Hi all,
I’ve run into a bit of a block and I figured this might be the place to get some help.
TLDR; Installed second-gen EPYC CPU into first-gen EPYC Dell server (per CloudNinja’s CPU compatibility list) and I can’t get the server to POST. Are there any tricks I ought to try to get it to work before just giving up on my 20%-ish CPU bump?
I pulled Dell PowerEdge R7415 from the recycle pile at work. The CPU is an AMD EPYC 7251 and from my research, it looks like it shares a socket with second and third gen EPYC CPUs. I was hunting around for confirmation for the specific server and found that CloudNinjas indicates that the server is compatible with many second-gen EPYC CPUs. [cloudninjas]/collections/dell-poweredge-r7415-cpu-upgrades
Elsewhere, I saw that it’s rare for second gen EPYC to work in first gen boards (due to limited BIOS ROM chip sizes), but I was unable confirm the size of the ROM chip on my mobo. [reddit]/r/Amd/comments/d66f5d/here_is_why_many_oems_are_not_supporting_7002/
So, I found an AMD EPYC 7252 (Dell Locked) on eBay for $30 and figured 20%-ish performance gains for $30 was worth a gamble. I popped it into the server and powered the server up but the system never POSTs (fans spin, no monitor output, only event in iDRAC is system power on). I was curious if anyone had suggestions on what to do next before I give up on my performance gains and just eat the $30 (I can’t return the CPU for incompatibility, only if it’s non-functional).
The server only has the iDRAC basic license if that makes any difference. I have never spent much time troubleshooting CPU swaps so I’m fairly new to this so any suggestions help. Thanks!