LSI SAS 9300-8i - Cannot get Firmware to Flash

[PickupSticks]

Hi all.

I've spent hours trying to get an eBay-bought 9300-8i to flash correctly. Thought it was a server pull - a quick once-over of the 9300 looks legit, and the guy selling it apparently is an e-Recycler.

I decided to try to throw the 9300-8i in my aging EVGA X58 motherboard just for fun. I wanted to see what the status of the card was. X58s use Legacy BIOS, so I don't have to worry about messing around with UEFI.

After dropping it into one of my mobo's unused x16 slots, I couldn't see it pop up in the BIOS - I read that some people delete the BIOS from the card so I thought this was normal.

I went into Windows 10 LTSC and Device Manager saw it, but there was a yellow exclamation mark saying there was an error when the card was powering up with Error Code 10. I took Windows seeing it, despite the error message as a good sign.

So I went ahead and assembled the standard USB boot disk with Rufus. Got a FreeDOS USB set up, then found the latest P16 firmware from here:

Support Documents and Downloads

Search technical documentation and downloads including firmware and drivers.

www.broadcom.com

I downloaded the package named "9300_8i_Package_P16_IR_IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows"

From the package I pulled the following files:
sas3flsh.exe
mptsas3.rom
SAS9300_8i_IT.bin

I even shortened the third file to 9300.bin just in case. I rebooted into my USB drive and attempted to do an sas3flsh.exe -list - it saw the card as an SAS3008, but right after that it demanded that I upload a firmware file, so I pointed it at the P16 IT firmware.

It looked like it was working. Saw a message about an M2 manufacturer flag or whatever, which the flasher fixed.

It went all the way... but it failed at downloading the Firmware to the card. Said "Firmware Download Failed!"

Any attempts at messing with the card after that basically made me think I was "locked out" of the card - the card was in a halt/error state, so I went ahead and restarted and got back to the FreeDOS prompt.

Used sas3flsh -o -e 6
This only partially worked, it said it tried to Erase the Flash space and that it failed.

So after that I tried sas3flsh.exe -o -e 7 - no dice - same "Error in erasing flash" thing.

So reading through the dozens of threads about other cards that aren't the SAS3008, I read that perhaps trying older firmware and mix and matching them would help.

So I tried using versions of the firmware and flashing it and following the same erase procedures. Went from 16 to 14 to 7, to 5, to 1 - same problem.

I got my hands on a 2015 version of megarec3 and performed a megarec3 -cleanflash 0 and that was successful, but attempting to install the LSI firmware resulted in some error about the binary not being a multiple or something.

I tried swapping the slot the card was in around - put it in where my GPU was - no dice, same error.

I'm fairly sure it's a legit card, pictures in the attachments.

Card was going for cheap ($50), was hoping I'd get a steal but now I'm thinking they sold it because they had the same problems I did. It came from an e-Recycler (I looked the guy up) and the business seems legit, so I'm not sure how they happened upon a defective card.

Any ideas folks?

 

[sko]

did you reset the firmware via the jumper prior to/during your flash attempts?

 

[piranha32]

The card may have an "Erase Protect" jumper disabling erase operation on the flash. There is a jumper on your card, close to what looks like a flash chip. Check if it is labeled, and try to short it before the next try.
Here is tutorial for a 93xx-based card, where you have to enable erase operation before flashing: https://www.servethehome.com/flash-lsi-sas-3008-hba-e-g-ibm-m1215-mode/

 

[PickupSticks]

Thanks for the help. The puzzling part for me is why this wasn't documented anywhere for the LSI OEM version. My card is not a variant - it's the OEM LSI and so many tutorials here were running with the assumption I did not have to do this.

Even if I manage to short the jumper and erase the flash, won't I still run into issues downloading the firmware to the card? Any reason why Megarec3 -cleanflash 0 was able to supposedly successfully do it?

If I ever have to switch from IT to IR will I have to do this jumper short again to erase the previous firmware to flash it back to IR mode?

 

[piranha32]

This seems to be a hardware protection mechanism, and is not related to firmware you try to flash.
If it indeed is hardware protection, you should the jumper on during the entire flashing process.

 

[dune]

Not to hijack this thread, but I have a Lenovo M1215 (similar layout) from eBay and went through the same process you did with the same result. At first sas3flash (DOS and UEFI) could not see the card at all. Ran megarec with jumper shorted to clear off the SBR and then was able to erase with sas3flash -o -e 7.

None of the online guides to apply IT firmware for the LSI 3008 (9300 series) result in success. They all appear to start saying "Beginning Firmware Download" followed by a 10-20 second pause (and blinking green LED), then ending with "Firmware Download Failed". I have tried P10, P14 and P16 direct from Broadcom's site.

The results with the jumper on/off as well as DOS vs. UEFI are the same. I will keep at it but am wondering if this is a hardware lockout or if the card is in some kind of recovery state (or reset loop) that needs something else before new firmware will take. If you have success with your card, please come back to update here.