Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

[Phycoforce]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone could have some insight into helping me with this network card installation.

System Setup:

1. M720 System
2. WIFI Card Removed
3. NVME installed the machine
4. 9500T system
5. Default 65W power brick

New Items:

1. BA7H70 REV: 1.2 Riser card (x16)
2. X710-DA2

Problem:
I am experiencing an issue where when I try to plug in a X710-DA2 into my riser then the M720Q, the machine will not reach the BIOS screen no matter how much time is given.

Troubleshooting steps:

1. Updated the BIOS
2. Tried the X710-DA2 with and without any SFP+ modules connected to it
3. Tried a different X710-DA2 and different riser.
4. Tried the riser with a Dell PERC H200 (This causes a successful full boot, which I feel rules out the riser cards themselves)
5. Forcing the PCI express mode in BIOS.
6. If the left module is populated, I get an LED indication from both the card and the switch it is connected too. No IP address is given. The right slot does not light up at all if used. Still can't boot past BIOS with this.

Kind of lost on what steps to take next here. Reading through the forum, people run into a variety of issues at different steps. But not to the point of not being able to post. Some help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT
--------

1. Tried CMOS reset to no avail.

Thanks

 

[DrMrFancyPants]

Were there any problems modding the BIOS? How did you do it?

I can extract and modify the 920 machines BIOS files but they will not install because they then fail the security/integrity check. I can't manually flash because the 920x has a dual BIOS chip that requires removing from the motherboard. Also their BIOS chip models are not listed in the software for my flashing tool. The m90p v3 BIOS I was unable to mod though I could open it. I was unable to tell where to put the extra lines of code, the terminology/structure lenovo used doesn't match the REBAR mod guides. Even if I figured that out I think I'd be back to the problems wiring the bios described above.

 

[DrMrFancyPants]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone could have some insight into helping me with this network card installation.

System Setup:

1. M720 System
2. WIFI Card Removed
3. NVME installed the machine
4. 9500T system

New Items:

1. BA7H70 REV: 1.2 Riser card (x16)
2. X710-DA2

Problem:
I am experiencing an issue where when I try to plug in a M720Q into my riser then machine, the machine will not reach the BIOS screen no matter how much time is given.

Troubleshooting steps:

1. Updated the BIOS
2. Tried the X710-DA2 with and without any SFP+ modules connected to it
3. Tried a different X710-DA2 and different riser.
4. Tried the riser with a Dell PERC H200 (This causes a successful full boot, which I feel rules out the riser cards themselves)
5. Forcing the PCI express mode in BIOS.
6. If the left module is populated, I get an LED indication from both the card and the switch it is connected too. No IP address is given. The right slot does not light up at all if used. Still can't boot past BIOS with this.

Kind of lost on what steps to take next here. Reading through the forum, people run into a variety of issues at different steps. But not to the point of not being able to post. Some help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Did you try resetting the CMOS? The jumpers on the motherboard in the corner by the wifi antenna. I had the same issues with some graphics cards and resetting the CMOS worked, sometimes but not every time.

 

[Phycoforce]

Did you try resetting the CMOS? The jumpers on the motherboard in the corner by the wifi antenna. I had the same issues with some graphics cards and resetting the CMOS worked, sometimes but not every time.

Just tried that now. No luck

 

[dinjo]

Is there a way i can unlock Bios for M90Q Gen 3 to run Memory at full speed instead of throttle speed of 2400

 

[Phycoforce]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone could have some insight into helping me with this network card installation.

System Setup:

1. M720 System
2. WIFI Card Removed
3. NVME installed the machine
4. 9500T system

New Items:

1. BA7H70 REV: 1.2 Riser card (x16)
2. X710-DA2

Problem:
I am experiencing an issue where when I try to plug in a X710-DA2 into my riser then the M720Q, the machine will not reach the BIOS screen no matter how much time is given.

