Datto Xeon D 1541 board -- $501.15 shipped + 6/8% ebay bucks for some

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

superfula

Member
Mar 8, 2016
88
14
8
Are folks flashing to the Asrock firmware via Instant Flash or from within Windows? Both my boards are freezing immediately using the Instant Flash option.
 

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
956
359
63
Are folks flashing to the Asrock firmware via Instant Flash or from within Windows? Both my boards are freezing immediately using the Instant Flash option.
I flashed with Instant Flash in BIOS.

Did you verify the download?
The 1.30 file (D412T8R1.30D) has the SHA256 checksum: 7a955a92ebaa58ee48c167d5c46b4dc0d93ced2c60ff5b4298cd268288d62995

If that doesn't work perhaps a different USB key is the way to go.
 

superfula

Member
Mar 8, 2016
88
14
8
I flashed with Instant Flash in BIOS.

Did you verify the download?
The 1.30 file (D412T8R1.30D) has the SHA256 checksum: 7a955a92ebaa58ee48c167d5c46b4dc0d93ced2c60ff5b4298cd268288d62995

If that doesn't work perhaps a different USB key is the way to go.
Good to know, thank you. The file is legit so perhaps a different USB key.
 

superfula

Member
Mar 8, 2016
88
14
8
It's quite a long shot, but perhaps you should try a different filesystem on the USB key (I probably used FAT32).
Well so far 3 different USB drives, all FAT32. Tried both front and back ports. I’m guessing you see a progress bar once you initiate the firmware upgrade?
 

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
956
359
63
Well so far 3 different USB drives, all FAT32. Tried both front and back ports. I’m guessing you see a progress bar once you initiate the firmware upgrade?
I honestly can't remember, it was one of the first things I did after booting the machine, and wanted to get rid of the Datto BIOS pretty bad.

Another long shot: have you tried resetting BIOS prior to doing the update? Some BIOS' have settings to prevent updating of BIOS, I believe primarily to prevent it from within an OS etc., but it might also be relevant in your case.
 

superfula

Member
Mar 8, 2016
88
14
8
I honestly can't remember, it was one of the first things I did after booting the machine, and wanted to get rid of the Datto BIOS pretty bad.

Another long shot: have you tried resetting BIOS prior to doing the update? Some BIOS' have settings to prevent updating of BIOS, I believe primarily to prevent it from within an OS etc., but it might also be relevant in your case.
I appreciate the help.

Yeah I have the bios set to default and no other hardware attached aside from a stick of memory.

It has to be something I’m doing incorrectly. So far I’ve seen this freeze up on three boards, including one I had to send back due to bsod issues. And as far as I know, no one else here has had any troubles at all. So odd.
 

superfula

Member
Mar 8, 2016
88
14
8
I usually wouldn't mind but there doesn't seem to be a way to run any sort of raid on the onboard SATA ports without updating the bios.
 

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
956
359
63
I usually wouldn't mind but there doesn't seem to be a way to run any sort of raid on the onboard SATA ports without updating the bios.
I do not see any options for RAID on the Intel PCH SATA ports with the updated BIOS.

I suppose the RAID settings for the LSI SAS3008 controller probably depends on the type of firmware (IR/IT or whatever).
 

superfula

Member
Mar 8, 2016
88
14
8
I do not see any options for RAID on the Intel PCH SATA ports with the updated BIOS.

I suppose the RAID settings for the LSI SAS3008 controller probably depends on the type of firmware (IR/IT or whatever).
Oh. No kidding? I read that the D1541D4U-2T8R supported RAID on the Intel ports so I just guessed this board would with the asrock firmware. Well ok then.
 

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
956
359
63
Oh. No kidding? I read that the D1541D4U-2T8R supported RAID on the Intel ports so I just guessed this board would with the asrock firmware. Well ok then.
It seems that Asrock weren't quite sure either, on their website (ASRock Rack > D1541D4U-2T8R) the manuals tab suggest support for Intel RAID with the inclusion of "RAID Installation Guide" which apparently relates to Intel ports.

But when you look at the release notes for the 1.20 BIOS, it states "Remove SATA RAID item (Intel doesn’t support)".
 

superfula

Member
Mar 8, 2016
88
14
8
It seems that Asrock weren't quite sure either, on their website (ASRock Rack > D1541D4U-2T8R) the manuals tab suggest support for Intel RAID with the inclusion of "RAID Installation Guide" which apparently relates to Intel ports.

But when you look at the release notes for the 1.20 BIOS, it states "Remove SATA RAID item (Intel doesn’t support)".
Yeah I did see that in the release notes. Apparently I thought it was added back in 1.30 but I’m not sure why.
 

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
956
359
63
Have you got a chance to try that BUF-E yet?
I'm considering getting one as well and then adding a Noctua NF-A6x25 to the side of it.
I have yet to receive it and/or all the other components I need (fans and heat resistant cable strips), so no not yet.
 

datacenterdown

New Member
May 5, 2019
1
0
1
I appreciate the help.

Yeah I have the bios set to default and no other hardware attached aside from a stick of memory.

It has to be something I’m doing incorrectly. So far I’ve seen this freeze up on three boards, including one I had to send back due to bsod issues. And as far as I know, no one else here has had any troubles at all. So odd.
For what it's worth, I'm having exactly the same issue.

I verified the SHA256 matched what was posted earlier in the thread, I've tried on multiple USB sticks, and every time it would list the file in the dialog, and then clicking Enter to select the file and it would hang there.

I then tried via IPMI using virtual hosting of a USB stick on another machine. Same exact effect, but this time I could see it was trying to read the file through the byte counter in the JViewer.

