HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

[withalligators]

Another cool dumpster find. HP Pavilion Elite with 1366 socket, i7 920, 12 GB Ram, GTX 260, 460W PSU. Upon power up gives 2 short and 1 long beep. Figured that was the GPU. Changed it for 2 known working GPUs and got the same result. Tried with different configs of RAM, same result except with no RAM and got a different beep code much sooner. There was a little 4 lane modem card in the top x16 PCIe slot that was getting absurdly hot so I pulled and saw the main chip had popped. Still though, no difference. I tried the GPUs in both slots, to no different effect. Any ideas? PCIe slots dead?

Cheers

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

Likely the RAM. Sorry. Reminds me of my quirky ROG RAM slots on my Asus Maximus II Gene motherboard. (Only one side of each slot has a lever and you must push in the RAM stick on the lever-less side first.)

And it can take many tries to get it in right!
That happened when the Maximus II Gene got a RAM upgrade from 5 GB to 8 GB.

[withalligators]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

I tried the heck out of the RAM. Many different physical configs. Plus the timing is such that it sounds like it's getting past the initial RAM check and onto something else (like initiating video).

[withalligators]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

Ok, so apparently these MBs are absolute crap. But I got it going. Turns out the GPU was bad, the PSU was no good (spun up but couldn't initialize?) and the RAM was indeed poorly seated. After tons of trial and error, it's running. I was shocked when I saw the BIOS screen the first time.

Really annoying fun fact: They have 2 PCIe x 16 slots spaced for SLI/CF but the board doesn't support it.

[stj]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

Really annoying fun fact: They have 2 PCIe x 16 slots spaced for SLI/CF but the board doesn't support it.

what happens if you try?

[withalligators]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

Good question, I don't know. I only read up online.

Just found out something else annoying: The GTX260 is fine. It just won't initialize in the HP. For kicks I pulled an HD 7870 out of another machine to try and it won't work either. I don't have any other 6/8 pin GPUs to try, but I'm guessing this POS for some reason won't read a GPU that is externally powered? I tried 2 other slot powered GPUs, both AMD and Nvidia, and they worked fine.

Shoot me.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

lol looks like the board doesnt support high-end or high powered gpus or sumthing... so much for the system being called "elite". typical of oem pcs.

just for kicks since this site is called badcaps, what caps does the board have around the pci-e slot area?

[withalligators]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

It's not that simple. It shipped with the damn 260 in it. So, something's up. I'll get back to you with those caps manana.

[withalligators]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

Matsushita caps on each PCIe slot. so that's something. Also, pulled the PSU and tried it in another rig, works fine. So, pretty safe to say the motherboard is crap?

[stj]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

Matsushita actually written on them???
because that's panasonics old (very old) label.

[withalligators]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

They've got the rounded square with the M inside. Black with gold just like pannies.

[stj]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

what else is on them?

[momaka]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

Weird issue. I don't suppose there are any current shunts to detect what type of video card is being ran (i.e. whether or not it is externally powered). Perhaps post a picture of the motherboard?

HP usually uses fairly popular brands for their motherboards (though, mostly the cheaper ones), like ECS and ASUS (and sometimes Intel, too). If we see a pictures, we might be able to figure out the motherboard brand and closest model to see what that problem is.

Also, always keep a spare PCI graphics card in your drawer . Also handy if you flash the wrong firmware on a (expensive) graphics card and need to re-flash it again .

[withalligators]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

Ooh, I'm an idiot, and never listed the motherboard model. It's an IPTMTB-TK motherboard made by Pegatron. Apparently there is a retail version by ASUS with SLI support but the BIOSes aren't cross flashable.

Also, I have like 10 PCIe cards at any given time. Most are total crap though. I even have a handful of AGP cards, who knows why.

[stj]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

i'm thinking those caps may be FJ, those dont always last!

[withalligators]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

They are indeed FJS. So, I breadboarded the MB, to play with it, and now it's up to it's old tricks. No posting with any card in there at all. I think I'm done.

[momaka]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

Have you tried a video card in the PCI-E 4x slot yet? (the one that is cut)
Are you trying the motherboard with multiple sticks of RAM? Perhaps keep trying with only one stick of RAM to rule out bad slots.

Also, is the board really bent under the CPU socket? I know many modern stock coolers tend to bend the crap out of motherboards. I always have to make ghetto modifications on those. It simply isn't good for the BGA in the socket!

It's an IPTMTB-TK motherboard made by Pegatron. Apparently there is a retail version by ASUS with SLI support but the BIOSes aren't cross flashable.

Typical of HP. The boards likely have some hardware differences too (usually stuff like jumpers in place of coils or MOSFETs and missing caps everywhere - all in the name of "cost improvement" .)

Also, I have like 10 PCIe cards at any given time.

Yes, but do you have any PCI (not PCI-E) cards? Those are hardy precisely for situations like this.

I even have a handful of AGP cards, who knows why.

If they are decent cards, you might want to keep them. Finding a good AGP card is getting harder and harder these days, so their prices will only go up.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

No posting with any card in there at all. I think I'm done.

hmm giving up so soon? esp when u're on a site like this? not a wise course of action, i think. the pros here will heckle u to change your mind keke...

anyway, my money is on bad caps around the pci-e slots or maybe the whole mobo. i strongly suspect the psu itself has bad caps not filtering out the ripple so the psu becomes a mobo killer and kills the branded panny FJs. i've had a capxon psu kill branded panny FJs on one of my boards. so that explains why high powered gpus dont work on the board. and now the bad caps have deteriorated so much, it now wont recognise any gpu... so i guess u could say thats why u never ignore bad caps.

this issue also reminds me of a previous thread whereby some of the members here were trying to get discrete video cards working on some headless server boards but due to the mosfet design of the server board, it cant and wasnt meant to support video cards as the power draw was too much. but unlike the server board issue which was mosfet design related, your board's problem may be bad caps instead so its still fixable.

momaka could also be right considering how poorly built some oem boards are. there have been cases of warped boards failing to post but after the warpage is fixed, the board works flawlessly.

therefore, the board u have could be suffering from a combination of factors. but if u feel that this is too much work to fix, thats too bad u feel that way. dont trash it tho! give it away to one of the pros here. i'm sure they dont mind paying for the postage to ship the board to them to fix for kicks.

[tom66]

Re: HP Elite Pavilion 2 short beeps 1 long beep, new GPU doesn't change

If the modem chip was getting really hot, it is possible a failure on it damaged the PCI-E driver / main chipset.
I believe PCI-E is low voltage, sub 1V signalling, so for example a latch to 3.3V could easily damage the driver IC.
Just something to think about?