My S2600CP2J Workstation and Sleep problem

[wildpig1234]

Build’s Name: Workstation
Operating System/ Storage Platform: Windows 10 Enterprise
CPU: 2x E5-2670 v1
Motherboard: Intel S2600CP2J
Chassis: Phanteks Entho Pro with front panel audio and usb 3.0 ports
Drives:120GB Silicon Power S55 SSD
RAM: 128GB ECC DDR3
Add-in Cards:Nvidia gtx 950, Renesas USB3.0, Asus Xonar DGX, adaptec 31605 sas controller, nvidia nvs 510.
Power Supply: Evga 850W B2
Other Bits: Raijintek Aidos CPU coolers

Usage Profile: calculating Pi, video/photo rendering, anything required a lot of CPU power.

Motherboard/CPU. Make sure you get SR0KX so you can have VT-d:

Intel S2600CP2J: Dual E5-2670 - 128Gb. Kit - Server Motherboards - Natex.us

Cheaper with slightly slower memory: Refurbished S2600CP Server Motherboard with memory and CPU, Natex.us

I/O Shield:

Intel AXX2IOS I/O Shield for S2600CP2, S2400SC2, and S2400GP2 New Bulk Packaging

Sleep does work. I have bios ver 01.08.0003. It takes about 1 min for it to go into sleep mode. The fans spin down for a sec, then it spins back up again like it's awake itself. after about 1 min, the fans and everything finally spin down and the status light starts blinking like it's supposed to be when sleeping.... Why does it take so long to get into sleep? It's not like i have hibernation enabled Is that normal?

Also for USB 3.0 card, i initially tried a Via chipset card (High-speed 5 Port USB 3.0 to PCI-E Express Card Adapter Motherboard 15 20 pin), it didn't work. Someone else says ankers based chips card also doesn't work. It looks like renesas based card does work. The one in there now is renesas based insignia card but don't have the 20pin connector for external usb ports. I ordered another renesas based card w/ 20 pin connector so we will see.

I got an asus xonar dgx sound card as it also has the HD audio input so i can plug the front panel wire into it. This has worked great so far.

Your primary video card should be in the bottom blue pcie slot. install that first and get it to work properly in windows. I also has a 2nd video card in the top blue pcie slot. 2nd CPU needs to be present as well as MM I/O > 4G needed to be enabled in bios for 2nd gfx card in the top blue slot to work. note also that the onboard video can be enabled but dual mode (with the onboard video) should be disabled.

As you can see in device manager, everything is working with all the drivers.

Edit: this is the new USB 3.0 card with 20 pin connector i got. Renesas based. worked perfectly with the S2600. The front panel USB 3.0 on the case is now also functional!

Sienoc USB3.0 PCI Express Card (5 USB3.0 Ports & Internal USB3.0 20PIN ... , New

Also tried a GTX 1060 the other day and it works fine. Had to update win 10 to latest ver since drivers wont install for anything less than win 10 build 1511.

 

[wildpig1234]

Overall, this build is a little frustrating because of how picky and temperamental the S2600CP board is. The initial Via based usb 3.0 card does work perfectly on another win10 computer so not sure what's the problem there.

Also mine came with the earliest bios 01.01.2002 i think. That did not have the S3 sleep state which is presented a few versions later. You can check by doing "powercfg -a". I am currently on bios 01.08.0003 which does have the S3 state. When you do the upgrade, make sure you follow the direction very exactly. Pay attention to the readme about what version of bios you should be on at first before you can update to the next one, i.e. you might get problem if you jump directly from an old 2012 bios to a 2016 bios. Once you get to 2015 bios to downgrade the bios you have to use a special recovery procedure with an onboard jumper to downgrade the bios. Read carefully about it in the readme. If you do all your update right and also set up the FRUSDR, your motherboard should have the nice green status light, not the amber light.

I am happy that it seems like the sleep function seems to work. However, the way that it enter sleep on mine is so weird compared to all the other computers i have. As i said, when the sleep function is activated, the computer would initially very briefly try to spin down everything and the status light on the case (not the MB status light) would blink for a sec but then almost immediately everything spin back up again, almost like it comes out of sleep by itself. The hard drive in the meantime is accessed for a while. Then after about 1 min, it finally spin everything down and the status light on the case would blink like every other computers during sleep. You can tell that the MB still getting some power by looking in the back and seeing the MB status light is solid green.

Due to the fact that it takes like a minute for my computer to completely go into sleep as well as the way it gets there, I was very confused and for days, i thought the sleep function doesn't work and tried just about all the bios versions. I don't have the hibernation enabled in windows so i don't think that it's actually saving everything to a hibernation file on HD. I don't know why it takes so long for it to enter into sleep mode compared to my other computers. Is there something different about the S2600 sleep mode (like S1 or S3, etc)? Anyone else can tell me how theirs entered into sleep mode?

Also, to wake it up from sleep, i have to press the power button on the case even though i set power button in windows to shutdown when pressed. This thing wouldnt come out of sleep with a keyboard key press or right mouse button press like my other computers

 

[wildpig1234]

I got a kill a watt meter and at sleep, it consumes 15w. seems a bit high. lenovo d30 consumes 3w. dell t5500 2w. anyone with s2600cp2j can try to measure system wattage in sleep?

 

[ecosse]

Nice report. I agree on the temperamental nature - I've spend ages tweaking fan thresholds and thinking I've got them sussed and on the very next boot a setting that worked 5 times before doesn't work i.e. fans are full blast. Unfortunately all mine are performing a server role so its full on power for me!

 

[wildpig1234]

Nice report. I agree on the temperamental nature - I've spend ages tweaking fan thresholds and thinking I've got them sussed and on the very next boot a setting that worked 5 times before doesn't work i.e. fans are full blast. Unfortunately all mine are performing a server role so its full on power for me!

I use mine in a workstation role. Was going to put in a quadro 6000, which is very power hungry so proper sleep is a must. not sure why the sleep in the s2600 is that way.

Lucky for me, it seems like the fans on my setup works ok from start. I do notice it ramps up during pi calculation and then ramp down when done. so i didn't have to play with fan curves or anything like that after setting up the FRUSDR...

 

[wildpig1234]

So keep persisting at it finally yet some additional solutions and questions to my sleep problems

Good news is that i have finally managed to get it to to go into sleep nearly instantaneously without doing that weird thing that it does for like over a minute before going into sleep. Waking up is now fine too.

The bad news is that there is this issue of for some reasons, the MB is saying that i have 2 keyboards, 2 mice, 2 hubs connected when i go to bios under the usb section. I obviously only have 1 keyboard and mouse connected so i wonder where this extra phantom set of keyboard and mouse and usb hub is. even after disconnecting my one keyboard and mouse, on reboot the bios greeting screen still say keyboard and mouse detected!!!??? I still can't figure this out but will keep working at this...

Good news is that i took on this hint and went into windows under device manager, i unselect allow device to wake computer for both sets of keyboards and mouse. So now windows go into sleep immediately

Can anyone else with S2600 check to see if their bios and windows also detecting 2 keyboards and mouse sets even though they connect only 1 set?

Sleep is still terrible at 17w! even powering down still shows 3-4w unless the psu itself is turned off...also updated to latest 02.06.0002 bios.

 

[wildpig1234]

So I found this little post from intel that explains a little about the 2kb, mice, hubs. still trying to completely decipher it:

BIOS Detects Two Keyboards, Mice, and Hubs For Intel® Server Boards...

appreciate if anyone can also input. thanks

 

[jwegman]

So I found this little post from intel that explains a little about the 2kb, mice, hubs. still trying to completely decipher it:

BIOS Detects Two Keyboards, Mice, and Hubs For Intel® Server Boards...

appreciate if anyone can also input. thanks

It's because the BMC emulates a keyboard/mouse to support the iKVM capabilities (only unlocked with the AXXRM4LITE key). Meaning, you can open to the BMC's web console and spawn a java application to emulate a a keyboard/video/mouse to that server. Using that, you can remotely do anything with that system as if you were sitting at a directly connected keyboard/video/mouse terminal; such as boot the system from a cold power off state, muck about in the BIOS settings, or upgrade the BIOS/ME/BMC/FRUSDR via the UEFI shell, etc...

 

[wildpig1234]

It's because the BMC emulates a keyboard/mouse to support the iKVM capabilities (only unlocked with the AXXRM4LITE key). Meaning, you can open to the BMC's web console and spawn a java application to emulate a a keyboard/video/mouse to that server. Using that, you can remotely do anything with that system as if you were sitting at a directly connected keyboard/video/mouse terminal; such as boot the system from a cold power off state, muck about in the BIOS settings, or upgrade the BIOS/ME/BMC/FRUSDR via the UEFI shell, etc...

i have to see if i can somehow get one of those keys! seems like a very powerful capability.

1. Does it use less resource and bandwidth than remote desktop when i am inside windows?

2. I am concerned about the possibility that this bmc emulated kb and mouse is causing the computer to not entering into sleep in a straightforward way unless you disable the allow wake from sleep for both sets of kb and mice inside windows. Not a huge deal breaker as i could always press the power button to wake it up. But just concern that this bmc emulation is causing excessive power drain during sleep. When my S2600 is sleeping it uses a huge 17W compared to lenovo d30, hp z800, dell t5500 using 3W or less.