into this state: MANAGEMENT PLATFORM (ME) IN MANUFACTURING MODE

HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BOOTBLOCK_2013_BIOS_mod​

A guide and collection of resources on how to flash 2013 BootBlock and modded BIOS to HP Z420, Z620, and Z820. The flashing procedure is done with software only, and no BIOS chip clips or desoldering. The modded BIOS supports NVME boot, ReSizable Bar, a range of CPU microcodes.

I created a GitHub project here to store all the required files:

GitHub - bibikalka1/HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BOOTBLOCK2013_BIOS_mod: A guide and collection of resources on how to flash 2013 BootBlock and modded BIOS to HP Z420, Z620, and Z820. The flashing procedure is done with software only, and no BIOS chip clips or

A guide and collection of resources on how to flash 2013 BootBlock and modded BIOS to HP Z420, Z620, and Z820. The flashing procedure is done with software only, and no BIOS chip clips or desolderi...

github.com

If you happen to have V3.50 BIOS for Z820 (file name sp63330.exe ) - please do share. HP has deleted that from their ftp server.

 

[FV101]

HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BOOTBLOCK_2013_BIOS_mod​

A guide and collection of resources on how to flash 2013 BootBlock and modded BIOS to HP Z420, Z620, and Z820. The flashing procedure is done with software only, and no BIOS chip clips or desoldering. The modded BIOS supports NVME boot, ReSizable Bar, a range of CPU microcodes.

I created a GitHub project here to store all the required files:

GitHub - bibikalka1/HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BOOTBLOCK2013_BIOS_mod: A guide and collection of resources on how to flash 2013 BootBlock and modded BIOS to HP Z420, Z620, and Z820. The flashing procedure is done with software only, and no BIOS chip clips or

A guide and collection of resources on how to flash 2013 BootBlock and modded BIOS to HP Z420, Z620, and Z820. The flashing procedure is done with software only, and no BIOS chip clips or desolderi...

github.com

If you happen to have V3.50 BIOS for Z820 (file name sp63330.exe ) - please do share. HP has deleted that from their ftp server.

Hello, is there anything like this for the HP z440 system since that is newer. I havent found anything yet.

 

[FV101]

I've owned this Z440 for ages but I've never really tried optimizing it whatsoever because it runs fine the way it is right now. Does anyone have any software that can squeeze a *little* bit of extra performance out of it. Ive disabled spectre and meltdown and that made my cpu perform close to a non oc i7 8700k.

 

[silentbogo]

Hello, is there anything like this for the HP z440 system since that is newer. I havent found anything yet.

You don't need it for Zx40 series for the most part. NVMe support is already included and there is no "generational" gap between board revisions etc. Pretty much everything you need is already included or enabled.
The only thing that may be theoretically possible, is tweaking included microcode on Z240 so that it can run 8th/9th gen CPUs. Xeon E3 v5s already work OOB, and there's ECC support as well.
I do have a Z240 as my main rig at the office, so I may do another guide at least on bypassing mobo startup errors etc. Not sure if I'll have time to tweak and test coffee lake on it, cause I already have a buyer for it.
Z440/640 - probably not much you can do with those. These alredy support Haswell and Broadwell EP, and there's nothing else for this socket anyways. Nothing is locked, not much can be unlocked besides turbo boost.

 

[FV101]

You don't need it for Zx40 series for the most part. NVMe support is already included and there is no "generational" gap between board revisions etc. Pretty much everything you need is already included or enabled.
The only thing that may be theoretically possible, is tweaking included microcode on Z240 so that it can run 8th/9th gen CPUs. Xeon E3 v5s already work OOB, and there's ECC support as well.
I do have a Z240 as my main rig at the office, so I may do another guide at least on bypassing mobo startup errors etc. Not sure if I'll have time to tweak and test coffee lake on it, cause I already have a buyer for it.
Z440/640 - probably not much you can do with those. These alredy support Haswell and Broadwell EP, and there's nothing else for this socket anyways. Nothing is locked, not much can be unlocked besides turbo boost.

What about re(sizeable) bar? Also, any other tools that can squeeze a lil bit of extra perf out of this?

 

[silentbogo]

What about re(sizeable) bar? Also, any other tools that can squeeze a lil bit of extra perf out of this?

Not really. ReBAR is out of question (standard solutions don't work), and "other tools" only boil down to turbo boost and maybe removing spectre/meltdown mitigations(at your own risk).
And even if ReBAR was possible - it won't give you much of a performance boost on Z440.

 

[bibikalka]

What about re(sizeable) bar? Also, any other tools that can squeeze a lil bit of extra perf out of this?

Not really. ReBAR is out of question (standard solutions don't work), and "other tools" only boil down to turbo boost and maybe removing spectre/meltdown mitigations(at your own risk).
And even if ReBAR was possible - it won't give you much of a performance boost on Z440.

