First Home Server Build | Tyan S7070A2NR-B (Not A Great Start...Please Assist...)

[OtakuLife005]

Changing out some hardware at work, I was able to grab a Tyan S7070 LGA-2011 Dual Socket Board with (2) Xeon E5-2637V4's. I disassembled it, put the components back in their respected original boxes, and went home, looking forward to building my first rack at home for me and my wife.

Cut to 48 hours, after I started putting it back together and troubleshooting the pile of nothing that I have sitting on my work bench; and if I still had hair, I'd be pulling it out right about now. I currently have it on a bench with (1) of the E5-2637's in CPU0. (2) of the 2133 RDIMMS that were also previously running on this board, and to top it all off, the same GT1030.

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[Press PW on MB]

> CPU Fan kicks on
> Internal & External I/O Pots are confirmed powered
> Nothing
> No Bleeps, no Sweeps, no Creeps (If you got that reference, I appreciate you)

I have no indication that anything is amiss, but I get no POST, no Audible or Visual Errors, and no Video Signal

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[I Have Tried]

> Other various GPU's (None of which require additional power, and on the ones with fans, they spin)
> Different Outputs including VGA, DVI, DP, and HDMI via the above test
> Single and Dual Socket (With 1, 2, 4, 6, & 8 DIMMS in their respected channels per the MB Documentation)
> I also tried the above with the (2) E5-2687W's that I planned to run (Also tried 2400 RDIMMS with the 2687's per MB Documentation)
> Removed everything and went through and meticulously cleaned all visual traces of dust off with canned air
> Cleared BIOS via the button on the MB, through draining and/or removing the CMOS battery, removing the BIOS Chip and trying to boot, and various combinations
> Changed CMOS Battery
> Tried adding a SATA SSD with a Windows 11 Installation on it
> Tried booting without any RAM (Same outcome)
> Adding fans to various SYS-FAN headers (No Fan-Spin from any header other than the (2) CPU Fan Headers
> I've tried multiple known good PSU's (ASUS ROG 650W Gold, EVGA Supernova 850W G+)
> GPU in various slots

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I'm out of ideas at this point. I unfortunately don't have another LGA-2011 Board that will run either of these CPU's to test with. I am admittedly new to server hardware, but I've been building my own systems for 15 years now, and I certainly wouldn't consider myself an expert at anything, but I know my stuff for what it's worth.

Any insight, ideas, input, thoughts, all are welcome.

 

[Markess]

Which version S7070? If one of the ones with IPMI ( S7070WGM2NR or S7070GM2NR), have you tried to log onto IPMI to see if there's any errors or other issues in the logs there? If you have IPMI, you may be able to power on there and get video via Remote Console in order to get into the Setup or see boot messages.

Do you have an 8 Pin cable on BOTH of the 8 Pin power connectors? Even though you have a single CPU installed, it may not want to boot unless both 8 Pin are connected. I don't have one of these boards, but I've had other dual CPU boards where this was the case.

 

[nexox]

How long did you wait after power on to decide that nothing was happening? Some server boards can take a while on the first cold boot after hardware changes to show any signs of life, especially if they have a BMC for IPMI, which has to fully boot before the main system powers on. If your board has an on board VGA port use it, not a PCIe GPU, put in a basic config of CPU and RAM, power it on, and wait at least two minutes.

 

[OtakuLife005]

Which version S7070? If one of the ones with IPMI ( S7070WGM2NR or S7070GM2NR), have you tried to log onto IPMI to see if there's any errors or other issues in the logs there? If you have IPMI, you may be able to power on there and get video via Remote Console in order to get into the Setup or see boot messages.

Do you have an 8 Pin cable on BOTH of the 8 Pin power connectors? Even though you have a single CPU installed, it may not want to boot unless both 8 Pin are connected. I don't have one of these boards, but I've had other dual CPU boards where this was the case.

My model does not have IPMI unfortunately. As for the second 8-pin, I'm not sure why I never bothered to try that; I will try this in the AM and report back. Thank you.

How long did you wait after power on to decide that nothing was happening? Some server boards can take a while on the first cold boot after hardware changes to show any signs of life, especially if they have a BMC for IPMI, which has to fully boot before the main system powers on. If your board has an on board VGA port use it, not a PCIe GPU, put in a basic config of CPU and RAM, power it on, and wait at least two minutes.

As per the image above, this model does not have IPMI or onboard graphics. So some manor of PCIe based graphics is necessary. I waited well over a half hour in its current configuration. I let it do it's thing while I made dinner. Nothing ever happened.

Thank you both for the replies.

 

[OtakuLife005]

Do you have an 8 Pin cable on BOTH of the 8 Pin power connectors? Even though you have a single CPU installed, it may not want to boot unless both 8 Pin are connected. I don't have one of these boards, but I've had other dual CPU boards where this was the case.

Checked this morning, it makes no difference attaching the 8-Pin for the second socket. The LED Indicating power to the second 8-Pin is illuminated when plugged in, but nothing else changed.

 

[Markess]

Well.....last gasp things to check? Unlikely, but....anything conductive on the test bench under the board that you may have missed? When testing with a single mem stick is it in Slot A0? GPU in PCIe Slot 4 or 6? (Slots 1 & 2 trace to CPU1 and Slot 5 is annotated in the manual "OEM/ODM"...so maybe not the best for testing?). Last and certainly the longest shot of all...if you're using a server power supply, do you have it plugged into the 5 pin connector "PSMI" next to the 24Pin ATX? If so unplug it. Different manufacturers implement that connection differently and it can create issues (although not of the type you're having I don't think).

Other than that, I've got nothing.

 

[nexox]

It also doesn't usually cause quite the symptoms you're experiencing, but if you're using a modular PSU make sure you haven't mixed up the wires from a different PSU, they're not all wired the same.

 

[Markess]

It also doesn't usually cause quite the symptoms you're experiencing, but if you're using a modular PSU make sure you haven't mixed up the wires from a different PSU, they're not all wired the same.

This ^

So VERY VERY true. Ask me how I know.

 

[OtakuLife005]

Well.....last gasp things to check? Unlikely, but....anything conductive on the test bench under the board that you may have missed? When testing with a single mem stick is it in Slot A0? GPU in PCIe Slot 4 or 6? (Slots 1 & 2 trace to CPU1 and Slot 5 is annotated in the manual "OEM/ODM"...so maybe not the best for testing?). Last and certainly the longest shot of all...if you're using a server power supply, do you have it plugged into the 5 pin connector "PSMI" next to the 24Pin ATX? If so unplug it. Different manufacturers implement that connection differently and it can create issues (although not of the type you're having I don't think).

Other than that, I've got nothing.

Nothing conductive, anti-static mat on-top of a wood table. I am pretty sure I have tested all those configurations with RAM and PCI slots, but that's where I will start (again) when I get home just to make sure.

The only other power connector I haven't fed power to yet is the extra 4 pin for the PCI slots. I was going to test this input, but I never got around to figuring out what cable I should feed to it.

It also doesn't usually cause quite the symptoms you're experiencing, but if you're using a modular PSU make sure you haven't mixed up the wires from a different PSU, they're not all wired the same.

I am not using a server PSU. I've used two so far since I thought it might have been the PSU at one point; and EVGA Gold 850W Modular, and a ASUS ROG 650W Modular. Only the EVGA has the 3 CPU 8-Pins I need to run both sockets, so that's what's hooked up right now. I keep all the cables in their respected boxes, so I'm confident they are the right ones for the PSU.