None of this changes your situation, but I think it's a safe educated guess that you are not the only one with a fried motherboard.
I was actually kinda shocked, because
SIX different
HP Sales Reps and TWO different people from Technical Sales, ALL told me the same exact thing (reading off their stupid computer screens). Which was the same exact thing that I read. I thought I even saw a post from 1 1/2 years ago, that suggested that these cards actually do work in a standard PCIe 3.0 x8 slot.
I think even PigLover commented on one of the posts (from about a year and a half ago).
Here:
HP FlexLOM 10Gb NIC as a standard NIC - [H]ard|Forum
Nobody ever took the time to
EDUCATE anyone over at HP, or even post a simple message saying "
NOPE IT DOESN'T WORK".
The HP Sales reps still seem to think that it will work. I'm just SHOCKED at how ignorant/uneducated/misinformed the HP Sales Reps are, and I guess they were ALL under the assumption that
standard PCIe 3.0 x8 meant standard
PCIe 3.0 x8.
It would have been nice if HP would have actually posted technical specifications on their cards/adapters, so people can see/understand that the pin-outs are different. I did several searches, and posted several messages, and NOBODY seemed to have any information that these cards were NOT standard PCIe 3.0 x8 adapters and that they would NOT work in a standard PCIe 3.0 x8 slot.
Even I thought the SAME exact thing when I purchased them, and it wasn't until AFTER I tried them, that I realized that these cards are probably using some type of different/proprietary HP pin-out, but HP sure doesn't post any information/specifications, and their sales reps all seem CLUELESS, and all seem to be under the assumption that these are in fact STANDARD Mellanox/HP
PCIe 3.0 x8 PC adapter cards.
I'm going to contact HP on Monday, and see what they have to say about it.
None of this changes your situation, but I think it's a safe educated guess that you are not the only one with a fried motherboard.
It's unfortunate.
Either that or all those sellers are following the thread
I wish some of the HP Sales Reps would actually FOLLOW this thread.
Lesson learned...
NEVER trust anyone over at HP.
It's highly unlikely that anyone at HP will swap the remaining cards that I have for regular PCIe 3.0 x8 cards/adapters, so I'm probably just out a bunch of money, and now have a handful of destroyed equipment/servers.
I guess the moral of the story is, do
NOT listen to any ignorant HP Sales Reps, and even if people tell you that they
ARE in fact normal standard PCIe 3.0 x8 Mellanox adapter cards and
WILL in fact work in a standard PCIe 3.0 x8 slot, they clearly won't.
[/LESSON LEARNED THE HARD WAY]
