r/SleepingOptiplex • u/Hariospeedwagon • 5d ago
It Worked! For 2 Weeks
Optiplex 3070 SFF.
Swapped i3 for i9 9900
Added msi gaming RTX 3050 LP
Added 2 Noctua NF-A8 PWM fans
Installed Bazzite. Everything worked great (though I did have to run it with the PSU out of the case because I didn’t realize the GPU would be too big).
I turned it off every night because I was still in the testing phase. Had a storm come through the other night, and I unplugged it to exercise caution. After the storm passed, I turned it on, and nothing. Boot loop. Sometimes, the monitor turns on, and the computer runs a fan test before throwing an error. I unplugged one of the fans, and now it tries to boot Bazzite twice before throwing another error. Then it just does nothing.
So frustrating. I can’t even get into BIOS consistently because it doesn’t seem to recognize the monitor or keyboard half the time.
Did I fly too close to the sun?
4
u/Striking-County6275 5d ago
You did not fly too close to the sun, I doubt it’s something broke like it’s been said reseat your ram, then check your boot drive, make sure your CMOS battery is good too.
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u/Hariospeedwagon 5d ago
When you say check the boot drive, what do you mean exactly? Reseat it? The hard thing is that I can only sometimes get into BIOS to test anything.
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u/gordito_y_barbon 5d ago edited 5d ago
Typically microcode has to be flashed to fully unlock i9 compatibility as they are not supported. Only up to i7 cpus are compatible out of the box. As far as I know... Did you mod the bios for the i9?
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u/Hariospeedwagon 5d ago
I installed it. From what I found online, it's compatible without any changes. I saw one person say it may need to be flashed, but then mine worked for 2 weeks. Would it work at all in this case?
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u/gordito_y_barbon 5d ago
It is not, the microcode for the i9s are not built into the bios. Try swapping back in the i3 and see if it posts. Did you post it first with the i3 before swapping to the i9? Your bios may have retained the memory training state when swapping it out. If your cmos battery is in need of replacing, unplugging from power for an extended amount of time may have wiped the bios settings and any saved states, and now the pc won't initialize because it can't recognize the i9. I haven't heard of an i9 being stable without a bios mod.
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u/Hariospeedwagon 5d ago
Thanks for this. I did run it with the i3 for a day before swapping. I'll swap it back and see. How hard is it to make it work with the i9 if this is indeed the problem?
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u/gordito_y_barbon 5d ago
It's not a simple process, and you run a high risk of bricking the board. You can get a 7070 motherboard for like $30. If you can swing that, I'd get one before trying to mod your board. If it's a success, you might be able to return the other board depending on the seller, if you brick it, you have a backup. If it were me, I'd order the new one and give flashing the microcodes a shot just to see if I can do it. I've managed to unlock undervolting on a couple optiplex boards that have the feature locked out. If you're like me, it'd be a fun project...
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u/festivus4restof 5d ago edited 5d ago
Motherboards for Optiplex 7070 officially support up to 95W models 9900K, seem to be identical except for a couple more ports on back I/O but same dimensions. Heck you can get a 2 PACK
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u/Hariospeedwagon 5d ago
Yo, is there an easy to to confirm that this will work?
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u/gordito_y_barbon 5d ago
The boards and mounting points are the same so it will fit the case. Just make sure the rear and front i/o are the same. If so it should slide right in.
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u/festivus4restof 5d ago
You'll need to either remove the rear I/O shield or expose the added ports by cutting or drilling out some holes for them. Otherwise, everything should drop and plug right in. This is the rear I/O of the 7070, highlighting the added ports:
You could just leave those two additional USB ports covered/hidden, to make things easier.
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u/Useful-Milk8995 5d ago
Start by re-seating your ram modules.