Dual Xeon-D

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craig5571

Member
May 31, 2020
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on one of my boards, everything works except for the sfp+ ports.. they are not even listed in the system bios on bootup.
i got usb nics to work. so that is cool.. is there any chance / way to revive the sfp+ ports? im on bios 1.18. ( its what came on the board)
the sfps light up when the system reboots. but just are not seen in the bios or the OS ( Esxi / ubuntu / windows nothing sees them.

i have another board and everything works fine. no issues with anything..

thanks , hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.
 

whbeers

Member
Jul 11, 2020
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It’s worth trying an upgrade to the 1.30 bios posted earlier in the thread. Unsure if others figured out how to do it from esxi / linux, but a TL866/similar programmer works well.

On one of mine I never did get the NIC to work on one of the nodes, so YMMV.

I spent some vacation time today removing more components from the dead board, including a couple more soldered ROMs, one (pair, one per node) of which seems to be an intel NIC ROM... I’m wondering if re-flashing that one with the ROM from a working node would have fixed the dead SFP+ interface on mine. Happy to provide both rom images, although I don’t know which is which - both would have come from the board where one interface didn’t work.

After you try the 1.30 bios to confirm that doesn’t fix the problem, let me know if you’re willing to take the risk and are prepared to take a soldering iron/hot air gun to your board to try it out, and i’ll send over both rom images and more info.
 
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craig5571

Member
May 31, 2020
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can you recommend a but a TL866/similar programmer that works well? maybe from amazon.. i just need something simple to flash the bios chip on my boards.also what kind of chips are the bios , i assume i would have to get blank ones?

thank you
 

whbeers

Member
Jul 11, 2020
42
46
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this one from amazon ought to work. What I've learned with TL866's is to try hard to get an official one, then flash and read a couple times to make sure it's writing/reading consistently. I've seen rumors of pirated ones, where updating them with the official bios will intentionally make them unreliable. One of the -IIplus varieties that I have does this (or maybe it's just flaky?), so usually I stick with an older TL866A that I know works well.

The socketed ROMs (BU7_1 and BU7_2) are the bios you'd want to flash over. I wouldn't go out of your way to use new chips for that case - so long as you're careful you should be able to get those out without damaging them. In case you do damage them, most of my boards used winbond 25Q128FVIQ. A couple used macronix ROMs that I couldn't find a good source for.

The soldered ones (soic-8 I think) take a little more care to remove without giving them excessive heat or breaking off legs - on my board those were winbond 25Q32FV.
 
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craig5571

Member
May 31, 2020
60
6
8
It’s worth trying an upgrade to the 1.30 bios posted earlier in the thread. Unsure if others figured out how to do it from esxi / linux, but a TL866/similar programmer works well.

On one of mine I never did get the NIC to work on one of the nodes, so YMMV.

I spent some vacation time today removing more components from the dead board, including a couple more soldered ROMs, one (pair, one per node) of which seems to be an intel NIC ROM... I’m wondering if re-flashing that one with the ROM from a working node would have fixed the dead SFP+ interface on mine. Happy to provide both rom images, although I don’t know which is which - both would have come from the board where one interface didn’t work.

After you try the 1.30 bios to confirm that doesn’t fix the problem, let me know if you’re willing to take the risk and are prepared to take a soldering iron/hot air gun to your board to try it out, and i’ll send over both rom images and more info.
First off, happy Thanksgiving...
you mentioned bios 1.30 did you mean 1.20? I don't see a 1.30...

second would there be any way to flash the intel nic bios for the SFP+ without desoldering them from the board?
 

whbeers

Member
Jul 11, 2020
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You’re right - 1.20 is the one I was thinking of, not 1.30. The images posted by fake-name are the correct ones.