It seems if I throw Z440 BIOS into MMTool_a4 / UEFITool_NE these do recognize the contents, and parse those. I can see the microcodes that are embedded as well. There is enough empty space right after the microcodes to add probably microcodes for 3 more new CPUs, with 120KB of free space and ~35KB per microcode. And of course the existing versions could be swapped for some other ones.

Probably ReBar module could be inserted too perhaps with some help from the ReBar module developer (unless it's already somehow available in the hidden options). For some reason I cannot find PciBus module from a quick look ...

BUT!!! The biggest question is how to flash this modded BIOS into the chip - probably HP tools will check the checksum, and stop if it does not match. So a flash chip clip is needed - which is not for the faint of heart.

And as @silentbogo points out, these are too incremental benefits to bother about them ...

 

[FV101]

Not really. ReBAR is out of question (standard solutions don't work), and "other tools" only boil down to turbo boost and maybe removing spectre/meltdown mitigations(at your own risk).
And even if ReBAR was possible - it won't give you much of a performance boost on Z440.

About turbo boost, my cpu (under a cpuz stress test on all of it's 12 threads) stays at 3.8 GHz when Intel advertises it at boosting to 4.0 GHz. It usually stays at 90 watts and the tdp is 140 watts. Upon further research, I discovered that the 4 GHz boost was limited to 2 cores. These two cores momentarily boost to 4ghz once every stress test for a split second. Any way to force them to boost longer?
ALSO idk how but my cpu has similar performance to an i7 8700 despite having lower clocks and being older (like 95% according to the cpuz scores) so how's that possible?

 

[FV101]

It seems if I throw Z440 BIOS into MMTool_a4 / UEFITool_NE these do recognize the contents, and parse those. I can see the microcodes that are embedded as well. There is enough empty space right after the microcodes to add probably microcodes for 3 more new CPUs, with 120KB of free space and ~35KB per microcode. And of course the existing versions could be swapped for some other ones.

Probably ReBar module could be inserted too perhaps with some help from the ReBar module developer (unless it's already somehow available in the hidden options). For some reason I cannot find PciBus module from a quick look ...

BUT!!! The biggest question is how to flash this modded BIOS into the chip - probably HP tools will check the checksum, and stop if it does not match. So a flash chip clip is needed - which is not for the faint of heart.

And as @silentbogo points out, these are too incremental benefits to bother about them ...

View attachment 358837
View attachment 358838

Funny how the older workstation supports rebar but the newer one doesn't.

 

[bibikalka]

...

@silentbogo

Do you have copies of any ancient ZX40 BIOSes from HP? They deleted them all!

Anybody else has something like BIOS v1.53 (sp71547.exe) or older?

Funny how the older workstation supports rebar but the newer one doesn't.

@FV101

Alright, I am pumped! Let's do it!!!

WIP: Z440 / Z640 / Z840 BIOS mods - ReBar, microcodes, overclocking · Issue #3 · bibikalka1/HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BOOTBLOCK2013_BIOS_mod

This post will be an ever green document. The modded Z440 bios will not flash with official HP tools. Checksum verification will fail! Need to find a way to bypass that. Can probably do a chip clip...

github.com

I will mod the BIOS, you'll flash it! Get the clip, about $3 if you look around, Z440/Z640 flash chip orientation is clip friendly! You will also need a version of Raspberry Pi.

 

[FV101]

@silentbogo

Do you have copies of any ancient ZX40 BIOSes from HP? They deleted them all!

Anybody else has something like BIOS v1.53 (sp71547.exe) or older?



@FV101

Alright, I am pumped! Let's do it!!!

WIP: Z440 / Z640 / Z840 BIOS mods - ReBar, microcodes, overclocking · Issue #3 · bibikalka1/HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BOOTBLOCK2013_BIOS_mod

This post will be an ever green document. The modded Z440 bios will not flash with official HP tools. Checksum verification will fail! Need to find a way to bypass that. Can probably do a chip clip...

github.com

I will mod the BIOS, you'll flash it! Get the clip, about $3 if you look around, Z440/Z640 flash chip orientation is clip friendly! You will also need a version of Raspberry Pi.

View attachment 359069

Nuh uh no way
I literally already broke off a ram slot on this PC and I thought that the bios mod would be software based. I don't have the money or time to fix it or replace it if anything goes wrong.
I found a bios version from 2015 (1.62a) on a website but I have no idea if it's malware. Virus total gives it 0 detections though.

HP Z440 Workstation Bundle BIOS v.1.62 Re.A

Download HP Z440 Workstation Bundle BIOS v.1.62 Re.A. Download is free of charge.

driverscollection.com

 

[bibikalka]

Nuh uh no way
I literally already broke off a ram slot on this PC and I thought that the bios mod would be software based. I don't have the money or time to fix it or replace it if anything goes wrong.
I found a bios version from 2015 (1.62a) on a website but I have no idea if it's malware. Virus total gives it 0 detections though.

HP Z440 Workstation Bundle BIOS v.1.62 Re.A

Download HP Z440 Workstation Bundle BIOS v.1.62 Re.A. Download is free of charge.

driverscollection.com

This BIOS looks legit!

