CWWK/Topton/... Nxxx quad NIC router

[slybunda]

I have the CWWK i3-N305 running OPNSense on bare metal. Once a week the system will crash and reboot, the error message says fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode. Anyone run into this before?

Page fault does sound like ram error. Run memtest on it overnight

 

[phil-2024]

got the correct bios installed and all lan ports working.
learnt something in the process.
something called SA (system Agent) is using around 4.7w of power when idle. need to find out what that is.

I've seen this mentioned before where Alder Lake seems to be consuming a lot to power the system agent compared to previous processors, this link gives some background to what it does CPU System Agent Voltage Offset and searching for "SA (system Agent) using power" gives some information.

 

[slybunda]

Iv seen mention that the higher the ram clock the more power SA pulls. Will test this by dropping ram speed to minimum and see what the power meter says

 

[phil-2024]

Iv seen mention that the higher the ram clock the more power SA pulls. Will test this by dropping ram speed to minimum and see what the power meter says

That wouldn't explain why other N100 systems can idle at 3-4 watts without having memory clocked down.

 

[slybunda]

Yep, it's strange. I will have to do some testing over the weekend. I suspect it may be something in the bios rather than a hardware issue.

 

[blinder]

Hello all.

I got CW-AL-4L-V2.0 version of this mini-PC from cwwk.net store. Overall pretty good device. I have it only for couple days and still testing things out before putting it "in production". I am able to reach around 6.5 W idling at the wall by "turning all the knobs in the BIOS". I discovered an issue, which I hope somebody can guide me to solve. My system goes to default BIOS settings after simulating power loss by unplugging power adapter from the wall. All existing BIOS customization settings are lost and BIOS seems to be reverted back to all default BIOS settings every time it happens.

The ON/OFF selector is on a side panel is set to "ON" position to force automatic power ON on power applied to the device.
BIOS settings for "State After G3" is set to "[Power On]", but that setting is obviously lost on power loss.

Motherboard button cell battery reads 3v DC and have that 3v reading on motherboard contacts next to battery holder.

If I shutdown test OS (Debian for now) by power button press without unplugging power, BIOS does NOT revert to default settings.
As soon as I unplug power, all the BIOS settings are reverted to defaults.

I was hoping to use this mini-PC as a firewall and it needs to have always ON on power loss without loosing BIOS customization on power loss.

I am just curious what can cause such an issue.

Maybe some jumpers set incorrectly on a motherboard from the factory causing it to clear CMOS every time there is a power loss?

Maybe a BIOS bug? I have BIOS v ALN4L102 11/08/2023 v 2.22.1288.

I am at loss here. All ideas, suggestions, things to test are appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[blinder]

Wow. I think I found the issue. Negative contact of the battery holder is not even soldered to the motherboard. Not even residue of solder around that contact. So much for that "test passed" green dot on motherboard.

So it is official - these mini-PCs should be marketed now as not just "fix the gap", but also "troubleshoot and fix motherboard for any electrical connections not soldered". All working correctly now after I soldered that contact.

 

[r33tom]

View attachment 39175View attachment 39174


Wow. I think I found the issue. Negative contact of the battery holder is not even soldered to the motherboard. Not even residue of solder around that contact. So much for that "test passed" green dot on motherboard.

So it is official - these mini-PCs should be marketed now as not just "fix the gap", but also "troubleshoot and fix motherboard for any electrical connections not soldered". All working correctly now after I soldered that contact.

nice find you got quite the eye sight to spot that! i wouldnt be surprised if there are other components that are poorly soldered.

These devices are probably just tested to see if they turn on and boot, if they do it gets a pass. hence there is no brand on them, no company will dare to put their branding on these, it will be suicide. these are mass produced at some random chinese factory at very low cost. Zero liability.

 

[kliguin]

Good catch, the 3V battery was indeed the focus area for the symptoms you described.

Got some release notes for the BIOS v ALN4L102 11/08/2023 / CW-AL-4L-V2.0

Changelog: Date: 2023-11-08 ALN4L102
-1. Enable Re-Size BAR Support by default;
-2. Enable SR-IOV Support by default;
-3. Display the Above 4GB MMIO BIOS assignment menu and enable it by default.
-4. Adjust the default video memory to 1G to meet the requirements of hardware decoding and transcoding in Linux environment;
-5. Add UEFI module to TF card reader Realtek Cardeader RT5170 to achieve boot support;
-6. Cancel the 45w and above power mode;
-7. Other optimizations and improvements.

Date: 2023-09-27 - Factory version. ALN4L101

 

[slybunda]

I got the v1 version and there is no battery holder, it's just a small jst 2 pin connector and battery is double sided taped to the board.

 

[slybunda]

Hello all.

