Dell H200 / LSI 9211-8i brick revival

[mobilenvidia]

I bought a Dell H200 (LSI9211-8i) card, it was a risk as it didn't work.
Owner said he erased Firmware then flashed optionBIOS but not the firmware.
Then nothing.
I thought I could revive it but....

I could revive this card if I could but boot my system without it attempting to initialise the H200 card.
At boot the System BIOS info shows, when I press 'del' to enter BIOS it still insists of trying to initialise the H200 card
When it tries to initialise the cursor just sits flashing.

To put it simply is there some way to get past the initialise of the H200 card.
I tried it in a P4 system with PCIe 16x v1 but this just beebs at boot

No biggy as I paid bugger all for it, I know it's fixable, I have bought back other things in worse states, but not being able to boot to anything is holding me up.
Any help appreciated.

 

[mobilenvidia]

Possible future use and so I don't forget.

Firmware kept on a MXIC MX29LV640EBTI-70G Flash Memory chip
Pinouts:

Looking for pin 12, Will attempt to reset the Flash Mem with a needle and cable to grnd
Going to be awkward as it needs to be plugged in I think (will try without first)

Other option is via JTAG to revive it, but PowerPC JTAG programmers are hard to find.
But here are PowerPC 4xx pinouts:
Pin Signal name
1 TDO - JTAG Test Data Out
2 2 Not Used
3 TDI - JTAG Test Data In
4 4 /TRST - JTAG Test Reset
5 5 Not used
6 6 Vcc Target - 1.8 – 5.0V:This is the target reference voltage.
7 7 TCK - JTAG Test Clock
8 8 Not Used
9 9 TMS - JTAG Test Mode Select
10 10 Not Used
11 11 /SYS_HALT
12 12 Not Used
13 13 Not Used
14 14 Not Used
15 15 Not Used
16 16 GROUND - System Ground

Now to find a needle and rather thin wire.

Yes very awkward with Card in Case I can't see a thing let alone attempt to place a needle on a tiny closely spaced IC pin.
May need to pull apart my Sons computer to get the mobo out and do this on a bench.
Even though the P4 system beeps when it's in there, if I short the system I at least fry a P4 not m y precious XEON

 

[sotech]

Good luck! I'll be interested to hear of the results...

 

[mobilenvidia]

Right after some experimenting.

While booting during the System BIOS info display, set 'Reset' on the Flash chip to ground this then allows the computer to boot (it won't try to load the LSI BIOS/FW which is corrupt/missing)
I can then get to Windows with the card in, I need to goto system properties and detect new HW and it displays the card with a yellow warning.
The Info DevID and Subsys are shown the properties BUT I sasflash2.exe refuses to see a LSI card and hence no flashing.
Same goes for the DOS version when I boot to a USB stick.

I may check to see if I have old Dell sas2flsh on the USB I know this works for others as new version does not

Hmmm, I'm so close but yet to far.

 

[mobilenvidia]

Grrrrr, that doesn't work either. (Dell sas2flsh.exe in DOS)

Resetting the SAS2008 at boot just by passes the problem.
BIOS at boot doesn't see the card and probably doesn't allocate resources to it.

 

[ssherwood]

Hi there,

This is a bit of a long shot, but if it is just the boot ROM stopping the system from posting, have you tried using the card in a motherboard with a more limited amount of ROM space available? A lot of consumer grade motherboards with onboard RAID etc. have limited memory to load the ROMs at startup, so what is often a problem for users who want to boot but can't from HBAs may be good for you.

Try turning on the extra boot options on the onboard devices plus if you have any bootable NICs, they eat up the ROM space too. You might be able to max out this space leaving no room for your HBA to load its ROM at startup.

-- SS

 

[mobilenvidia]

That was a good idea, alas I bought a slightly better consumer grade Machine and everything fits in
Everything enabled in the BIOS, incl boot LAN and I have a RAID 0 setup with ICH10R also.

My sons P4 with PCIe 16x v1.0 doesn't like the card at all, it just beebs at power on.
(Looking at it more closely I think the Intel Mobo is expecting a video card (external ROM checksum not eqaul to zero, under BIOS video issues with the beeb code)

 

[ssherwood]

Try adding another NIC (if you have one around) that you can boot from - that might put you over the top!

 

[GoofyHSK]

try megarec (dos) instead of sas2flash - ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAS/LSI/2008/iMR/Firmware/Non_Blade/USB.zip

 

[mobilenvidia]

Try adding another NIC (if you have one around) that you can boot from - that might put you over the top!

