Thanks for the info, Gardian
I didn't try removing the battery and moving what I assume is the clear CMOS jumper (JP1) until after the system stopped working properly, so I can't agree with you as to the cause of the problems. At any rate, those actions would not damage a motherboard; they're the standard procedure for clearing the BIOS.
One of the first things I did was to buy Kalapati's excellent cable, which came with the necessary jumper for the motherboard.
The very first thing I did when I got this unit was to delete the partitions on both 1TB drives and use the server recovery disc to reinstall the OS from scratch. All that worked without issue. Once I received the cable and jumper, I installed those, started the NAS and was able to treat it like a normal computer. I rebooted it and had a look at the BIOS settings. I noted the the BIOS had memory settings for 1066MHz memory.
Among my spare parts, I have an E6400, an E6600, an E8500 and six sticks of DDR2 RAM. Two of the RAM are PC2-6400(800MHz) and four are PC2-8500(1066MHz). Two of the PC2-8500 sticks are from Corsair's Dominator series, which have oversize heat sinks. Those are 2GB sticks.
The other four sticks are from Corsair's XMS2 series, which still have heat sinks, but are normal height. Those are all 1GB sticks. Two are PC2-6400 and two are PC2-8500.
All of those RAM sticks require higher voltages to reach their rated speed, but I figured that the RAM rated for PC2-8500 at 2.10v would run fine at PC2-6400 and stock voltages.
Since the Dominator RAM is the most robust, that was the RAM I tried first. Due to its height, I pulled the PSU/motherboard unit out of the case, plugged the back-plane into its slot without the hard drives and attached a pair of 120mm fans to the back-plane for cooling.
I used a boot-able Linux USB stick so that I could do something besides just cruising around in the BIOS. That all ran fine, so I swapped out the memory for one of the 1GB sticks of the lower-profile PC2-8500 and put the unit back together.
That is where my problems started.
I can't remember if the current symptoms (fans spinning at low speed and the front power indicator lit in aqua) started the moment I plugged in the power cord or if they started when I pressed the power button.
Right now, however, those symptoms start as soon as the power cord is inserted. My initial description on the current symptoms wasn't complete. When the power cord is inserted, there is no front panel activity a few seconds. Then the power indicator will light aqua and the health indicator will light purple for about 5 seconds, then go dark. After that, the power indicator remains lit and the fans spin slowly.
My next steps will be to take all the CPU's and memory try them on a system I have at work. That's the only other system with an 775 CPU socket that I have. I doubt they're damaged, but it's worth the effort for confirmation.
I doubt HP did any customized design for the power, so the motherboard's 20-pin power connector is probably the stock configuration. Once I test the CPU's and RAM, I'll try another PSU just to eliminate that as a source of the problem.
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