Intel HP X520-DA2 prevents OS boot when DAC is attached

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.
T

twoface90

New Member
Jul 20, 2026
3
0
1
Hi all,

I'm building a Proxmox HA cluster for my homelab so I've bought 3x Intel x520-da2 NICs which are HP branded. I have 2x Lenovo m90q and 1x Lenovo m720q mini PCs for this purpose. Each mini pc has proxmox installed and I've joined all machines to a cluster. I've connected DAC cables to each x520-da2 cards to create internal mesh network and everything worked fine.

Problem happens during the boot. M90q machines are stuck at "Loading initial ramdisk" when DAC cables are attached. If I unplug the DAC cables, they boot normally. Interestingly, m720q boots normally and doesnt have this problem.

I've tried many things but none worked. I've tried to swat the x520 from m720q to m90q, I've used Intel Preboot utility tool to disable PXE boot and it didnt work.I've also tried few other commands with Preboot tool, like "-flashdisable","-64d" etc, but none worked.

I've also tried Live Ubuntu USB and it also hands and never boots up. I'm out of options so I would appreciate if someone might have some experience with it and help me resolve it. Thanks
 

Attachments

B

blunden

Well-Known Member
Nov 29, 2019
1,231
440
83
Are you booting using UEFI or legacy boot (CSM/BIOS)? Is there an option to disable loading of the option ROM from BIOS/UEFI?
 
T

twoface90

New Member
Jul 20, 2026
3
0
1
Unfortunately, there is no option in BIOS to change to Legacy boot. I've read that Lenovo switched to UEFI only on newer devices and m90q gen1 falls into that. I'm thinking about trying to flash Intel x520 firmware to HP branded (HP 560SFP+) NICs that I have. But I'm afraid I would made it worse and brick it
 
B

blunden

Well-Known Member
Nov 29, 2019
1,231
440
83
twoface90 said:
Unfortunately, there is no option in BIOS to change to Legacy boot. I've read that Lenovo switched to UEFI only on newer devices and m90q gen1 falls into that. I'm thinking about trying to flash Intel x520 firmware to HP branded (HP 560SFP+) NICs that I have. But I'm afraid I would made it worse and brick it
Click to expand...
UEFI boot shouldn't be an issue. I asked whether there is a BIOS/UEFI setting yo ignore bootroms, which I've seen on some motherboards in the past? :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom