Natex S5520HC BIOS recovery restores NICs

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dragonme

Active Member
Apr 12, 2016
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update.. in this setup indeed NIC1 physical can only be used for IPMI and its working with a IPMI gui on my iPhone, only NIC2 physical has a MAC address and connects to the router for regular traffic although NIC2 physical is really NIC1 in bios..

I have tried resetting CMOS with jumper
I have done another recovery bios update using the Jumper this time, no change

I updated everything I can think of to the latest code stack.

what else can I try?
 

kawal

New Member
Jan 19, 2022
5
1
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I know this is an old thread but I was looking for a solution for my server to use both ports and found it.
The NIC is blocked via Ethernet firmware but can be unblocked with Intel EEUPDATE tool..




You can configure this in the EEPROM of the 82575. I had the same issue on my S5520HC from Rackable systems (SGI). You can enable it via eeupdate tool from intel. There is a built in hex editor into the tool if you launch it via eeupdate.exe /gui (I used version 5.24 of the tool that i found on the internet).
You will need a dos bootable usb disk and the EEupdate tool. Start the tool in GUI mode and edit away.
The format of the address in positions of the Hex editor 1100 3322 5544. Example MAC 00AABBCCDDEE would be shown as
AA 00 CC BB EE DD in the hex editor.


You need to make sure the first 6 bytes are the correct address which needs to match the sticker on the NIC port. My board was setup to the 2nd address of the 2 so just one symbol needed to change. There is only one address you enter in the first 6 bytes the second NIC automatically get +1 address.
Per 82575 manual, the location of interest is 10h is where the vendor can disable the port for NIC 2 and location 20h for NIC 1. Since mine was disabled on NIC 2 i copied 2 bytes from Location 20h to 10h to copy the settings which per manual take 16 bits.
Its easy to do in the eeupdate utility and just escape out of editing and the program will ask if you want to save to EEPROM.


After that I have both ports working.
modified eeprom 82575
 
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kawal

New Member
Jan 19, 2022
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Looks like bit 10 was the changed - PCI disable - allows port to be used for management functions but no connection to PCIe bus therefore not visible from the system. Bit 11 completely disables the port for any use. These bits are always 0 on port LAN0 as there is no disable functionality on that port.

1642603467502.png
1642603549473.png
 
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dragonme

Active Member
Apr 12, 2016
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@kawal

This worked great.. all other solutions, didnt work but this did.

One unusual observation:

Just like you, word 10 had to be changed to E30C so that the disable bit was corrected to 0
and I had to roll my MAC back 1.

What was weird is that while physically nic2 the right Nic, still has the 'correct' previous MAC address that ends in 67 its referred to as NIC1 in bios
NIC1 (left Nic) has MAC 66, but its NIC2 in bios... very strange

must be some kind of registration cache on the NIC and since it was disabled at one point the right NIC became primary some how.

ANYWHO, awesome job coming to a very old thread with the RIGHT solution!!!

well done!!!
 
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kawal

New Member
Jan 19, 2022
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Looking at the board from the ports side NIC 1 is on the left.
If I recall correctly the active port for me was the NIC2 but it was reported as NIC 1 in BIOS.

1643044273536.png
This is the original situation before the modification . Cant cheek the actual as server cant be rebooted till next week.

1643044355397.png

For me it really dosent matter which port is which . Just ad a sticker to the server to identify the ports .I am using both ports as a bonded port to get more bandwidth . Glad it worked for you. . Try clearing CMOS and see if the ports get correctly setup in BIOS.
 

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techtoys

Active Member
Feb 25, 2016
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wow! I am impressed that people are still running these. I have 2 but they are switched off. I ended up cannibalizing the DRAM for newer systems. From memory ... these were 32nm Westmere which I think was a spin of the Nehalem architecture. all from memory. I could be wrong.
 

ttabbal

Active Member
Mar 10, 2016
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Yeah, it's old school, but still plenty for the sort of things I ask it to do. I have a pair of x5675s in it, and plenty of RAM. Works well as a Proxmox host serving ZFS and a number of containers for various services. The array of rust likely pulls more power than the mobo/CPUs, and power isn't super pricey here. If I were buying now, it wouldn't be my first choice, but upgrading would cost a lot more than it's worth to me at the moment.
 

kawal

New Member
Jan 19, 2022
5
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3
Running 12x3TB raid 6 + 1 70GB system disc for NAS+PLex+ Adguard. it does a fine for the job. Pair of X5675 and 96GB ram mostly for ram disc transccoding.

1643997948744.png

1643998174931.png1643998050694.png
 

dragonme

Active Member
Apr 12, 2016
282
25
28
I have still yet to see a compelling reason to abandon my dual l5640 12 core 24 thread setup. 48gb ram

with 5x8tb and 2x2tb spinning rust and 2x240gb and 2x80gb ssd pools running esxi this thing does great

sure idle watts could be better, but with 8vms running, media server, security dvr software, home control ect.. its about 180watts at my UPS
 

nihonjin

Lost in translation
Mar 31, 2021
332
211
43
I know this is an old thread but I was looking for a solution for my server to use both ports and found it.
The NIC is blocked via Ethernet firmware but can be unblocked with Intel EEUPDATE tool..




You can configure this in the EEPROM of the 82575. I had the same issue on my S5520HC from Rackable systems (SGI). You can enable it via eeupdate tool from intel. There is a built in hex editor into the tool if you launch it via eeupdate.exe /gui (I used version 5.24 of the tool that i found on the internet).
You will need a dos bootable usb disk and the EEupdate tool. Start the tool in GUI mode and edit away.
The format of the address in positions of the Hex editor 1100 3322 5544. Example MAC 00AABBCCDDEE would be shown as
AA 00 CC BB EE DD in the hex editor.


You need to make sure the first 6 bytes are the correct address which needs to match the sticker on the NIC port. My board was setup to the 2nd address of the 2 so just one symbol needed to change. There is only one address you enter in the first 6 bytes the second NIC automatically get +1 address.
Per 82575 manual, the location of interest is 10h is where the vendor can disable the port for NIC 2 and location 20h for NIC 1. Since mine was disabled on NIC 2 i copied 2 bytes from Location 20h to 10h to copy the settings which per manual take 16 bits.
Its easy to do in the eeupdate utility and just escape out of editing and the program will ask if you want to save to EEPROM.


After that I have both ports working.
modified eeprom 82575
can't test it now but... will this work with x540s? have a board with missing MACs