I only have PCIx LAN cards left from my old server, these would have been ideal if they fitted

I do have a couple of WLAN PCI card adaptors, chucked these in and still no luck

try megarec (dos) instead of sas2flash - ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAS/LSI/2008/iMR/Firmware/Non_Blade/USB.zip

I'll give this ago later when I'm back home.
Given some hope.
Although if I can't boot properly with the card I doubt the firmware installer will do so

Wonder if working out the exact address of the card will aid with sas2flsh

 

[mobilenvidia]

Megarec has gotten me a little closer.
I now know that the device is there, megarec can see it.

MegaRAID HWR Contoller Recovery tool. Version 01.01-004 February 05, 2010
Copyright (c) 2006-2008 LSI Corp.
Supports 1078 controller and its Successors.
Identified MR Cards Count: 1
List of Identified Cards
------------------------
MR Card 0
Type: 2008
Vendor Id: 0x1000, Device Id: 0x72
Slot No: 12, Device Function: 0x0

But flashing complains of 'Control registers not being able to be modified'
I can smell success, dog with bone I'll persevere till it's done or the world ends which ever comes first

 

[mobilenvidia]

More info to save me looking it up.
Check the bottom PCI-IDs' looks like new cards on the Horizon for SAS3

0072 SAS2008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Falcon]
1028 1f1c 6Gbps SAS HBA Adapter
1028 1f1d PERC H200 Adapter
1028 1f1e PERC H200 Integrated
1028 1f1f PERC H200 Modular
1028 1f20 PERC H200 Embedded
1028 1f22 Internal Tape Adapter
8086 350f RMS2LL040 RAID Controller
0073 MegaRAID SAS 9240
1000 9240 MegaRAID SAS 9240-8i
1000 9241 MegaRAID SAS 9240-4i
1014 03b1 ServeRAID M1015 SAS/SATA Controller
1028 1f4e PERC H310 Adapter
1028 1f4f PERC H310 Integrated
1028 1f50 PERC H310 Mini Blades
1028 1f51 PERC H310 Mini Monolithics
1028 1f52 PERC H310 Embedded1
1028 1f53 PERC H310 Embedded2
1028 1f54 PERC H310 Reserved
1054 3035 LSI MegaRAID SAS 9240-8i
1137 0072 2004 iMR ROMB
1137 0073 2008 ROMB
15d9 0400 Supermicro SMC2008-iMR
1734 1177 RAID Ctrl SAS 6G 0/1 (D2607)
8086 350d RMS2AF040 RAID Controller
8086 9240 RAID Controller RS2WC080
8086 9241 RAID Controller RS2WC040
0074 SAS2108 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Liberator]
0076 SAS2108 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Liberator]
0077 SAS2108 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Liberator]
0079 MegaRAID SAS 2108 [Liberator]
1000 9251 MegaRAID SAS 9260-4ix
1000 9256 MegaRAID SAS 9260-8ix
1000 9260 MegaRAID SAS 9260-4i
1000 9261 MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i
1000 9262 MegaRAID SAS 9262-8i
1000 9263 MegaRAID SAS 9261-8i
1000 9264 MegaRAID SAS 9264-8i
1000 9275 MegaRAID SAS 9280-8ex
1000 9276 MR9260-16i
1000 9280 MegaRAID SAS 9280-8e
1000 9281 MegaRAID SAS 9281-8E
1000 9282 MegaRAID SAS 9280-4i4e
1000 9290 MegaRAID SAS 9280DE-24i4e
1014 03b2 ServeRAID M5015 SAS/SATA Controller
1014 03b3 ServeRAID M5025 SAS/SATA Controller
1028 1f15 PERC H800 Adapter
1028 1f16 PERC H700 Adapter
1028 1f17 PERC H700 Integrated
1028 1f18 PERC H700 Modular
1028 1f1a PERC H800 Proto Adapter
1028 1f1b PERC H700 Integrated
1043 8480 PIKE-2108 16PD
1734 1176 RAID Ctrl SAS 6G 5/6 512MB (D2616)
1734 1177 RAID Ctrl SAS 6G 0/1 (D2607)
8086 9256 MegaRAID SAS 9260DE-8i
8086 9260 RAID Controller RS2BL040
8086 9261 RAID Controller RS2BL080
8086 9264 Warm Beach (Caster Lite)
8086 9267 RAID Controller RS2VB040
8086 9268 RAID Controller RS2VB080
007c MegaRAID SAS 1078DE
1014 0395 ServeRAID-AR10is SAS/SATA Controller
007e SSS6200 PCI-Express Flash SSD
0080 SAS2208 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2
0081 SAS2208 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2
0082 SAS2208 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2
0083 SAS2208 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2
0084 SAS2208 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2
0085 SAS2208 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2
0086 SAS2308 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2
0087 SAS2308 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2
008f 53c875J
1092 8000 FirePort 40 SCSI Controller
1092 8760 FirePort 40 Dual SCSI Host Adapter
0090 SAS3108 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-3
0091 SAS3108 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-3
0094 SAS3108 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-3
0095 SAS3108 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-3
0096 SAS3004 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-3
0097 SAS3008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-3