Also tried upgrading the BMC to the latest version (which worked), and then tried again to update firmware via local USB and remote USB. Finally even tried the DOS .exe version of the firmware, remotely booting into an MS-DOS image and running the .exe. It eventually prompted to "press any key to continue", which then rebooted the system, and it went through the boot process and then sat at a black screen with a frozen cursor.

I verified jumpers on the board are all in their default position. I've reset BIOS settings to default.

At a loss at how to upgrade the firmware on this board.
 
Oct 7, 2014
5
2
3
54
has anyone encountered an issue where their CPU will not go above 800mhz? even under a bench or stress test? or is this throttling behaviour?

edit: Nm. It was throttling behaviour. I flashed the asrock bios.
apparently hitting 49c keeps the CPU locked to 799mhz unless throttling is disabled in the bios.
 
Last edited:

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
956
359
63
Have you got a chance to try that BUF-E yet?
I'm considering getting one as well and then adding a Noctua NF-A6x25 to the side of it.
So, I got the BUF-E installed, it was a bit of a pain, had to use the screws from the "Asrock" heatsink with the springs of the BUF-E + some washers. It was essentially what @IamSpartacus described in this post: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...heatsink-information.10397/page-5#post-125220

I am not quite satisfied with the result so far, when I load the CPU 100% with 16x instances of this Python script: "while True: continue", it manages to reach 80 degrees C or so with a Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX fan at full speed placed on top of the heatsink (I have tried different places to put the fan, the front where it does not quite fit due to the sata ports and the USB as well as on the back, the top location seems to perform best). With the stock asrock heatsink the highest it got was 67 degrees (of course it was also very loud).

I don't really want to add much more airflow over the motherboard, so for now my plans revolve around two ideas:
  1. Replace the cooling paste (I am using some 10-15 year old AS ceramique paste I had lying around), with some Thermal Grizzly paste (probably Kryonaut but I cant remember the exact name) I bought recently.
  2. Underclock the CPU or do other tricks (like disabling turbo and Hyper Threading, according to /proc/cpuinfo all cores are at 2.5GHz when fully loaded) to prevent it from generating as much heat.
 

Orsuw

New Member
Mar 31, 2019
3
0
1
I got one of these boards off of ebay as well for a reasonable price. Overall it looks very good. I managed to flash the newest Asrock Rack firmware (v1.30) and flash the LSI 3008 to a recent IT firmware (from IR). I'm planning to use it for a ZFS NAS.

However, I encountered a memory problem like some others in this thread. I would like to put in 4x32GB and got 4 Samsung M393A4K40CB1-CRC sticks for this (32GB, 2400 Mbps, ECC RDIMM). The board boots up fine with 1 stick in the A1 slot and that is also how I managed to flash the firmware, do a quick Linux test off of a USB stick, etc. However, if I add 1 more dimm in the B1 slot it does not boot properly. As soon as I put power on the PSU it starts up (doesn't wait for power button to be pressed) and the CPU fan starts on a low speed. After a short while the CPU fan goes to high speed and nothing else happens. The Dr Debug display doesn't show anything either. If I add more dimms, the same problem, so it seems it only wants to run on 1 dimm. I did move the 1 dimm to another slot and it still booted. I believe that was on the B1 slot. And even when it is in the A2 slot the board still boots, but gives an post error "memory not detected", which seems fine as that is not the right order to place the dimms. I tested the dimms in another server and there they work fine. Tried with 2 PSU's, Seasonic 350W and Enhance ENP-7660 600W, same issue with both. I tried it while mounted in the case and outside, same behaviour.

Any idea what might cause this? Is the memory not compatible? Does the board have an issue, maybe something with power? Do 32GB dimms (the maximum size for this board) draw too much power? Any experiences with different 32GB dimms? I saw in an earlier post that Crucial seems to work, but that may be for 16GB dimms?

Any help would be very much appreciated.
 

nev_neo

Active Member
Jul 31, 2013
157
44
28
I got one of these boards off of ebay as well for a reasonable price. Overall it looks very good. I managed to flash the newest Asrock Rack firmware (v1.30) and flash the LSI 3008 to a recent IT firmware (from IR). I'm planning to use it for a ZFS NAS.

However, I encountered a memory problem like some others in this thread. I would like to put in 4x32GB and got 4 Samsung M393A4K40CB1-CRC sticks for this (32GB, 2400 Mbps, ECC RDIMM). The board boots up fine with 1 stick in the A1 slot and that is also how I managed to flash the firmware, do a quick Linux test off of a USB stick, etc. However, if I add 1 more dimm in the B1 slot it does not boot properly. As soon as I put power on the PSU it starts up (doesn't wait for power button to be pressed) and the CPU fan starts on a low speed. After a short while the CPU fan goes to high speed and nothing else happens. The Dr Debug display doesn't show anything either. If I add more dimms, the same problem, so it seems it only wants to run on 1 dimm. I did move the 1 dimm to another slot and it still booted. I believe that was on the B1 slot. And even when it is in the A2 slot the board still boots, but gives an post error "memory not detected", which seems fine as that is not the right order to place the dimms. I tested the dimms in another server and there they work fine. Tried with 2 PSU's, Seasonic 350W and Enhance ENP-7660 600W, same issue with both. I tried it while mounted in the case and outside, same behaviour.

Any idea what might cause this? Is the memory not compatible? Does the board have an issue, maybe something with power? Do 32GB dimms (the maximum size for this board) draw too much power? Any experiences with different 32GB dimms? I saw in an earlier post that Crucial seems to work, but that may be for 16GB dimms?

Any help would be very much appreciated.
Do you have both PSU connections connected to the mainboard ?