I got CW-AL-4L-V2.0 version of this mini-PC from cwwk.net store. Overall pretty good device. I have it only for couple days and still testing things out before putting it "in production". I am able to reach around 6.5 W idling at the wall by "turning all the knobs in the BIOS". I discovered an issue, which I hope somebody can guide me to solve. My system goes to default BIOS settings after simulating power loss by unplugging power adapter from the wall. All existing BIOS customization settings are lost and BIOS seems to be reverted back to all default BIOS settings every time it happens.

The ON/OFF selector is on a side panel is set to "ON" position to force automatic power ON on power applied to the device.
BIOS settings for "State After G3" is set to "[Power On]", but that setting is obviously lost on power loss.

Motherboard button cell battery reads 3v DC and have that 3v reading on motherboard contacts next to battery holder.

If I shutdown test OS (Debian for now) by power button press without unplugging power, BIOS does NOT revert to default settings.
As soon as I unplug power, all the BIOS settings are reverted to defaults.

I was hoping to use this mini-PC as a firewall and it needs to have always ON on power loss without loosing BIOS customization on power loss.

I am just curious what can cause such an issue.

Maybe some jumpers set incorrectly on a motherboard from the factory causing it to clear CMOS every time there is a power loss?

Maybe a BIOS bug? I have BIOS v ALN4L102 11/08/2023 v 2.22.1288.

I am at loss here. All ideas, suggestions, things to test are appreciated.

Thank you.

Which knobs did you turn in the bios?

 

[pigr8]

Hey folks, I bought the CWWK X86-P5 with the expanded 4x NVME SSD slot card and the casing listed here: X86-P5 4*M2 NVMe 12th Generation Intel N100 i3-N305 DDR5 4800MHz Firewall PC 2x i226-V 2.5G Network Card

I've seen people talking about putting 5 nvme drives on it, is it through the m.2 E-keyed slot? Is there any space for an adapter card under the NVME extension card?

yes, using the pcie lane from the a+e slot.

i asked cwwk to just send me that case to swap out the dev board cooler, a very nice little package now.

i'm using all the nvme (4 in raid5 mdadm array + 1 as a system boot disk) and both the 2.5g in lacp, and also the 7 virtual gpus (4 in use).. i'm really satisfied with the stability and the performance.

in the last picture is the 5th nvme, it's mounted with a custom adapter board directly under the expansion board.

root@proxmox:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 4617
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics]
00:02.1 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics]
00:02.2 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics]
00:02.3 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics]
00:02.4 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics]
00:02.5 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics]
00:02.6 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics]
00:02.7 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics]
00:0d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N Thunderbolt 4 USB Controller
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCH USB 3.2 xHCI Host Controller
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCH Shared SRAM
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N SATA AHCI Controller
00:1a.0 SD Host controller: Intel Corporation Device 54c4
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 54b8
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 54b9
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 54ba
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 54bb
00:1c.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 54be
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCI Express Root Port
00:1d.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCI Express Root Port
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCH eSPI Controller
00:1f.3 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCH High Definition Audio Controller
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N SMBus
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N SPI (flash) Controller
01:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Shenzhen Longsys Electronics Co., Ltd. Lexar NM790 NVME SSD (DRAM-less) (rev 01)
02:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Shenzhen Longsys Electronics Co., Ltd. Lexar NM790 NVME SSD (DRAM-less) (rev 01)
03:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Shenzhen Longsys Electronics Co., Ltd. Lexar NM790 NVME SSD (DRAM-less) (rev 01)
04:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Shenzhen Longsys Electronics Co., Ltd. Lexar NM790 NVME SSD (DRAM-less) (rev 01)
05:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller PM9B1 (rev 02)
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-V (rev 04)
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-V (rev 04)

 

[slybunda]

anyone run into m.2 nvme compatibility issues with these boxes? been getting bad block errors on a very old xpg nvme drive which works perfect in other systems.

 

[slybunda]

yep it was the xpg drive. the n100 box doesnt like it. switched it to a wd one and no errors and works fast.
getting windows on this and will do bios changes and test for power consumption changes

 

[phil-2024]

yep it was the xpg drive. the n100 box doesnt like it. switched it to a wd one and no errors and works fast.
getting windows on this and will do bios changes and test for power consumption changes

I have Windows 11 installed on my box again, still 10-11 watts of power drawer despite the processors spending 98% of their time at C7. I can use HWInfo to view package power consumption (a couple of watts at idle), what can I use to see the System Agent power consumption as that isn't showing up in HWInfo.

 

[slybunda]

System agent power only showed up when I had a different bios on the wrong one that cwwk sent me which made me loose 2 Lan ports.

Idle power at the wall with windows server with 1 Lan connected and fan running is 9.7w.
Need to try and isolate which pcie root port is for the 2 unused ports so can just disable those 2

 

[blinder]

Which knobs did you turn in the bios?