 

[mobilenvidia]

Still no luck with this.
Did find the NVRAM chip numbers (very hard to read) and here is a pinout of it

MR0A08BYS35 - Everspin

 

[grek]

Hi.
I brick Perc H200 card, but I successfully revival it.

I had version H200A. This version works only on normal PCI-E ports, not on dedicated Storage PCI-E port on Dell Servers.
I want to flash my card with firmware and bios from H200I card. This card can be used in dedicated 'Storage Port' on Dell R610 / Dell R710 Servers.
If You put card H200A to this 'Dedicated Storage Port' You get error message on the booting server and it hang up.

I have another Dell Server with H200I version (working on Dedicated Storage Port), so I downloaded firmware and bios from it. After this I erase bios and firmware on H200A card and upload new one. I used 'sas2flsh.exe' dos tool. After this when I do : sas2flsh -list , this card have: NVDATA Product ID H200I , but still Board Name Perc H200A.
After reboot server hang up. It doesn't mater that card was inserted on PCI-E port or Dedicated Storage Port. I also try to put this card to 2 different normal PC ,but they also hang up, and it was impossible to boot PC with this card inside.

I found this forum and try reset firmware :PIN 12 and GND.
I prepare my card. (im used GND from different place)

And I put needle to PIN12 when server was booting up. After this operation this Green Led stop blinking, but server can continue booting.
So I successfully boot server from my USB stick with FreeDOS and sas2flsh tools.
When I do: sas2flsh -list , I get a error message that firmware is missing , so I enter filename with original firmware. (H200A).

After this I download Flash Image from my Integrated H200I card. (command : sas2flsh -o uflash flash.rom )
and put this flash to my previously bricked card H200A : (command: sas2flsh -o dflash FlashImage.rom Firmware.fw)

I checked my card by: sas2flsh -list and I saw that also NVDATA Product ID is H200I and Board Name Perc H200I.
When I reboot my server card is working. I can use this card in PCI-E and on Dedicated Storage PCI-E Dell R710

This is link to all Flash and firmware from my H200I card:
https://app.box.com/s/5pd5bj2fwwf6m0p7cylovvurggz7rgmy

And here You are link to lsi_dos tools. Just prepare USB stick with free dos ( The simples way is create it on Rufus program) and put this tools on.
https://app.box.com/s/lmm0yikft1a2i4dpebnfp4ma1j6aau9q

 

[neo]

Possible future use and so I don't forget.

Firmware kept on a MXIC MX29LV640EBTI-70G Flash Memory chip
Pinouts:

Looking for pin 12, Will attempt to reset the Flash Mem with a needle and cable to grnd
Going to be awkward as it needs to be plugged in I think (will try without first)

Other option is via JTAG to revive it, but PowerPC JTAG programmers are hard to find.
But here are PowerPC 4xx pinouts:
Pin Signal name
1 TDO - JTAG Test Data Out
2 2 Not Used
3 TDI - JTAG Test Data In
4 4 /TRST - JTAG Test Reset
5 5 Not used
6 6 Vcc Target - 1.8 – 5.0V:This is the target reference voltage.
7 7 TCK - JTAG Test Clock
8 8 Not Used
9 9 TMS - JTAG Test Mode Select
10 10 Not Used
11 11 /SYS_HALT
12 12 Not Used
13 13 Not Used
14 14 Not Used
15 15 Not Used
16 16 GROUND - System Ground

Now to find a needle and rather thin wire.

Yes very awkward with Card in Case I can't see a thing let alone attempt to place a needle on a tiny closely spaced IC pin.
May need to pull apart my Sons computer to get the mobo out and do this on a bench.
Even though the P4 system beeps when it's in there, if I short the system I at least fry a P4 not m y precious XEON

I'm always thinking with stuff like this also. Kudos for the attempt! Would love to see you snap some photos of your jtag setup to the flash chip.