I bought an EX485 a couple months back and finally broke down and decided to upgrade the CPU. I bought an E8400, dropped it in and now it only boots as far as the Memory test . Doing some searching I saw a mention in a post that the E8400 wont work on the EX485 . Is that true, or is there something I'm missing?

If it's true I guess I'll put it into my EX490. Just didn't want to crack open the box of something that's working well...

The EX485 is a strange beast and will not take any cpu upgrades except for the E5200 SLAY7 without problems. The only way I have found to increase the range of CPU's is by using a modified EX495 bios which can be found at viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10342.

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HP EX470, 4 GIG, 4200+ EE SFF, WHS V1, Production
HP EX485, 4 GIG, E5800, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Transfer Server, Backup Server
HP EX490, 4 GIG, Q9400S, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Mediaserver
HP EX485, 4 GIG, Q8200S, WHS 2011, ITUNES Server

Thanks! I ran across a post over at MediaSmartHome.com that people had luck with it recognizing a range of CPUs by enabling PECI in the BIOS. I guess I'll toss in the original CPU and give this option a try before deciding to use the modded BIOS.

Push come to shove I'll just order another CPU off the list in the "Possible CPU upgrades???" post and put this one in the EX490.

The problem with enabling PECI is the CPU's will work, at least some of them but the system won't shutdown correctly. You have to wind up using the power button. The SLAY7 is the only processor that works without problems. Once you open up the bios to the modded EX495 then many processors will work trouble free.

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HP EX470, 4 GIG, 4200+ EE SFF, WHS V1, Production
HP EX485, 4 GIG, E5800, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Transfer Server, Backup Server
HP EX490, 4 GIG, Q9400S, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Mediaserver
HP EX485, 4 GIG, Q8200S, WHS 2011, ITUNES Server

erail is spot on about this. The modded BIOS is a must if you want to avoid problems. That, and the debug cable (which you have). I've personally got the modded BIOS running on my EX487 with the E5300 processor and it works flawlessly. The server shuts down appropriately and also reboots without issue, meaning it doesn't hang up at any point in the shutdown or reboot process. If you don't apply the modded BIOS, you probably won't get it to shut down or reboot without needing to help it along by using the power button.

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Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups

Thanks guys. If it's that easy then I guess I'll just load the modded BIOS. I haven't had any time to mess with it since the work week started.

I'll try to load the ROM listed in erails first post tomorrow after I switch back the original CPU. Just wish I didn't have to keep wasting paste switching the processors back and forth.

Msawyer91, I followed the your "EX485 Hacked BIOS on an EX48x *without* a KVM cable!" post and loaded the modded BIOS from "adaptation" successfully. After a couple of reboots I tossed back in the Core 2 Duo E8400 and it booted without issue (screen shots below).

On issue I did find while digging through the BIOS was that I noticed my recovery partition is gone. Before I had the option to change the BIOS boot order to either my HDD or the boot partition, but I no longer have that option. I guess it's not that big of a deal since I have the VGA cable hacked into the case, but it wasn't expected.

The only other thing that I've noticed as an issue with is the Fan out of Spec Error (screenshot below). I remember seeing something before, so I'll dig around the forum and see if there is a fix. I've got some 25mm fans on order I'm going to mount in front of the heatsync, but I've got to wait on shipping across the pacific. Now to monitor the temps and eventually load WHS 2011. Thanks for the help guys!

I just followed MSawyer's guide as well. Flashed the BIOS a few days ago and kept the stock processor. Today I swapped out the CPU for an e8400 (SLB9J) with OCZ Freeze paste and it won't POST. No VGA cable... any ideas?

If the BIOS flash was otherwise successful--with the stock processor--then I'd say you've got a bad processor. Believe it or not the first E5300 I got for my EX487 was faulty, and I had to send it back for a replacement.

In the end I picked up two of Charles' VGA + PS/2 cables. They were WELL WORTH the investment! They're permanent fixtures on my EX487 and EX490 now, attached to a PS/2 KVM switch with two other computers.

Matt

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Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups

Anyone feel like lending me a VGA dongle for a few days?

If you ordered one from Charles, you'd get it about as fast as one of us could ship it to you. He can even overnight it to you.

My recommendation is that you purchase a cable from him because it is an investment in your gear. It is inevitable that you are going to need one again in the future, so you might as well bite the bullet and order one. There are a lot of happy owners of his cables on this forum, and they would probably tell you the same thing--just like they told me.

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Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups