[Help] ServeRaid M5210 no longer working after firmware upgrade

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

Mirabis

Member
Mar 18, 2016
113
6
18
29
Hi All,

After years of no issues I decided to check for a firmware upgrade and stumbled upon: Version: 24.12.0-0039 , 09/01/2017 and figured hey it's a recent one.

  • Went over here: IBM Support and downloaded the .exe
  • Ran the .exe and selected 'update';
  • two minutes after pressing update it says uprgade succesful, and will take effect after a reboot;
  • I reboot my system;
  • One booted again I notice my storage spaces have errors and none of the disks attached to the controller show;
  • Opening device Manager, it shows an exclamation mark and "Device cannot start (Error 10)" and "An I/O hardware error has occurred".
So, I tried to look at the changelog and downgrade to one of the releases mentioned there, but after running
  • MegaCli.exe -AdpFwFlash -f ****.rom -a0 > it gives the package versions and hangs;
  • MegaCli.exe -AdpFwFlash -f ****.rom -NoVerChk -a0 > it gives the package version and hangs.
I've tried two different USB sticks, multiple FreeDos images and even Legacy and UEFI mode.. but it won't flash nor start.

Anyone a idea on how to fix this ?
 

Mirabis

Member
Mar 18, 2016
113
6
18
29
Below is what I have in DOS (red never occurs, but is what's expected):

Adapter 0: ServeRaid M5210
Vendor ID: 0x ****, Device ID ***
Package version on the controller: ***
Package version of the image file: *****

Download Completed.
Flashing image to adapter...
Adapter 0: Flash Completed
Please reboot the system for the changes to take effect

Exit Code: 0x00

So MegaCLi starts, but never downloads the image to the adapter...
 

Tom5051

Active Member
Jan 18, 2017
359
79
28
46
Sometimes it's not a good idea to update firmware, especially if there is no need to.
 

Mirabis

Member
Mar 18, 2016
113
6
18
29
Use the UEFI updater not the Windows. It's much more reliable.
That's what I'm currently trying, but it never goes past the package versions. The windows versions won't even detect the controller now :(

Going to try different MegaCLI versions tonight..
 
Last edited:

Mirabis

Member
Mar 18, 2016
113
6
18
29
So.. a little progress :)

I plugged the Raid Controller into my desktop to see if it'll work there... but it did not. However, going into Device Manager it does show more information in events:

 

Mirabis

Member
Mar 18, 2016
113
6
18
29
Using LEGACY USB on another PC, I managed to re-flash the controller:
  1. It did boot up randomly, after a few restarts: iPhone image on 2017-01-31 at 20:49:47.jpeg
  2. Was able to re-flash it with 24.18.0-0021 from MegaRAID SAS 9361-8i , see trim.706719A6-A8DC-41A6-9F01-590E1B494915.MOV
  3. but next boot still shows 24.12.0-0039 see iPhone image on 2017-01-31 at 20:47:18.jpeg
  4. But build changed from April 27 2016 to October 24 2016

Unfortunately, in Windows it still displays " An I/O hardware error has occurred". Shot 01312017-08:51.png

Anyone experienced that specific error?
 

Mirabis

Member
Mar 18, 2016
113
6
18
29
tried the jumper, it changed stuff but not what I needed ; /

Fortunately, I managed to get it working today - but only with the IBM firmware and using two different hosts to flash.

If I force flash the LSI firmware it boots and gives " Fatal firmware error" popups while in Windows. Fired up MSM and did a live upgrade to latest lenovo/ibm release.

In the end, the culprit was: Live Upgrade is not instantaneous, so it did not complete the firmware upgrade process while I was already rebooting...
 

Alan Robertson

New Member
Aug 10, 2016
21
2
3
63
tried the jumper, it changed stuff but not what I needed ; /

Fortunately, I managed to get it working today - but only with the IBM firmware and using two different hosts to flash.

If I force flash the LSI firmware it boots and gives " Fatal firmware error" popups while in Windows. Fired up MSM and did a live upgrade to latest lenovo/ibm release.

In the end, the culprit was: Live Upgrade is not instantaneous, so it did not complete the firmware upgrade process while I was already rebooting...

What steps do you recommend I take to update my one when it arrives , I will use the latest IBM Version..

Thanks
Alan
 

Aldoszx

New Member
Feb 5, 2017
6
0
1
44
Hi all !

I've just acquired my M5210 SAS card.
It came with 24.12.0-0033 fw and the upgrade process to the latest IBM fw 24.12.0-0039 went fine.
I am trying to crossflash it to the LSI 9361-8i fw and in my searcher over the internet I've found some interesting preboot tools from LSI.
It seems that there are also a special fw for recovery in their packages and i was wondering if it could be helpful also in your situation.
Maybe it would help to flash that firmware in order to have a pure LSI product before flash the latest LSI fw.
There are also some scripts to flash and/or recover LSI adapters, and i saw that before flashing recovery fw, there is a command to clear the adapter ROM.

This is the link for DOS preboot CD or USB image which contains latest 9361 fw and the recovery fw:
Broadcom Limited

And this is the link for EFI tools and recovery fw:
Broadcom Limited
 

Mirabis

Member
Mar 18, 2016
113
6
18
29
What steps do you recommend I take to update my one when it arrives , I will use the latest IBM Version..

Thanks
Alan
I'd say don't update unless you need it lol... that's what they told me - if it works it works.

If flashing from Windows read the popups carefully.. it will say OK, but still do stuff on the background so wait with the reboot.
 

Alan Robertson

New Member
Aug 10, 2016
21
2
3
63
I'd say don't update unless you need it lol... that's what they told me - if it works it works.

If flashing from Windows read the popups carefully.. it will say OK, but still do stuff on the background so wait with the reboot.

Hi

Upgraded with Windows 10 and MSM to LSI 9361 latest version and no problems, also if you enable EFI in the pci slot config in the bios setup you get the full raid config and setup menu in the bios setup (SM X10dri).
 

Mirabis

Member
Mar 18, 2016
113
6
18
29
Hi

Upgraded with Windows 10 and MSM to LSI 9361 latest version and no problems, also if you enable EFI in the pci slot config in the bios setup you get the full raid config and setup menu in the bios setup (SM X10dri).
Which version is that, to be exact?

I have a X10DRL-i motherboard, but my controller seems to have died last night (L2/L3 Cache error was detected on the RAID controller).

Might be worth a try to re-flash...
 

Alan Robertson

New Member
Aug 10, 2016
21
2
3
63
HI

Your L2/L3 Cache error is fixed in the below IBM release as well, It was M6.13 I used..

IBM Support

Fixed an issue where L2/L3 Cache error was detected on the RAID controller during boot. (SCGCQ01155454 Port of SCGCQ01018958)