It ought to be possible to flash the nic bios without fully desoldering by using the clip-on adapter - I just haven’t ever had good luck doing so on other boards. lifting the vcc pin would be needed at minimum, otherwise your programmer will struggle to provide sufficient current to flash the chip while it’s powering adjacent components in the circuit, and if they get enough power those other components may also interfere with the flashing process.
 
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craig5571

Member
May 31, 2020
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anyone know if the

ASRock Rack M3008 PCI-e x8 2x HD Mini SAS SFF-8643 12Gbps Mezzanine Card, can be flashed to it mode firmware?
i'm a noob at storage, but from what i can tell the m3008 is a standard raid card and truenas , needs an it mode hba..( correct me if i am wrong...)


thanks

this ocp card fits perfectly on the board without having to install it backwards...
 

bob_dvb

Active Member
Sep 7, 2018
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Not quite London
www.orbit.me.uk
anyone know if the

ASRock Rack M3008 PCI-e x8 2x HD Mini SAS SFF-8643 12Gbps Mezzanine Card, can be flashed to it mode firmware?
i'm a noob at storage, but from what i can tell the m3008 is a standard raid card and truenas , needs an it mode hba..( correct me if i am wrong...)


thanks

this ocp card fits perfectly on the board without having to install it backwards...
I think from looking at the posts about the fully complete systems it was that card, but take a look back at the eBay listings.

Bob
 

craig5571

Member
May 31, 2020
60
6
8
i have successfully update my ASRock Rack M3008 PCI-e x8 2x HD Mini SAS SFF-8643 12Gbps Mezzanine Card to IT mode, and the board fits perfectly, no fussing with it.. the connector is in exactly the right spot for the board

i followed an article here


and a video from Art of Server


what version of firmware should I be on for the card, the blog said version 13, but it was from 2016. Is there a better version?

 
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bob_dvb

Active Member
Sep 7, 2018
214
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Not quite London
www.orbit.me.uk
I'd like an M3008, I see there are a couple for $80 each in Ohio. But I don't really feel like paying the import duty on top of that.

So if anyone in the EU finds one, or in the USA sees one cheaper, please let me know.
 
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craig5571

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May 31, 2020
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pardon this probable noob question.. but the boards have two nvme 8643 connectors on them. do these connectors use one port per drive like sata. or does the board require an HBA to utilize the nvme ports.

so in other words. what is needed to take advantage of the onboard nvme? and how many drives can it support..

thank you
 

craig5571

Member
May 31, 2020
60
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this would be very useful with these boards


ASRock has introduced its first graphics card in an M.2-2280 form-factor. The M_2 VGA module is designed to add legacy display connectivity to any system that has an M.2 slot with a PCIe interface.


The ASRock M_2 VGA module uses Silicon Motion's SM750 display controller with 16MB of embedded memory and a PCIe x1 interface. The card has a 15-pin header to connect a D-Sub output that supports resolutions of up to 1920×1440. Since this is a single-chip board, its power consumption is rated at 1.49 Watts, which is almost negligible by today's standards in the PC world. Meanwhile, the unit still has an additional power connector.




 
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craig5571

Member
May 31, 2020
60
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i reached out to support about availability for the m.2 vga card and I got the following email

This is Meg from US sales team and thank you for reaching out!

M2_VGA is one of our new accessory which is targeted ready in early Jan 2021.
Our official disti partner ASI and Ma Labs, and E-commerce partner New Egg will help you on ordering procedure and all of them provide fast payment, logistic, customer, and RMA services.
May we know if the inquiry is for a potential project or for personal usage ?
Would you also share more details about project application/target Qty/EAU if it's applicable?
Look forward to having your reply and thank you again for being interested in Asrock Rack products~

Sincerely,
Meg Chou
 
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bob_dvb

Active Member
Sep 7, 2018
214
116
43
Not quite London
www.orbit.me.uk
I want a general purpose AST2500 or other IPMI board which links to the LPC on a motherboard. That would be so helpful for a retrofit, but I've only seen them designed specifically for a particular mobo at the moment.