H12SSL-NT: Intel X710-DA4 card works in X16 slots but not X8 slots

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lunadesign

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Aug 7, 2013
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I have a known good Intel X710-DA4 10G ethernet card. This is a PCIe 3.0 X8 card. I plugged this card into the H12SSL-NT motherboard and it works on all 3 X16 slots I tried but not in either of the X8 slots.

In slots 1, 3 and 5 (all X16), the BIOS will fully make it through POST and the card shows up in the BIOS menu.

In slot 2 (X8), the BIOS will fully make it through POST but the card does *not* show up in the BIOS menu.

In slot 4 (X8), the BIOS will *not* make it through POST. Instead it gets stuck at DXE--BIOS PCI Bus Enumeration 94.

Since this is an X8 card, I'd really like to to use it in one of the two X8 slots on this motherboard. I don't want to waste an X16 slot.

Any ideas?
 
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lunadesign

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Aug 7, 2013
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RolloZ170 said:
first force the PCIe mode of these slots to 3.0
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Oddly enough, I haven't been able to find a BIOS setting that allows me to specify GEN 3 vs GEN 4. The only per-slot PCIe options I see are:
  • OPROM (choices are Disabled and EFI, currently set to EFI)
  • Bifurcation (choices for the x8 slots are Auto and x4x4, currently set to Auto)
RolloZ170 said:
what CPU are you using ? properly seated ?
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I'm using an Epyc 7262. It's my first Epyc CPU build but I've installed quite a few CPUs before. I'm 99% sure it's seated correctly as it's been working normally in various tests for several months.
 
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lunadesign

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Aug 7, 2013
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RolloZ170 said:
i would open a case at supermicro, needs the serial-number of the board.
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Yep - already did. Still working through the initial stuff with them (trying out the latest BIOS and IPMI). No resolution yet. I'll report back with any interesting developments.
 
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RolloZ170

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Apr 24, 2016
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if there are bifurcation settings auto and 4+4, maybe the boards sets 4+4 by mistake. makes sense but it is an explanation but not a solution.
 
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jpmomo

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Aug 12, 2018
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i have an h12ssl-i and had to have it rma'd 1 time due to strange behavior of pci slot 2. Not sure what was wrong, but when I tried to put an x8 nvme pci card in it, the bmc got corrupted and the board wouldn't post. there was never any explanation as to why it happened.
 
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lunadesign

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Aug 7, 2013
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FWIW, Supermicro Support has been able reproduce the problem with the X710-DA4 and two H12SSL motherboards. I'm awaiting more info about next steps.
 
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lunadesign

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Aug 7, 2013
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jpmomo said:
i have an h12ssl-i and had to have it rma'd 1 time due to strange behavior of pci slot 2. Not sure what was wrong, but when I tried to put an x8 nvme pci card in it, the bmc got corrupted and the board wouldn't post. there was never any explanation as to why it happened.
Click to expand...
That's very interesting....I assume it still didn't POST *after* you removed the x8 card? And was this a PCIe GEN 3 or GEN 4 card?
 
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jpmomo

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Aug 12, 2018
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agreed. it is like trying to juggle chainsaws! I still have my day job in which we are trying to resolve pcie 4.0 issues with amd epyc and intel ice lake. we are seeing the amd epycs perform significantly worse in network performance when using pcie 4.0 dual port 100GE nics. This is happening across several different platforms including some of the latest dell servers.
 
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flian

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Jan 26, 2018
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@lunadesign I'm running into the same problem with an H12SSL-i motherboard + Intel X710-DA2.

It works in x16 slots, but not in the x8 slots. The system hangs at "BIOS PCI Bus Enumeration 94" and is unresponsive; ctrl+alt+del doesn't work.

Things I've tried:
- Reseating CPU
- Swapped out RAM, tried with a single DIMM
- Detached all devices (NVMe SSDs, SATA SSDs, GPU)

I have (2) other H12SSL-i motherboards, and (3) X710-DA2 cards in total. All X710 cards exhibit the same problem on this motherboard.

Oddly enough, one of the other H12SSL systems _works_ with an X710-DA2 in an x8 slot. I don't want to mess with it much and introduce a problem.

I suspect it's a motherboard/card compatibility issue with x8 slots, since both x8 slots don't work with multiple of these cards, and the cards have previously worked in other systems.

I'll try contacting Supermicro but was wondering if anyone else has encountered this.
 
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flian

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Jan 26, 2018
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So here's a wtf: If I insert two cards into the x8 slots, it boots.

I got these configurations to boot:
  1. Two X710-DA2 cards, both in x8 slots.
  2. One X710-DA2 card in x8 slot, one 9500-16i card in x8 slot. This was the working config I mentioned in my last post that I didn't want to mess with.
  3. One X710-DA2 card in x8 slot, one 9207-8e card in x8 slot.
I get a hang at "BIOS PCI Bus Enumeration 94" if one X710-DA2 is installed in an x8 slot and the other x8 slot is empty (doesn't matter which). Note that a single 9207-8e installed in an x8 slot boots, so it seems to be a compat issue with X710-DA2.

I'll wait to hear back from Supermicro. In the meantime I'll move the X710-DA2 to an x16 slot. I don't actually need it in an x8 slot for a while.
 
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flian

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Jan 26, 2018
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Supermicro won't support this since the card "was not validated with the motherboard".
 
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tolga9009

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Jan 6, 2024
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Just stumbled upon this issue with a Lenovo branded X710-DA2 and H12SSL-i w/ EPYC 7282. I had BIOS 3.0 installed originally, installed NIC into x8 Slot and all worked fine. No issues, no boot loops, all good. Then I updated to BIOS 3.3 and ran into the same "DXE--BIOS PCI Bus Enumeration 94" issue you guys have been reporting. First I thought this was the Lenovo customized firmware doing weird stuff, so I installed an original Intel X710-DA2 into the same slot. Same result. Then I flashed back the 3.0, again, same result. CMOS reset didn't help.

Then I found this thread, installed into x16 Slot, everything worked again. I can't invest more time into troubleshooting right now, but I guess I changed some BIOS setting in 3.0 which prevented this issue. After flashing BIOS, the settings usually reset to default, probably causing this issue. That being said, I will leave it in x16. You really don't want to run into this issue remotely...

//Edit: I have applied my BIOS settings, which are mainly the virtualization relevant settings (FAQ Entry | Online Support | Support - Super Micro Computer, Inc.) and a few other things. I can install the Lenovo OEM card in x8 again and it boots without any issues. The settings I applied are (nothing special, I always apply these settings):

1. PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration -> SR-IOV Support -> Enabled
2. NB Configuration -> ACS Enable -> Enabled
3. NB Configuration -> IOMMU -> Enabled
4. ACPI settings -> PCI AER Support -> Enabled
5. Option ROM Messages -> Keep Current
6. PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration -> Re-Size BAR Support -> Enabled
7. PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration -> ASPM Support -> Auto
9. Network -> IPv4 PXE Support -> Disabled
10. Network -> IPv6 PXE Support -> Disabled
11. X710 Ethernet Controller -> NIC Configuration -> LLDP Agent -> Disabled (this configuration persists, even on CMOS reset, it seems to be permanent on the NIC itself)
12. X710 Converged Ethernet Controller -> NIC Configuration -> LLDP Agent -> Disabled (again, 2nd port, setting is per port)

I think the culprit is somewhere between setting 1 - 10 (ignore 5, I think that's only cosmetic).
 
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