ASUS P9A-I/C2550/SAS/4L

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Ivoni

New Member
Jan 7, 2015
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@Ivoni
I am using Windows (8.1) and I installed it with a usb stick created by the windows 8 usb media creator just the day before yesterday.
Erstellen eines Installationsmediums fr Windows8.1 - Windows-Hilfe (german version)

And I booted to BIOS and used the boot override option to force booting of the usb stick. Working without problems.
Glad to hear someone isn't having issues.

To date:

1. Cannot boot from a USB stick. Can't. No matter what choices I make in the bios.

2. Cannot install 2012 R2 using ISO from Microsoft via DVD install. Get prompted for drivers which neither provided disk nor downloaded from website resolve.

3. Cannot install Win 7 64 Ultimate using ISO from Microsoft via DVD install. Get prompted for drivers which neither provided disk nor downloaded from website resolve.

4. Can install Ubuntu server.

5. Can install 2012 R2 Essentials using ISO from Microsoft via DVD install. However, unstable and OS hangs repeatedly.

6. Cannot upgrade BIOS. Try to run program BUpdater but told wrong OS. Did download the listed installer for 2012 R2.

7. Cannot install FreeNAS. Hangs at Booting "FreeNAS Installer".
 

Atomicslave

Member
Dec 3, 2014
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I am seriously considering this board for OMV, mdadm or ZOL it seem like most people that are using linux on this seem super happy with it. Anyone that is using this with debian or ubuntu have any issues with the marvell controllers?
 

LedAlex

New Member
May 17, 2015
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Have only one problem with this board - after power outage (cold boot) - the system hang with black screen and blinking cursor at upper right corner. So to boot the OS I need to manually Reset or Soft Power Off/ Power On the system. This only happens at cold boot.
Anyone have the same problem?
Thanks.
I had the same problem with two Kingston KVR16LE11/8 ECC memory modules. Motherboard starts normally if only one module is installed. This memory can work at 1.35V and 1.5V. In my case solution was manually set up 1.50V in BIOS. And the problem with black screen and cursor is gone. This problem was found only with ECC low-voltage memory. I had also tried non-ECC memory, and there is no such problem. Asus support gave no valuable help.

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I have another problem with cold start. This board can start up after power loss more than hour (after motherboard's capacitors full discharge) in environment 18C and low.
Power on after power loss enabled in BIOS. After power on PSU board turns on power for coolers, HDD. Power button is lit orange.
Then it turn's off power coolsers, and HDD stops power button is off.
BMC starts.
After a while it periodicaly tries to start up. Power button lit orange.
In moment of start power button is green and coolers twitches.
Board in this cycle about:
- 0,5 minuts at 21C.
- 1 minuts at 20C.
- 4 minuts at 19C.
- 12 minuts at 18C.
- 21 minuts at 17C.
- more than 30 minuts less then 16C.
At 23C and more starts in a moment.
After first successfull start up it reboots, powers off, starts up without problems.
Now I'm trying to keep power on power supply at night.
Server has automated power control and is swthed off at night. So this problem is critical.

ASUS warranty service returned board and told that where is no problem and everything is fine. I've tied different PSU and have no solution for today.
PSU I have tried:
- Codegen 300W ATX 2.0.
- Component Pro 550W ATX 2.2.
- Thermaltake W0143(RE) PurePower RX 550W ATX 2.2.
- Corsair HX750i 750W ATX 2.4.
- Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000 1000W ATX 2.3.

Owners of this board, please write here PSU models you use with this board.
 

Vyacheslav

New Member
Jan 3, 2015
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Thank God for your help LedAlex! It's exactly this problem and I have 2 x 8 GB Low-power 1.35v ECC modules. Asus support sucks - write to them everything - no real help at all.
This is my config:
MB & CPU ASUS P9A-I/C2550/SAS/4L x 1
RAM Transcend 8GB DDR3 ECC x 2
SAS=>4xSATA SFF-8087 to 4x SATA x 4
HDD Cage MB155SP-B 5x3.5" x 3
80x80mm fan Ball Bearing Fan x 2
120x120mm fan Ball Bearing Fan x 1
PSU 400W SeaSonic SS-400FL2 x 1
HDD HGST Deskstar NAS 4TB x 16
M.2 SATA 2242 MyDigitalSSD 64GB x 1
Server Case 5U Intel SC5100 with rails x 1
 

Kristian

Active Member
Jun 1, 2013
347
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I have the same problem.
Will try your soloution and report back with my config.
Don't think I manage to do this tonight, but probably Tuesday.
 

MiniKnight

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2012
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NYC
Let me check this out. I have one of these boards that I use in a low power Ubuntu ZFS server. It has been up for 138 days so I have not noticed the cold boot problem. I can open it up and see the RAM and power supply.
 

Vyacheslav

New Member
Jan 3, 2015
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Checked yesterday - it's working! Changed memory voltage to 1.5v intend of Auto and that's all! Fully power off (cold boot - psu switch) 3 times - no problems.
Thanks again to LedAlex for his finding and for sharing solution with us.
 

LedAlex

New Member
May 17, 2015
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Checked yesterday - it's working! Changed memory voltage to 1.5v intend of Auto and that's all! Fully power off (cold boot - psu switch) 3 times - no problems.
Thanks again to LedAlex for his finding and for sharing solution with us.
Have you powered off and on PSU in several minutes or left it to rest for some hours?
My problem with cold boot arises only after night without AC power and freezing the hardware to 15-18C.
If power 0ff/on in one hour, everything is OK.
Leaving power on PSU all the time boots motherboard fine regardless on environment temperature.

I`ve also tested Power Man IP-P350GJ-0 PSU. No luck.
 

Vyacheslav

New Member
Jan 3, 2015
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Rest for 10-15 minutes. But blinking cursor is gone - 100%.
When server was not in working environment this winter and resides in my home's veranda - after very cold nights with psu powered ON but server OFF - it do not start with some strange beeps, it happen at least 2 times. System power on, but not boot and beeps. And only after cold nights.
Can't find the source of this.
 

MiniKnight

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2012
3,072
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NYC
400w Ablecom psu and 2x 4GB Kingsto n RAM here. Our backup server is always on so maybe that's why we never have run into these issues.
 

MiniKnight

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2012
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NYC

LedAlex

New Member
May 17, 2015
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Some nights - may be +5C. The door to veranda was a little open for cats.
The first encounter with P9A-I was the same. It was delivered at March. The temperature on the street was about 0C. At the first start up after street my board didn't want to boot and BIOS beeped that there was no VGA. After reset it was fine. I didn't pay much attention then.

In April it was send to warranty service. After service (+5C) the same story. Only once.

I think this board is extremely dependant on environment temperature.
 

LedAlex

New Member
May 17, 2015
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Hey
I wonder if you are just running components too cold?
I don't think that it's quite cold. We have climate control systems in our machinery rooms. They are set up to keep min 10C and max 25C. The temperature varies depending on the street temperature. In winter we sometimes use winter cold for cooling servers. So the problem seems to be in PCB and components used in this board. All other stuff works fine for long time. We have lots of Supermicro and Gigabyte in same conditions. I've not buyed ASUS since 2002 year. P4T-533-C was the last thing when decision arised... no ASUS at all. There are always were problems with it. And now I wanted to try P9A-I (I didn't have another opportunities for that time to buy). And now I have what I have. I cann't finish project for two months... it's really bad.

I`ve another test with Zalman ZM600-LE PSU ATX 2.3. Everything is the same.
I've tested all avaliable ATX version of PSU. Now I can say, it does not matter at all.

ASUS warranty rejects problem.

It would be great if someone could perform the same test. Leave system at night without AC power on PSU under air conditioning.

P.S. Zalman ZM600-LE PSU is pretty shitty. Turning on power switch creates great surge in AC power. Light blinks for a second. When connected via UPS it overloads it. Tested two units. Don't recomend it to buy.
 

Robert Q

Member
Jan 20, 2016
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Has anyone tried this board in a RAID 5 use case? I bought this board a while back, had a few issues and put it aside. I see a new bios is available as of March this year but I need good raid 5 performance.

Anyone have experience they care to share.

Tks