Asrock Rack X570D4U BMC Init Failed

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rmt

New Member
Nov 1, 2021
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Hi, on a new X570D4U the BMC is giving me nothing but trouble. It came with the latest BIOS and BMC firmware P1.20.

- I was originally able to access the BMC via its web interface.
- However, it would reset every ~10 minutes or so (heartbeat stopped, fans ramped up, the virtual devices in Linux vanished and reappeared, web session terminated). In an attempt to diagnose that, I changed the networks settings in the IPMI web interface. Bad mistake.
- Ever since that, the BMC fails to initialize (BIOS says "self test FAILED", and does not display a BMC firmware version number, and the H/W sensors are empty). On power up, the heartbeat LED comes on solid, starts blinking for ~40 seconds, and then goes off (this cycle will repeat). Linux does not find an ipmi device, so I can't reset it using ipmitool either.

I've contacted Asrock Rack support but they're slow. Does anyone here have an idea how to completely reset the BMC? Clearing the CMOS did not do it.

In another thread I saw similar problems with the X470D4U. It seems the "solution" was an RMA?

So far, I'm pretty disappointed with this board. Unfortunately, nobody else seems to make a board with BMC for Ryzen.

Thanks,
Robert
 

RolloZ170

Well-Known Member
Apr 24, 2016
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However, it would reset every ~10 minutes or so (heartbeat stopped
i think your changes of the networks settings in the IPMI web interface was not the reason for the following problems.
the BMC firmware is corrupted, not correct flashed or something else.
imho anything you can do yourself will loose the warranty.
RMA (do not punish the bearer of bad news)
 

rmt

New Member
Nov 1, 2021
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Asrock Rack support had me re-flash the BMC using the DOS tool. This caused it to show back up in the BIOS. It still has the re-initialization gremlins every 10 minutes, even though I cleared out all of its configuration. It seems to be pretty buggy overall (for example, the system information is empty and saving a backup configuration causes it to reset itself).
I will update this if there is a resolution.
 

NablaSquaredG

Layer 1 Magician
Aug 17, 2020
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Yeah, I guess the BMC is broken. Had that a couple of times now, you should RMA while you can.
 

rmt

New Member
Nov 1, 2021
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Asrock Rack support (William) offered to send me a working programmed Flash chip. I wasn't sure about that since I am still within the 30 day RMA window.
However, I might have finally figured it out. It looks like when I disable "vnc" under services in the IPMI settings, then the BMC reboots every 600 seconds. The 600 seconds is the exact timeout that is set for the vnc service....

(William mentioned that the BMC will be dead when the ID button is stuck during power on. This was not my problem but just mentioning it here in case anyone with a similar issue reads this.)
 
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Reverant

New Member
Oct 8, 2022
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Just to chime in, I lost all BMC functionality when I changed from DHCP to static IP. Nothing would bring it back, except reflashing the BMC. Since this is a Linux server, I had to download FreeDOS for USB, flash the FreeDOS to the USB, copy over the reflash tool and the BMC image, boot from the USB, and reflash. After that the BMC was back and alive.

So REALLY IMPORTANT: DO NOT CHANGE FROM DHCP TO STATIC IP. Do a manual assignment in your DHCP server if you have to. If you mess it up, reflashing the firmware restores the BMC and you DO NOT have to send the board back to ASROCK.
 
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upalachango

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May 28, 2023
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Just to chime in, I lost all BMC functionality when I changed from DHCP to static IP. Nothing would bring it back, except reflashing the BMC. Since this is a Linux server, I had to download FreeDOS for USB, flash the FreeDOS to the USB, copy over the reflash tool and the BMC image, boot from the USB, and reflash. After that the BMC was back and alive.

So REALLY IMPORTANT: DO NOT CHANGE FROM DHCP TO STATIC IP. Do a manual assignment in your DHCP server if you have to. If you mess it up, reflashing the firmware restores the BMC and you DO NOT have to send the board back to ASROCK.
This saved my bacon today. I was able to use SMCIPMITool from SuperMicro to remotely manage this. Used the following command

Code:
SMCIPMITool.exe <IP Address> <username> <password> ipmi lan dhcp enable
which oddly returns "static ip enabled" but login worked without hanging. The BMC reported that it was back to DHCP mode (maybe it works as a toggle, not really sure) but either way if you can ping the IPMI, it's good to know that the supermicro tool can remotely manage without having to do the dos boot disk. They also offer a linux command. At least in this limited case of needing to turn on DHCP, it worked on my Asrock board no issue despite being a supermicro utility.

 
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