Well - I understand your hardware concerns. But could you at least backup the BIOS you currently have on the chip? It's not complicated. Get IMET9.zip from here https://github.com/bibikalka1/HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BOOTBLOCK2013_BIOS_mod/issues/3

BIOS backup: create DOS USB, unpack IMET9 below, turn off, move green pwd jumper to the undocumented BB E14 jumper, move FDO jumper to the other position, boot to DOS USB. In DOS - [cd imet9; backup 11]. Put jumpers back as they were, reboot back to your main OS.

Use tweezers to move the jumpers if you have big fingers. Zip all *11.bin files that get created, and PM those to me.

The undocumented BB E14 unlock jumper is immediately to the right of the green pwd jumper in this picture, same as the above post - link

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/z440-usb-error-jpg.347414/

ME/AMT flash override jumper is above 4 sata ports, below the hairy heatsink, it has 3 pins. You move the existing jumper from the current 2 pins to the other position, either 1 pin up or down.

With full existing BIOS backup as it is I can at least investigate the proper structure of the BIOS, and where things should go.

 

[bibikalka]

Alright, quick Z440 / Z640 update.

The Ukrainian community ( https://forum.overclockers.ua/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=218885 ) has a modded v1.65 bios (full 16MB, ~2015 vintage) with wiped out FIT and no microcodes. They've been using it for about 4 years for turbo boost unlock on Xeon v3 specifically, v4 does not work for this unlock. All flashing was always done with a SOIC8 clip.

So far they were not successful implementing the same mods for any later BIOS, and getting stable results. Only that modded v1.65 is in use by all.

For developing new mods, a SOIC8 clip is a must. First order of business would be to try to mod the latest BIOS in some very benign way, and make sure that it actually boots. Then comes everything else.

The scope is more or less clear

 

[ModemJunki]

Hi all, I wanted to share my latest journey into keeping my old war horse Z840 system going.

I treated myself to a GPU upgrade from the OEM (PNY made) Quadro M4000 that was given to me with the system to an PNY RTX 4070 Super. I have the 1125 watt power supply so was able to use 6-pin to 8-pin adapters on G1 and G3 to supply the PNY with the needed 2x 8-pin power cables. I did have to cut the tabs off the bottom of the Z840 PCI retainer to get it to seat on the card. The 4070S is in slot 2, with a pair of HP Z Turbo Drive Dual adapters hosting 4 total NVME drives.

System BIOS Version: M60 v02.62 01/04/2024
2x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2697 v4 @ 2.30GHz, 36 total physical cores, or 72 hyperthreaded cores
Memory Size: 128 GB ECC RDDR4 / 1866 MHz (16 sticks or RAM, all channels populated therefore quad-channel mode for each CPU.)
The RAM is 2133 but the system sets it to 1866 in this configuration due to memory bus limitations.

I made many (many!) tests using Passmark as the benchmark. Surprisingly I found that with my CPUs disabling hyperthreading made a difference in GPU performance for some apps

Active Management Technology (AMT): Disable if you aren't using it, reserves some RAM and polls the system, causing a tiny performance hit once in a while.
Intel Hyper-Threading Technology: Disable, removes hyperthreading overhead and each core gets it's full L2 cache dedicated to it. Some apps will benefit and other will degrade, so test for your use case.
Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA): Enable, allows processes on the CPU to acces the RAM connected to the CPU, reduces QPI overhead.
Turbo Mode: Disable (because PCIe performance mode is Enabled, this automatically gets turned off).
QPI Snoop Mode: Directory With OSB (produced fastest results, recommended for the Broadwell processor).
PCIe Performance Mode: Enable (system optimizes PCIe but disables Turbo mode, Runtime Power Management, and Idle Power Savings).

Enjoy!

 

[bibikalka]

Not sure if this is the best place to chip in on this subject, but I recently acquired a Z620 v2 board and wanted to perform the HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BOOTBLOCK_2013_BIOS_mod detailed and using files on Github before upgrading the disks etc and configuring. I have got to step 3E. (flashing J207 bios files) and just keep getting "Error! System ROM image is invalid". I can flash the J396 bios files without any problems. The green jumper is off (as downgrade). As a result I can't progress and get into MANAGEMENT PLATFORM (ME) IN MANUFACTURING MODE. Has anyone come up against this problem? I'm just wondering if I'm missing something simple as a newbie! Thanks in anticipation.

Alright, you are in the right place! You can also post on GitHub if you register there.

I've seen your issue before. You already have a v2 chip, and it looks like J396 does not let one go to J207 when v2 chip is already installed.

If you are willing to test, go to J350 ( sp63328_v350.exe ) first, reboot, then try to load up J207 again. It'll be missing the cpu microcode for v2, but you might be able to hit F1 and continue.

In the worst case if J350->J207 route fails in some way, you'd need to buy a v1 Xeon, anything cheap for a couple of bucks. So you'd swap to v1, continue the modding, then swap back. You'll need a bit of thermal paste too.

Would appreciate if you try any of this, and report back.