Thinkstation D20 not booting (no video, no beeps, only fans on)

[Snuggles]

Hi everyone,

hope someone can help me with my D20 (bought it used w/o CPU; warranty till 8/2013).

- It has now a XEON W5680 installed,

- 3x4GB ECC-RAM in the blue CPU1-Slots.

- nVidia Quadro 4000 (extra power-cable is installed. LED = green)

The main problem is: It does not do anything visible:

- When I press the power button the fans run up, HD spins, 1394-LED on the front lighting etc.).

- Screen stays black.

- No beeps or anything.

-> Tried different PCIe-Slots for graphics: Nothing.

-> Tried other graphic card in different PCI-Slots: Nothing.

-> Tried different monitor cables and checked the correct input selection on monitor: Nothing.

I removed everything (CPU, RAM, HD). Still does only run up the fans. No beeps, no display. Normally it should complain about missing CPU, RAM and everything...?

Power button only reacts on 3-second-hold to shut down.

Can someone give me a hint, please ??? I am new to Lenovo (switching from DELL because of their massive quality-issues ... well ... )...

Thanks

Nico

[erik Community SuperMod · Accepted solution]

welcome to the forum!

the W5680 doesn't exist.   do you mean W5580, W3680, or X5680?

if you're referring to the W3680 then this is a single QPI processor and isn't supported in dual QPI systems.   the system also won't boot without a processor installed.   both scenarios (single QPI CPU installed and no CPU installed at all) will act exactly as you're seeing.

please refer to this KB for a list of supported CPUs in the D20:  /t5/ThinkStation-Knowledge-Base/Supported-processors-in-the-ThinkStation-D20/ta-p/402975

if you have an X5680 and are still seeing these symptoms, please let us know.

[psuturtle Lenovo Staff]

Also, depending on the age of the board (not sure how you obtained the system), it might have a BIOS on it that is downlevel enough that it doesn't have the microcode patches necessary to run a Westmere CPU. 

Let's get the details on the CPU clarified, and then we can probably help you get it up an running.

[Snuggles]

Hi,

thank you for the quick response - and you are right, it is no "W5680" but an W3680.

Now this processor is not in the list - This means there is no chance (new BIOS...?) to get this CPU running in the D20?

Thanks!

/Nico

[erik Community SuperMod]

sadly there's no way to get a single-QPI proc like the W3680 to work on a dual-QPI planar.   the second quick path would need to be physically capped off, requiring extensive modifications to the board.   no BIOS change could fix that.

i wish we had better news for you here.   the W3680 is easily less than half the cost of an X5680/X5690.   i'm sure a lot of westmere owners would happily use W3600 processors over their dual-QPI counterparts.

[Snuggles]

Thanks!

My fault. Installled an E5645 Processor and now it is running... Except for a Win 7 installation problem (does not find my Vertex 4 SSD...), but this in another topic

[psuturtle Lenovo Staff]

If you're doing a retail win7 install, you'll need to make sure you provide windows with the correct Marvell driver in order for the OS to see any drives connected to the blue SATA/SAS ports.  The Marvell driver for that HDD controller is not native to windows, so it needs to be provided via USB key, etc.