Troubleshooting steps:

1. Updated the BIOS
2. Tried the X710-DA2 with and without any SFP+ modules connected to it
3. Tried a different X710-DA2 and different riser.
4. Tried the riser with a Dell PERC H200 (This causes a successful full boot, which I feel rules out the riser cards themselves)
5. Forcing the PCI express mode in BIOS.
6. If the left module is populated, I get an LED indication from both the card and the switch it is connected too. No IP address is given. The right slot does not light up at all if used. Still can't boot past BIOS with this.

Kind of lost on what steps to take next here. Reading through the forum, people run into a variety of issues at different steps. But not to the point of not being able to post. Some help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT
--------

1. Tried CMOS reset to no avail.

Thanks

Interesting point towards this which somehow has made it work, though not to the point I'm happy about.

1. Turn on M720Q with the X710-DA2 not plugged in.
2. Turn off the device once the BIOS screen is reached
3. Do not disconnect the power adapter, and plug in the PCI riser with the X710-DA2.
4. Power on device

When these steps are followed, the device will boot past BIOS into the operating system, and it will get a valid IP address, and is connectable.

Something about a fresh boot process is giving strange results here? This is technically okay, but I'm not comfortable with dealing with a situation which may arise if power is ever lost.

Any ideas appreciated.

 

[Parallax]

Believe it or not this M90q might be my NAS.

I need to replace my aging HP MSgen8, and I'm optimizing for footprint/noise more than anything else (small London flat), ideally I want to downsize my whole homelab/NAS into a single 1U shelf... hence me trying to figure out how to shove as much NVME storage into this tiny box.

Weirdly 4TB SSDs are basically the same cost as NVME in the UK [snip]

Well that's only because both are expensive.


I live in a small central London flat so my homelab is in a corner of the living room. I run six Tinys, a Pi4 PiKVM, a Topton N100 unit, and an HP Microserver Gen10+.

The HP has served me well for several years but I've run out of space for drives and I want 10GbE ports on my NAS, so I'm replacing it with a UGreen DXP6800 Pro. I'm replacing the fans with Noctuas. This (or the 4800) might be an option, it's quiet and pretty compact but you'll get a lot more functionality out of it for storage. I missed the Kickstarter price but bought it from TaoBao for about the same price (~£530) delivered to the UK. That's a very good deal given the savings you can make on storage that way, you can use one or two NVMe as hot storage then automatically move older files to spinning rust.

 

[Parallax]

Is there a way i can unlock Bios for M90Q Gen 3 to run Memory at full speed instead of throttle speed of 2400

Not as far as we know.

 

[Parallax]

Is it possible to upgrade the 12500 of an m90q gen 3 to a 13500?

No reports I've seen of anyone doing so, although the motherboard is the same in the Gen 3 and 4 so it might just be a matter of flashing the newer firmware. Or you brick it.

 

[Phycoforce]

Interesting point towards this which somehow has made it work, though not to the point I'm happy about.

1. Turn on M720Q with the X710-DA2 not plugged in.
2. Turn off the device once the BIOS screen is reached
3. Do not disconnect the power adapter, and plug in the PCI riser with the X710-DA2.
4. Power on device

When these steps are followed, the device will boot past BIOS into the operating system, and it will get a valid IP address, and is connectable.

Something about a fresh boot process is giving strange results here? This is technically okay, but I'm not comfortable with dealing with a situation which may arise if power is ever lost.

Any ideas appreciated.

To also add, by following this method I can see the normal BIOS settings available for the X710-DA2 in the M720Q bios. This seems to sit underneath Devices - ATA Drive Setup - X710

Probably worth noting, that this is a Dell OEM version of this. I haven't crossflashed this to the generic firmware.
Legit wondering if I may just have a rise that's causing the PCIE Enumeration step of the cold boot to hang. Hence it working when plugged in after a successful cold boot + power cycle. I bought this random one off amazon. If anyone has any better choices I should be looking at please let me know: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CM7H1VW9?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

[InsaneNutter]

If anyone has any better choices I should be looking at please let me know: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CM7H1VW9?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

As to if it will work any better I can't honestly say, however you can buy the official riser direct from Lenovo: https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/parts-lookup
Click part number and search for 01AJ940 (the riser for the Mx20q series, as per the first page reference post) it should be available for £32.98

The reference post does state some (official) risers can have compatibility issues, so that is likely the same for third party risers I'd imagine.