So far I played with different combination of these "BIOS knobs". It is still work in progress to achieve "perfect recipe" especially with PL values, but here is the list I am playing with so far:

**==Advanced > ACPI Settings > Enable ACPI Auto Configuration > [Enabled]==**

**==Advanced > CPU Configuration > PECI > [Enabled]==**

==**Advanced > Power & Performance > CPU – Power Management Control > Boot performance mode > Turbo Performance**==

==**Advanced > Power & Performance > CPU – Power Management Control > Boot performance mode > Intel(R) SpeedStep(tm) > [Enabled]**==

==**Advanced > Power & Performance > CPU – Power Management Control > Platform PL1 Enable > [Enabled]**==

==**Advanced > Power & Performance > CPU – Power Management Control > Platform PL1 Power > 8000**==

==**Advanced > Power & Performance > CPU – Power Management Control > Platform PL2 Enable > [Enabled]**==

==**Advanced > Power & Performance > CPU – Power Management Control > Platform PL2 Power > 10000**==

==**Advanced > Power & Performance > CPU – Power Management Control > Power Limit 4 Override > [Disabled]**==

==**Advanced > Power & Performance > CPU – Power Management Control > C states > [Enabled]**==

**==Advanced > Power & Performance > CPU – Power Management Control > CPU – Power Management Control > CPU VR Settings > Acoustic Noise Settings > Acoustic Noise Mitigation (Only SSD SATA drive) > [Enabled]==**

**==Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > PCI Express Configuration > DMI Link ASPM Control > Auto==**

==**Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > PCI Express Configuration > PCI Express Root Port 1 (NVME) > ASPM: [Auto], L1 Substates: L1.1 & L1.2, L1 Low: [Enabled]**==

==**Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > PCI Express Configuration > PCI Express Root Port 7 (ETH0) > ASPM: [Auto], L1 Substates: [Disabled], L1 Low: [Enabled]**==

==**Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > PCI Express Configuration > PCI Express Root Port 9 (ETH1) > ASPM: [Auto], L1 Substates: [Disabled], L1 Low: [Enabled]**==

==**Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > PCI Express Configuration > PCI Express Root Port 10 (ETH2) > ASPM: [Auto], L1 Substates: [Disabled], L1 Low: [Enabled]**==

==**Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > PCI Express Configuration > PCI Express Root Port 11 (ETH3) > ASPM: [Auto], L1 Substates: [Disabled], L1 Low: [Enabled]**==

==**Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > PCI Express Configuration > PCI Express Root Port 12 (UNKOWN USE) > [Disabled]**==

==**Advanced > Power & Performance > GT - Power Management Console > Maximium GT Frequency > 450 Mhz**==

**==Advanced > Trusted Computing > Security Device Support > [Disable]==**

**==Advanced > Trusted Computing > Disable Block Sid > [Disabled]==**

**==Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > HD Audio Configuration > HD Audio > [Disabled]==**

**==Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > SATA Configuration > SATA Controller(s) > [Disabled]==**

==**Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > SCS Configuration > eMMC 5.1 Controller > [Disabled]**==

==**Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > SCS Configuration > UGS 2.0 Controller 1 > [Disabled]**==

==**Advanced > Power & Performance > CPU - Power Management Control > EPB override over PECI > [Enabled]**==

**==Chipset > System Agent (SA) Configuration > Memory Configuration > In-Band ECC Support > [Enabled]==**

==**Chipset > System Agent (SA) Configuration > Memory Configuration > ECC DFT > [Enabled]**==

 

[phil-2024]

For info, on my firmware version for the 6 port variant, I have no PCI Express options or Memory Configuration options.

 

[slybunda]

==**Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > PCI Express Configuration > PCI Express Root Port 1 (NVME) > ASPM: [Auto], L1 Substates: L1.1 & L1.2, L1 Low: [Enabled]**==

If I enable that I loose the network ports. They no longer appear in windows or bsd

 

[blinder]

==**Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration > PCI Express Configuration > PCI Express Root Port 1 (NVME) > ASPM: [Auto], L1 Substates: L1.1 & L1.2, L1 Low: [Enabled]**==

If I enable that I loose the network ports. They no longer appear in windows or bsd

My 4 ethernet port version seems to have ETH0 at root port 7, root port 8 is "Not present in this SKU", port 9 is ETH1, port 10 is ETH2, and port 11 is ETH3.

port 12 shows as "Lane configured as USB/SATA/UFS", but if I mess with some BIOS "knobs" port 12 no longer shows that designation and I am able to disable it with no issue.

PCI port 1-4 shows as "Shadowed by x2/x4 port"
port 5-6 shows "Not present in this SKU"

I am only leaving ETH0 and ETH1 on for my firewall use, disabling everything else I do not need.
I also saw some some linux distros not showing ethernet ports anymore if you try to enable L1 substrates. But you can usually at least have it as ASPM enabled on that port.