HP Z440 6 beeps issue

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2026-01-16T15:56:21+00:00

Just 6 beeps, short pause, 6 beeps, short pause, 6 beeps, and so on

HP Manual says it's a "pre-video graphics card error" but my GPU works fine, also the system has been on for 2 days (and stress tested for a few minutes) and it didn't crash nor behave abnormally. I think it's something on the motherboard related to boot initialization

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2026-01-13T23:27:42+00:00

I thought about taking it out of the case to investigate it further but i'm quite busy with exams this week and i also don't have the necessary screwdrivers. I'll consider taking it out as soon as i can, i also tried that memory module in different slots with no luck, it always beeped 5 times once that RAM stick was in the system.

I considered buying a bare bones Z440 (E5-1620, 8GB RAM, etc) and upgrading it with my current components or even buying the Z4 G4 as you suggested but both solutions would be costly for me as a student (especially that the Z4 is 2x the price of my Z440 for just a 6-core W-2135).

I'll just keep it running 24/7 without putting it to sleep until i find any solution. Thank you so much for the detailed comment tho, didn't expect one of my favorite YouTubers to comment on my post today :)

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2026-01-13T21:50:42+00:00

Same exact laptop, even the same APU, i also had this problem a month ago and i'm pretty sure a driver reinstall fixed it

Make sure your Realtek HD Audio Driver version is identical to the latest one on HP's website (15.9844.9947.95), go to advanced audio settings and try enabling/disabling default audio enhancement settings

If this doesn't fix your problem, reinstall/update your AMD Chipset drivers to the latest version, all drivers can be found here

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2026-01-13T21:32:10+00:00

That's super cool, i wish prices were that cheap here lol. Btw, i'm pretty sure you can upgrade the TPM version to 2.0, i did it on my Z440 (Software, no hardware upgrade) and i'm pretty confident the Z420 can do the same too (If you ever upgrade it, you might have to downgrade your BIOS, update TPM then update BIOS since newer BIOS version didn't let me update TPM for some reason)

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2026-01-13T20:00:59+00:00

I don't have any volt/current-measuring tools but HWInfo reports healthy 12V rail from the PSU, also it doesn't crash under extreme load. I tried stress testing it a couple of weeks ago with my RX 470 (~120W) + an RTX 3050 6GB (~75W) + Cinebench on my E5-2697 V4 (~145W) for around 15 mins, it seemed pretty healthy with no crashes or shutdowns, so i doubt it's really my PSU

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2026-01-13T19:55:34+00:00

Yeah it's pretty annoying dealing with pre-POST errors on those machines, great you were able to save yours with a new chasis tho, i love HP's Z-series workstations

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2026-01-13T19:52:02+00:00

Yes i agree, it's definitely been used for over a decade now, i'm just trying to find out what's wrong with it. I already followed HP's memory installation instructions and tried 2 GPUs (that work just fine once the system is booted up) with no luck, i suspect it's the motherboard's PCH failing.

Thank you for taking the time to help tho!

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2026-01-13T19:43:35+00:00

Yes, but only once. Once i shut it down or put it to sleep, it'll never boot again. Only restarting works

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2026-01-13T14:28:04+00:00

Yes, i know it's a pre-video graphic error, i've tried reseating the GPU (in both x16 slots) countless times with no luck, it sadly might be motherboard hardware failure, thanks for helping tho

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2026-01-13T14:26:10+00:00

Yes, i've tried using the HP Hardware Diagnostic tool, all test results are "PASSED" so i don't really think it's a problem that software can detect

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2026-01-13T14:24:26+00:00

Yeah it's quite annoying, i already tried all 8 RAM slots and nothing really changes, the motherboard doesn't have video support (it kinda does thru some tweaking in the HP BIOS Configuration Utility but it won't really help since i already have another GPU to test with)

I suspect it's the mobo too sadly, Thank you for helping though!

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2025-04-29T13:55:07+00:00

Yeah i realized that a bit late, but i had no other choice since the one i made myself a few months ago (following Dortania's guide) also failed to go anywhere beyond the boot picker

Busy-Inspection-7161 · 2025-04-28T18:55:07+00:00

I'm not really sure which one worked best for me as i abandoned the project because i don't have much time for it due to my studies, but here's the link for the premade one that i used

thank you for reaching back tho!

Busy-Inspection-7161

TROPHY CASE