Power On Self Test (POST) Failure on Dell Precision 7820 Tower, 7920 Tower and 7920 Rack Workstation After Upgrading to Intel Cascade Lake Processor

Symptom

Dell Precision 7820, 7920 Tower and 7920 Rack systems may experience a Power On Self Test failure when you upgrade the processor (CPU) to Intel Cascade Lake. This issue is noticed on Dell Precision 7820 or 7920 Tower with older BIOS revisions.

Affected Dell PCs

• Precision 7820 Tower
• Precision 7920 Tower
• Precision 7920 Rack

Solution

To resolve this issue, download and install the latest BIOS from Dell Drivers & downloads website before upgrading to Intel Cascade Lake processors.

Before upgrading the BIOS to the latest version, revert the system to the original processor configuration and verify that the system operates normally. Once the system boots into the operating system after installing the original processor, proceed to update the BIOS to the latest version.

Note: To learn more about updating the BIOS on your PC, refer to the Dell knowledge-base article Dell BIOS Updates 

1. Browse to the Dell Drivers & downloads page for your product
   • Precision 7820 Tower
   • Precision 7920 Tower
   • Precision 7920 Rack
2. Ensure you have selected the correct Operating System
3. Under Category, select BIOS
4. Locate the latest System BIOS
5. Click Download and save the file to your PC
6. Open File Explorer and browse to the location where the downloaded file is saved
7. Double-click the BIOS setup file and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process
8. Your PC may restart several times during the update procedure. Do not power off the PC during the update procedure.