LSI 9240-8i Not Working

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drfsupercenter

Member
Apr 12, 2013
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Hello guys,

I'm new here, but I heard this forum is a great place to get help with RAID controllers.

So, initially I had bought an IBM M1015 RAID controller on eBay. It needed the "feature unlock key" in order to add RAID5 abilities - and when I had that hooked up, it continually bluescreened until I removed the feature unlock key and did RAID0 instead.

So I ordered myself one of these:
LSI MegaRAID Internal Low-Power SATA/SAS 9240-8i 6Gb/s PCI-Express 2.0 RAID Controller Card, Single - Newegg.com

The RAID BIOS does show up, and it can see the RAID0 from my previous controller. However, Windows gives me an Error 10 "Device cannot start" message when I try to install the drivers - even if I forcibly install them using the downloaded files from LSI's site, it says those drivers are already installed.

I tried updating the firmware to the newest (December 2012) version - I used an older computer, to ensure that it would work. Still get error 10. I'm trying to install a Linux distribution on that machine to see if it is indeed a hardware problem, or just Windows being dumb - and for both Fedora and CentOS, it hung on the installation so I can't even test it.

Additionally, all 8 of the attached hard drives show constant (100%) activity, even when the computer is idling. Does this sound like a DOA card or other hardware problem to you guys? The motherboard I have is an ASUS M5A97 (see info here. I called LSI and they said that while they haven't tested any ASUS AMD boards, the worst that would happen is that the RAID BIOS won't show up correctly (which it does).

So... what do you guys suggest? Is this a dead card? Or is it a common problem? Should I ditch that model and get a different one? I'm all ears.
 
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survive

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Apr 19, 2012
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drfsupercenter

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Apr 12, 2013
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Well, I tried switching them around - put the video card in the x16 slot, reinstalled the video drivers, and then put the RAID card in the x8 slot. Now I get a Code 12 instead of Code 10 - and there is no RAID BIOS at all (which is what LSI said might happen)

Specifically: This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system. (Code 12)

I even tried disabling the onboard SATA as well as setting it to IDE mode... still no RAID BIOS.

So I guess my plan of attack would be to either replace the motherboard with one that is verified to work, or replace the RAID card. Are there any AM3 motherboards that are verified to work with the 9240-8i? I know most of the ones LSI tests are server boards (Xeon based), but maybe some people here will have tested some.

With the M5014/5015, would that work on the board I have? And no "addon card" needed like with my 1015?

survive said:
Hi drfsupercenter,

My first guess would be that you board doesn't like having a "non-video" card in the 16x PCI-e slot.....you could just be out of luck.

That said, personally I'd return the card & find an IBM M5014\5015 controller on the ebay for ~$130.00 and use that instead of either of the cacheless controllers you have tried. Take a look at this for a little more info:

How to Flash IBM ServeRAID M5014 to LSI 9260-8i FirmwareServeTheHome ? Server and Workstation Reviews

-Will
Click to expand...
 
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mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
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if you are not booting from it, you don't really need the bios, just a boot megascu and drivers should windows require them.

things to disable:
1. Sata AHCI/raid - rom space.
2. Video card
3. Network card PXE/iscsi boot (each card)
4. All those cool options in the bios rom that are missing from OEM boards (OC'ing).
5. Boot UEFI - that tends to ixnay all this b/s in trade for new b/s.
 
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survive

New Member
Apr 19, 2012
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Hi drfsupercenter,

Personally I really like the Gigabyte x90GX boards with the on-board video memory . I have used a couple of them with ESXi & FreeNAS. One of them is now my "flashing board" for any LSI controllers I run across. They are a rare find in retail now.

The M5014\M5015 is simply another hardware RAID card, but it's a "proper" controller with a beefy SoC processor, cache & a battery backup module. I can tell you changing to an M5014 from an Adaptec 3405 made a world of difference on my ESXi box.

-Will
 
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drfsupercenter

Member
Apr 12, 2013
30
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Hmm. I think I figured out the error 12 - the ASUS board I have is only a x4 slot, not a x8 like I thought. Even though it has pins covering half the x16 slot. So since the RAID card is expecting the full bandwidth, naturally it's going to error on a x4 bus.

I am fine having the video card bottlenecked a bit, as I'm just using this as a server/Windows Media Center recording machine, as long as it can play HD video I'm fine. Either way, I suppose the problem is that the ASUS board doesn't like having a RAID card in the "video card slot", if you will.

