ProLiant 400 Processor Upgrade

[Alan McCormack]

Hi, i wonder if someone could shed a little light on this problem for me please.

Can i upgrade the processor in a Compaq ProLiant 400 that is currently running a 350 MHz (Slot 1) Pentium II processor?

I know that the last ProLiant 400's ran with 650 MHz Pentium III processor. Is it possible to upgrade from P II 350MHz to P III 600MHz?

I looked at the switches on the Motherboard and saw that there were dip switch settings for all processors from 350 to 550. Does this mean that i can only go up to 550 MHz, or will I need to make additional changes to upgrade from my 350MHz?

Has anyone done this?

Any advice/ pointers gratefully accepted

Thanks in advance

Alan McCormack

[Sunil Jerath]

Hello Alan,
Unfortunately, you can go upto PII450 only with your exiting components. If you do intend to upgrade then look at the following:
BOARDS
System Board (Pentium III)1 141534-001
Server Feature Board (Pentium III)2 150230-001
System Board (Pentium II) 388489-001
Server Feature Board (Pentium II) 388488-001

PROCESSORS:

450 MHz/100 (512K) Pentium II Processor with Heat Sink 179780-001
500 MHz/100 (512K) Pentium III Processor with Heat Sink 116401-001
550 MHz/100 (512K) Pentium III Processor with Heat Sink 133840-001
600 MHz/100 (512K) Pentium III Processor with Heat Sink 155592-001
Processor Retention Bracket 333575-001

Regards,

[e4services]

Alan,

When the systems are designed, the future is of course unknown. Often these "highly reliable" do not want to show support for something that has not been tested.

My guess is that the part number changes listed above , my be only support notation and BIOS related. Check the BIOS updates for differences or similarities. Seems to be only one.
http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/7_1132.html
And you have more information then HP has online about the units DIP setting (HP's only doc for the 400 only shows 500MHz). My interpolation from the document is that 550 is off, off, off, on ? if so 650 would be on, off, on, off.
And then, what can it hurt to try? A PIII 650/100/512 is not expensive these days. Try an OEM CPU and see. Doesn't have to be Compaq, there is no magic except the heat sink. If it works switch the heat sink. If it doesn't work selling on eBay.

Post here whether it works or not for others.

[Alan McCormack_1]

OK, thanks for your help guys, but now I am extremely intrigued (not to say a little confused)!

HP/Compaq are saying ???no way??? and that I can only increase my SLOT 1 PII 350 to PII 450.

But e4Services has rightly pointed out that there is only one BIOS update for the whole ProLiant 400 range, which did go up to a PIII 600MHz CPU. And I know for a fact that the processor dip-switch in my ProLiant 400 has dip-switch settings that go up to 550MHz. Why would this be if it was never intended to take a 550MHz CPU?

In my quest for as much processing power as my humble server will allow me I would love to go up to a PIII 600MHz or PIII 550MHz. But I am scared to go against the express advice of HP and I am also concerned that there is some other difference, such as power requirements, between PII and PIII processors. I am worried that if I jump from the PII 350MHz to a PIII 600MHz, there will be a huge difference between the two, and in a best case scenario it just does not work and in a worst case scenario I fry the CPU and MoBo!

Has anyone out there done this?

HP/Compaq ??? why do your CPU dip-switches go up to 550?

Thanks again

Alan

[Alan McCormack_1]

Just to clarify...

Is the reason that HP don't recommend putting in a PIII 600MHz into the slot that a PII 350Mhz came out of due to power requirements?

Is it the case that the built-in Voltage Regulator will only cope with a PII CPU?

Why do the dip switches for the CPU go up to 550MHz if the built-in Voltage Regulator can't handle a PIII???

Has anyone out there done a straight swap of a PII to a PIII on Compaq hardware? Can it be done? Did you change the Voltage Regulator?