Its also worth mentioning for anyone with an M90q Gen 3 or P360 the 1.2 version riser (5C50W00933) is £35.35 direct from Lenovo, pretty much half the price of people selling these on Ebay / Ali Express.

 

[Phycoforce]

As to if it will work any better I can't honestly say, however you can buy the official riser direct from Lenovo: https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/parts-lookup
Click part number and search for 01AJ940 (the riser for the Mx20q series, as per the first page reference post) it should be available for £32.98

The reference post does state some (official) risers can have compatibility issues, so that is likely the same for third party risers I'd imagine.

Its also worth mentioning for anyone with an M90q Gen 3 or P360 the 1.2 version riser (5C50W00933) is £35.35 direct from Lenovo, pretty much half the price of people selling these on Ebay / Ali Express.

To add onto what I've done.

1. I did attempt the SMBUS pins fix again, not with the recommended tape however. But I did try it with some cut stickers and some more tape I had.
2. I also tried crossflashing one of the X710-DA2's I had available from dell firmware to original intel. This yielded no results.
3. Finally, I did recall I had another Lenovo one in the garage. I found a 90w Lenovo brick (20v, 4.5A). This again didn't fix my boot issue.

So it's looking like the only thing I can think of left is the riser. Will the official one impose a 130w power brick requirement? Currently I have 2 x 65w, and 1 x 90W official Lenovo bricks.

EDIT -------

Looking at the lenovo store as you suggested. I put in my device model (M720Q 10T7), and the only suggested risers are 01AJ929 and 01AJ928. Could probably forcefully look for the 01AJ940, but found that a bit strange.

 

[InsaneNutter]

I don't think the M720Q officially shipped with anything requiring the PCIE 16x riser, which is why i suspect it doesn't show. The P330 Tiny shipped with a GPU and the riser does show for that on the Lenovo site.

I have the 01AJ940 in my M720Q, along with a Intel i350-T4 working perfectly fine without a 130w power brick.

I was asking something similar in regards to power usage the other week, with the view of putting a GPU in one. Nothing limits it is essentially what people told me, its purely how much power the CPU / PCI-E device requires as to what power brick you need.

 

[Phycoforce]

I don't think the M720Q officially shipped with anything requiring the PCIE 16x riser, which is why i suspect it doesn't show. The P330 Tiny shipped with a GPU and the riser does show for that on the Lenovo site.

I have the 01AJ940 in my M720Q, along with a Intel i350-T4 working perfectly fine without a 130w power brick.

I was asking something similar in regards to power usage the other week, with the view of putting a GPU in one. Nothing limits it is essentially what people told me, its purely how much power the CPU / PCI-E device requires as to what power brick you need.

Thanks for clarifying. I'm leaning on purchasing a random Lenovo power brick from Amazon (135w or more), with the right connector, and also buying the 01AJ940 directly from Lenovo. I can then at least rightfully rule out all options swiftly. The power brick will likely get returned assuming the riser fixes this.

You have the official riser from Lenovo?

 

[senso]

Lenovo was selling the original 135W charger for like 30€, I bought one for my M720Q because I upgraded it to a i7 9700 (non T), just to prevent random power offs, but it worked fine with the original 90W charger.

Most likely the issue is with the riser itself.

I have a custom riser and a Fujitsu LSI SAS3008 coming in the mail, so I can report back if it works fine or not, for now I have just an SSD on the m.2 slot of my custom riser and it works perfectly.

 

[Phycoforce]

Lenovo was selling the original 135W charger for like 30€, I bought one for my M720Q because I upgraded it to a i7 9700 (non T), just to prevent random power offs, but it worked fine with the original 90W charger.

Most likely the issue is with the riser itself.

I have a custom riser and a Fujitsu LSI SAS3008 coming in the mail, so I can report back if it works fine or not, for now I have just an SSD on the m.2 slot of my custom riser and it works perfectly.

