Problems upgrading R740 from Silver 6114 to Gold 6150

[clcorbin]

Folks,

I had picked up a R70 at a local auction for a very good price and decided to upgrade the processors from Silver 6114 it came with to Gold 6150 CPUs. The 6150 did require the larger 150w+ heatsinks, which I also purchased. The install was pretty straight forward, but after booting up the system with the CPUs, it hangs at loading the BIOS. Nothing fell into the sockets during the swap and I was careful to install them straight down onto the guide pins during the swap.

Prior to installing the new processors, I upgraded all firmware to the latest versions from Dell using the Life Cycle Controller. I'm thinking my plan of attach should be something like:

• Remove the Dell H830 card I also installed at the same time (nothing attached to it at this time)
• Remove CPU 2 and see if it can boot
• Replace CPU 1 with original CPU 2 and see if it can boot (assuming first step failed)
• Reinstall both original CPUs and see if it boots
• If it does, double check the BIOS (2.19.something at this time)
• If it does, install Dell H830 to see if it will work with the 6114

Are there any BIOS settings that could be causing it to choke? Probably should do a full BIOS reset once it boots (even if on original CPUs). Other ideas other than contacting the vendor and seeing if there return policy is actually follow?

Thanks!

Clint

 

[clcorbin]

Well, it wouldn't boot with the CPU from socket 1 installed (with the other CPU or installed by itself in socket 1). It did boot up just fine with the other socket 2 CPU installed in socket 1 by itself.

After double checking that all the firmware was up to date (it was) and it would boot properly with the H830 card also installed (another new piece of hardware), I decided to give the other CPU a close look. I found a very small piece of what looked like lint sitting on two pads. After cleaning it off, I reinstalled the second CPU and it booted up just fine. I'm running the hardware diagnostics right now just to be sure.

Hopefully, this "simple fix" is indeed the root cause.

 

[Marc_]

I used to get this alot when changing CPU's. Can also generate ramdom memory errors/dead dimm errors, especialy on Dell's. I've started using a small amount of ipa on a lint free cloth to wipe the processors over. Since doing this I've had (so far) 0 errors or boot failures. Worst offenders by far are second hand CPU's. The dirt that comes off them from being handled/packaged poorly is insane.

 

[RolloZ170]

I've started using a small amount of ipa on a lint free cloth to wipe the processors over

this is a must do. otherwise you will smear dirt on the gold contacts which are not so easy to clean.