I bought myself a cheap MSI board, more or less the same thing - it has two PCIe x16 slots, one of which is a x4. I want to try it and see if that board is fine having the RAID card in the top slot. If not, I can always return the motherboard for a full refund (Micro Center is great like that)

So basically, having a board with a x16 and x8 should fix this problem, right? That way it won't have that "insufficient resources" problem. Micro Center didn't have any AM3 boards left that still had two x16s or a x8, so I took a chance with this MSI... I suppose I can go hunting around though. Cheaper to buy a new motherboard than a new RAID card.

But as an aside... should I return this 9240-8i (it cost almost $300) and buy a M5014 instead? If it does more-or-less the same thing, it would be saving me a bit of money, even if I have to pay a restocking fee for the $300 controller.

--EDIT--

OR, you know what would be great? If I could flash my M1015 card so that I can do RAID5 without that stupid addon card. The M1015 and the 9240-8i look 100% identical besides the model numbers (the 1015 actually says LSI, not even IBM), and both have the two-pin expansion card connector, so I'm assuming the only real difference is that the M1015 ships with nerfed firmware. I already have one of those cards which I bought on eBay, so it would save me quite a bit of money if I could flash a better firmware to it. That one did work, too - just didn't like the expansion card so I was stuck using RAID0.
 
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drfsupercenter

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Apr 12, 2013
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Well... the Gigabyte board doesn't like the RAID card either. Tried all four x16 slots, error 10 in all of them (even the x4s, not error 12)

The M1015 seems to work though... so if there is a way to flash the firmware on that so I don't need the "expansion card", I might just return the 9240-8i. Should I just assume my 9240-8i is DOA?
 
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mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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The M1015 in its native mode is a LSI9240-8i
So for the the LSI9240-4i not to work pretty safe to assume that something is afoot with it

LSI9240 and M1015 DON'T use RAID5 !! you are warned.
You could write down the parity and stripe info faster than the controller can write it to the disk
There is no cache = SSSLLLLOOOWWWW
 
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drfsupercenter

Member
Apr 12, 2013
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I was told that the 9240-8i was fine for doing RAID5...

What would you suggest, then? I'm trying to not spend a fortune, $300 is about it, really. I don't want one of these $800 enterprise cards...
 
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mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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M5014 (256MB LSI 9260) would do RAID5 so much better and if you are patient can be cheaper than a M1015 (LSI9240)

The 9240 can do RAID5 (M1015 needs a key) but doing does not equal doing well, it's terrible at it :)
 
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drfsupercenter

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Apr 12, 2013
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OK, I bought the M5014. Found a refurbished one on eBay for under $200 - and since I paid almost $300 for the 9240 which I am returning to NewEgg since it's defective, I don't feel too bad about it.

Is it possible to flash the firmware of the M1015 to that of a 9240, similar to how you can flash the M5014 to not need a feature unlock key by flashing it to the 9260 firmware? That would at least let me do slow RAID 5 while I wait.
 
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mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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The m5014 does RAID5 from the box, not need to do anything.
The 9240 can also do RAID5 witn no extra's but is terrible at it.
The M1015 needs a key to unlock RAID5
 
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mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
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m5014 just build a raid-5 and if you don't have a battery, force WB without BBU, NORA [read ahead is pretty dead for most people due to non-linear], cached IO, enable disk cache.

That's it, it works, and it is light years faster than the 9240.

9240 has like 2 meg of ram, the 9260 series has 256 to 1GB of ram.

A battery is not a bad idea if you are running spinning disks ;)
 
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drfsupercenter

Member
Apr 12, 2013
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I have a UPS unit for my computer so I think a battery backup would be a bit overkill.

A couple other questions.

I'm sending back the 9240, but right now with my M1015, I get an error every time Windows boots that says the controller has encountered an error. Right now I have a RAID0 configuration, since the feature unlock key I bought didn't work and as such I can't do RAID5. (I'm using only 7 of the 8 drives)
The virtual disk works fine, I just don't understand why it gives that error... it does it on two different motherboards too, so does that mean the M1015 is busted too? I updated the firmware, drivers and everything else.

Secondly - with those options you mentioned (the force WB, etc), can I go straight from my 7-disk RAID0 to an 8-disk RAID5, or will I be restricted in what options I can do? If I need to I can backup my data, then delete the virtual disk and start over, but I would prefer not to as I have almost 4TB of stuff stored on the RAID0 right now.
 
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mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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What key did you get for the M1015 ?

Is it an IBM advanced feature key ?
Any other key won't work, including 'Trial keys'
If you put a different key in then at boot time you will get an error about ibutton being wrong bla bla, but the card will still work but no RAID5

More info on errors would be nice to try and sort your issues
 
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