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Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

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PigLover

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Jan 26, 2011
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I'm having trouble getting an M90q (gen 1) to boot with an Intel X540-T2 installed. It just hangs at the "Lenovo" splash screen - or sometimes get past that but won't continue with boot.

Same cards work perfectly in M350 Gen2 systems. I've cross-swapped them to make sure it isn't the card. Updated the BIOS to current rev (June '22 release). Any ideas?
 

Helzy

Active Member
Oct 19, 2017
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65W adapter? Perhaps a higher wattage PSU? It's only supposed to draw 17W bit other than a bad riser, seems it should boot.
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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65W adapter? Perhaps a higher wattage PSU? It's only supposed to draw 17W bit other than a bad riser, seems it should boot.
Sadly not either one of those issues - thought about power as an issue so tested with multiple adapters, 175w and 135w. Swapped the adapter with a known working one from an M350 gen2 and when I swapped them I moved the riser too (had to take the riser out to remove the card anyway so I just swapped the whole assembly). Either card/riser works perfectly in the M350 and either one hangs in the m90q.

Just weird…
 

Parallax

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Nov 8, 2020
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Sadly not either one of those issues - thought about power as an issue so tested with multiple adapters, 175w and 135w. Swapped the adapter with a known working one from an M350 gen2 and when I swapped them I moved the riser too (had to take the riser out to remove the card anyway so I just swapped the whole assembly). Either card/riser works perfectly in the M350 and either one hangs in the m90q.
Is your X540-T2 genuine? I hate to ask, but ...
 

Parallax

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Nov 8, 2020
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I have done a bit of updating to the original post to add more information about the BIOS, undervolting, ESXi, and AMT/vPro; I've reorganised some of the sections to collect information into logical areas, and I will add something about naked SSDs (ooh-er!) probably tomorrow.
 
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Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
208
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London, UK
Sadly not either one of those issues - thought about power as an issue so tested with multiple adapters, 175w and 135w. Swapped the adapter with a known working one from an M350 gen2 and when I swapped them I moved the riser too (had to take the riser out to remove the card anyway so I just swapped the whole assembly). Either card/riser works perfectly in the M350 and either one hangs in the m90q.
Sorry, I was going to ask if your M90q is gen 2 but you already said it isn't.

Not sure what to suggest because (unhelpfully) it should work. Maybe worth factory resetting your BIOS just in case and make sure it's up to date at the same time, earlier BIOSes apparently had a problem with IOMMU. Also check the card isn't touching or shorting a component somewhere.

Do you have another PCIe card you can try to see if it's a problem with everything or just that card?

Failing that, it could be a motherboard fault - you should still be under warranty since the M90qs usually come with 3 years on site which probably hasn't yet expired (even if you bought second hand)? This is also why I'd suggest trying a more standard card in the slot as well so you don't have to have a "you're trying to do what?!" conversation with Lenovo support.
 
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gamerlamer

New Member
Aug 31, 2019
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I'm having trouble getting an M90q (gen 1) to boot with an Intel X540-T2 installed. It just hangs at the "Lenovo" splash screen - or sometimes get past that but won't continue with boot.

Same cards work perfectly in M350 Gen2 systems. I've cross-swapped them to make sure it isn't the card. Updated the BIOS to current rev (June '22 release). Any ideas?
Its weird I know. Had an almost similar issue with a M90q (gen 1) that would not load esxi and hangs at the "Lenovo" splash screen no matter the bios versions tried or known working bios settings. The crazy thing is, my other M90q (gen 1) worked perfectly fine loading esxi. It was a certified refurbished unit from Lenono. In the end I returned the unit to the eBay seller.
 

adman_c

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Feb 14, 2016
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Phenic

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Mar 17, 2015
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Cool! I think I measured and they’re almost exactly 4U high when standing vertically, so I had thought it’d be cool to have a 4U enclosure with a whole bunch standing vertically like Blades. Of course I’m not sure how you’d keep them from cooking.
My 3 nodes are standing vertically, so I placed a 120mm Noctua fan powered via USB where the front ventilation holes are and it covers the 3 units perfectly.
 

adman_c

Active Member
Feb 14, 2016
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For all the Tiny6 peeps, Encompass just shipped my 16x risers, so they are, in fact, getting some supply. Just slowly I guess.
 

adman_c

Active Member
Feb 14, 2016
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Chicago
Since I ended up selling all but one of my UK P350s, I'll actually have a couple spare risers once I receive them. Happy to sell for what I paid if anyone wants to pay a little bit more than retail to get them quicker.
 

Danjo

New Member
Aug 10, 2022
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I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the correct troubleshooting direction, or maybe tell me what what I'm doing isnt going to work...

I have an M720Q with an 8400T. I'm trying to use the 01AJ902 riser to run a LSI 9200-8e to connect to a DAS. The card used to be in a bigger server and work fine, but with the energy prices recently i quite fancied the idea of being able to connect the array to the M720Q.

The issue I'm having is that the card just isnt detected in linux. The card works fine on an identical install on a regular server, and is detected by lspci. The power lights on the card come on, but nothing is detected.

I've got the 16x adapter on order (AJ940), but am still not sure if thats going to solve the problem. Does anyone have a good direction to point me in? I'm wondering if the 65W adapter I'm using is just not enough to power the card correctly so it doesn't start correctly. The card should use about 7 - 10W idle, but im not sure on boot.
 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
208
43
London, UK
I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the correct troubleshooting direction, or maybe tell me what what I'm doing isnt going to work...

I have an M720Q with an 8400T. I'm trying to use the 01AJ902 riser to run a LSI 9200-8e to connect to a DAS. The card used to be in a bigger server and work fine, but with the energy prices recently i quite fancied the idea of being able to connect the array to the M720Q.

The issue I'm having is that the card just isnt detected in linux. The card works fine on an identical install on a regular server, and is detected by lspci. The power lights on the card come on, but nothing is detected.

I've got the 16x adapter on order (AJ940), but am still not sure if thats going to solve the problem. Does anyone have a good direction to point me in? I'm wondering if the 65W adapter I'm using is just not enough to power the card correctly so it doesn't start correctly. The card should use about 7 - 10W idle, but im not sure on boot.
Sounds a little like the problem at the top of this page, which didn't get a resolution. I would suggest the usual things, update firmwares etc, and then I would look at temperatures if you can and make sure you're not shorting something somewhere. The slot itself is only 8x, irrespective of the riser.

A 65W power supply may be the issue. It's not super efficient, so you're perhaps only getting 55W in reality; plus the processor is not really capped at 35W, it will use more if it can. So 5-10W on your card and 5-10W in storage, motherboard etc and it's possible the power is insufficient. Finally, might be worth resetting the BIOS to defaults and then setting it up again, you never know.