I forgot to mention it, but yes I did.

The E5200 should work fine but it may have to have the S-Spec of SLAY7 or QFHQ. If its SLB9T then I am not quite certain how it will work out for you. HP used the E5200 in both the EX495 and x510 but the E5800 actually works much better and the prices is very reasonable when you come across them. As for the D 925 that's a 95W Processor and probably not a good fit for the EX49x. Hopefully the E5200 will work for you.

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Ahh good info. I lucked out and did order a SLAY7 spec so I should see how it goes this weekend.

I asked my father-in-law if he tried to do any upgrades and he said no but when the hard drive failed he was told that it "must have other issues because replacing the hard drive didn't fix the problem" so he just bought a new unit the local shop that had checked it out for him. He's not the sort of fella that is savvy with this sort of thing so I believe him, but that processor came from somewhere. I'm thinking either it has a bad mb that the repair shop knew about and salvaged the CPU out of it or put in a bad part to make a sale to a new unit. I hate to go there but where there's smoke there's fire...

I'll know more if the CPU fixes the problem (or sends me into a new direction) and post back here.

Thanks so much for the feedback!

How you making out with that E5200?

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Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Just getting back to it after a vacation I was forgetting about...

The E5200 appears to have fixed part of the problem. I'm able to see the VGA output and maneuver through the bios. It is seeing the E5200 chip and the memory, and works fine with the original power supply. I am no longer getting the partial lights on the front panel on boot up, but I am running into a problem with getting past step two of the recovery process. I am seeing an aqua power light, the LAN light starts out aqua but goes out after I press the reset switch with a paper clip and then the activity light starts out blinking pink and then goes solid red. I am able to pull a fault code of 2 aqua and 3 red which I think is a bios corruption <?> issue from what I've found here on the boards. My understanding is if step 2 fails it is generally a LAN connection issue, which I've booted a Win7 machine into safe mode w networking and set the static at 192.168.43.43 (IIRC) to establish a link, but no luck. I also tried a standby router I have laying around to issue DHCP if that was a block but no luck there either. I tried with different formatted hard drives (NTFS) with no luck.

Before I clamor down the next rabbit hole with the recovery which my impression is it can be a rather persnickety beast in it's own right, leads me to a question about the BIOS...

Seeing as how someone added the wrong processor it may be possible that they also fiddled with the BIOS settings as well. Is there a way to reset the bios to a default value that will work with this configuration? (If this is the issue) I did find the "reset to default" setting in the BIOS but did not want to mess with it until I checked back here. I'm a firm believer in making too many changes at once nets little knowledge with diagnostics like this.

Thanks in advance for any advise!

First thing is review this Guide on the Server Recovery on the EX490 and EX495: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/wiki/in ... _and_EX495

As for the BIOS going with the Default Values should be ok. What troubles me is the error code you posted but because I am not certain what BIOS recovery source not present fully means or how an improper BIOS Setting would cause an issue with a recovery because I have not had to mess with or troubleshoot too many recovery issues with the LX19x, EX49x, x310 or x510 server models which all recovery using the same method which at best can be sensitive and annoying.

The other thing I see in your post is the network connection might not be correct. You need to connect the client recovering the server directly to the server using a network cable. Any Cat5 or Cat6 cable will work as the servers NIC has autosense capability. Just follow the information in the Guide I posted above from the sites WIKI and see if that helps you. I will also tell you that booting the client into Safe Mode with Networking takes a lot of the interference factors from things like AV Software out of the picture.

Good Luck and let me know how you make out.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8