Fair point. I ended up purchasing a random 170w power brick from Amazon. If no luck with that I'll just return it. I also went ahead and bought two of the risers from Lenovo directly. Just to rule out any 3rd party strange thing that could happen, and avoid just buying the same 3rd party riser again, just rebranded.

If neither of these two things work, I think I'll just do my warm boot fix, and live with it. It's very rare they'll end up in cold boot; if that were ever to happen it'd usually be a power outage, which is rare. This is just me being extremely critical about getting it "perfect".

 

[JalapenoBagels]

Fair point. I ended up purchasing a random 170w power brick from Amazon. If no luck with that I'll just return it. I also went ahead and bought two of the risers from Lenovo directly. Just to rule out any 3rd party strange thing that could happen, and avoid just buying the same 3rd party riser again, just rebranded.

If neither of these two things work, I think I'll just do my warm boot fix, and live with it. It's very rare they'll end up in cold boot; if that were ever to happen it'd usually be a power outage, which is rare. This is just me being extremely critical about getting it "perfect".

I'm having similar issues with my m90q gen 3 and 10gb SFP cards, it gets to the lenovo splash screen but then hangs before getting to BIOS. For reference what I've tried so far:

• Update BIOS
• Adjust BIOS settings
• Presence detection wire thats mentioned in the threads first post
• Larger power brick (230w)
• T series cpu swap
• RMA'd my official lenovo riser (5C50W00910) and they sent back the newer version (5C50W00933)
• Swapped mellanox CX322A for intel E710 x710-DA2
• Dremeled the end off an x4 riser to fit my NICs hoping it would autonegotiate and work.

 

[Phycoforce]

I'm having similar issues with my m90q gen 3 and 10gb SFP cards, it gets to the lenovo splash screen but then hangs before getting to BIOS. For reference what I've tried so far:

• Update BIOS
• Adjust BIOS settings
• Presence detection wire thats mentioned in the threads first post
• Larger power brick (230w)
• T series cpu swap
• RMA'd my official lenovo riser (5C50W00910) and they sent back the newer version (5C50W00933)
• Swapped mellanox CX322A for intel E710 x710-DA2
• Dremeled the end off an x4 riser to fit my NICs hoping it would autonegotiate and work.

Did you try my strange fix? The fact you're seeing the splash screen is an improvement to my situation. Try the steps I outlined earlier, perhaps that will allow you to get into the OS? I've been meaning to ask someone to try this, to see if it's a potential workaround for people in this situation.

 

[JalapenoBagels]

Did you try my strange fix? The fact you're seeing the splash screen is an improvement to my situation. Try the steps I outlined earlier, perhaps that will allow you to get into the OS? I've been meaning to ask someone to try this, to see if it's a potential workaround for people in this situation.

I might be able to try tomorrow when I'm back home. Though I'm a little hesitant, were you doing the trick with the BA7H70 REV: 1.2 riser? That one looks pretty passive whereas the 5C50W00933 I'm using for the m90q has alot of circuitry and capacitors on the board so I'm a bit hesitant to pull it with the power brick still plugged in.

 

[Phycoforce]

I might be able to try tomorrow when I'm back home. Though I'm a little hesitant, were you doing the trick with the BA7H70 REV: 1.2 riser? That one looks pretty passive whereas the 5C50W00933 I'm using for the m90q has alot of circuitry and capacitors on the board so I'm a bit hesitant to pull it with the power brick still plugged in.

Ah yes, I did do it with the BA7H70 1.2. ALso of course, you're using an m90q.
I wont tell you to try that then, I think you have valid concerns around that.
Also you seem to at least be hitting the splash screen, while my issue seems to be centered around cold boot loading data into memory. Reaching the splash feels like something a bit different there. The steps you outlined trying are pretty much everything I'm going to end up doing when the items arrive. Hopefully I have better luck...

When it comes to the thing I did to make it work, hopefully someone can confirm whether that's actually safe or not. There's a reason why I'd rather having it work from cold boot as normal. I don't like doing it either...