A customer of mine has an HP Z420 workstation with a very strange behaviour. The computer generally works well, but occasionally refuses to turn on.
The customer observed that unplugging the power socket of the motherboard and reinserting it always worked; after doing that, the computer turns on without problem. This is very boring as it involves kneeling down to open the case.
I went on site to see that from my own eyes. Although I'm aware that invisible solder cracks may be present, the power socket appeared to me being firmly soldered. I also could observe the malfunction and that the trick worked.
In an attempt to solve the problem, the power supply has already be replaced by a previous IT company, without success. I must admit that I don't know if the power cable was replaced as well.
As a first thing, I replaced the BIOS battery with a new one. It seem have fixed the problem during about 10 days, but then the problem came again.
I suspect the presence of some parasitic current (due to capacitors?) that would prevent the computer turning on until the power socket is unplugged and reinserted.
Here are the specs:
- HP Workstation Z420 Tower
- Processor Xeon E5-1620 v2 @ 3,7 GHz
- Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro
- (8 GB RAM, 120 GB SSD, 1TB HDD, ...)
The power supply is a 600W one, and that seem sufficient according to the specs.
The HP warranty unfortunately expired.
Are there known power supply problems with the motherboard of this workstation?
