HP Pro 3330 (H-POPEYE-H61-uATX): Ivy Bridge Support

[Hooper]

Hey Ozlacab,
I tried the Gigabyte BIOS that you suggested in a 3330 (Popeye) board that dropped into my hands recently. I could not get the CH314a clip-on connection to work, so I removed the chip with a heat gun. Then I had trouble with ASProgrammer at the Verify stage, so I switched to NeoProgrammer which worked first time. I noticed that it took 2-3 times longer for it to write to the chip compared to ASP. Maybe this is an important difference? Anyway, it booted up and everything seems to be working great. The cpu and sys fan speeds are much higher compared to the HP bios, but I can solve that. I now have a i7-3770K running in my Popeye board. Thanks for sharing this find. I also have a Cupertino board that I could not get a bios update(s) to work, so I will try using NeoProgrammer to make the bios chip when I find the time.

Seems I spoke too soon (once again). Everything was working fine initially, and the next day it would not boot. The fans spin but there is no post and no beep. This is the identical behavior to a Cupertino2 board that i was working on recently. Is it a strange co-incidence or am i doing something wrong?

[Hooper]

I purchased a TL611 Pro diagnostic card and plugged into the small pcie slot. I have a green led on 3VSB and red light on cpu (3770K). The code is "2.E." The decimal places swap from left to right.

I am not really sure what this is telling me. Any suggested next steps?

[ngocthienta]

You should plug it in the LPC_DEBUG header, or the old PCI slot. Can you also provide a photo? 2E seems to be related to memory initialization.

[Hooper]

The MB has a pin missing on the LPC_debug, i assume for orientation, but the diagnostic card does not, so I am wondering about the orientation. Any thoughts?

OK, I found pin 1 on each and aligned them. There are no led lights and 0.0. code with the decimal place swapping position when I turn on.

[ngocthienta]

So it seems the LPC_DEBUG header doesn't work. Can you please plug it back to the small PCIe slot, or the white PCI slot, remove all the RAM sticks and see what code you get?

Edit: I've checked the manual of TL611 and it surely supports the LPC_DEBUG header on HP motherboards. Did you plug it in correctly? Pin 1 should be on the lower left side.
   

[Hooper]

Here are the pics. 
LPC is plugged in correctly, tried it several times.
It decided to post when I had the debug in the white pci slot. I think this was random as it did not post again after off/on cycle.  A couple of bios pages are shown when it worked.

Seems to me that there is a Gigabyte post threshold that is slightly different to the HP board. Sometimes boots sometimes not.

[ngocthienta]

When it refuses to boot, what post code do you get? Can you try with other CPUs/RAM sticks to see if there's a consistent non-boot pattern?

[Hooper]

Things would be clearer if I could post the pics.
When the debug is in white pci or LPC the code is 00, regardless of boot or not.

When on small pcie it is 2E with no boot.

Withe ram removed, small pcie, lots of beeps, code E5. I can't find a meaning for that code.

I have already tried various ram sticks. Will try another cpu tomorrow.

[ngocthienta]

Which BIOS are you currently using? The Gigabyte one? Just asking since the POST code is strange. For AMI BIOS, you should get 53 with no memory installed.

[Hooper]

It is the Gigabyte bios, which is AMI. I will try different cpus today. (2nd and 3rd gen)