Problem with ROMED8-2T build.

[Erzdorf]

Hi,

This is my first AMD based build of this kind after the 10 years old Intel 5520SCR/Areca ARC-1880ix-12 based workstation/storage died last year and I decided to go with AMD, which I always wanted.

Components:

MB: ROMED8-2T
BIOS: P1.10
BMC: P1.00.00
CPU: AMD EPYC 7702P (100-100000047WOF)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 with two 14 inch Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-3000 PWM in push/pull
Fans: 8*Noctua 12 inch NF-F12 iPPC 3000 PWM, 1*(200x30mm) Noctua NF-A20 PWM
RAM: 8*32GB RDIMM (KSM32RD8/32MER)
PSU: Corsair AX 1660i
UPS: CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD PFC Sinewave, 1500VA/1000W
Video Card: AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
M.2 Drive: Samsung 970 PRO SSD 512GB
Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840
Test bench: Half-Deck Tech Station - Large size (EATX)

My intention is to build a DAS with 16 RAID Card-attached internal SAS drives with potential to extend aiming eventually to DAW.

After installing the CPU, RAM modules and powering up, STB PWR in on (green), BMC heartbeat LED starts blinking after 30 sec and System Power LEDs are also on (green), which should suggest, that the motherboard is powered on. However, none of the fans spin and none of the FAN LEDs are amber, which would otherwise indicate their failure. Power Switch and Reset Switch do not react - I can't neither power down nor restart the MB unless the PSU is turned off. I don't have any M.2 system drives or Video card installed yet and have the MB connected using the onboard VGA port to my monitor through the VGA to HDMI adaptor, since just wanted to get to BIOS and IPMI monitor first - I don't think the drive should be physically present to do that. All jumpers are in default position and installed speaker doesn't make any audible signs of failure or errors. Dr. Debug doesn't show anything either. CPU is not warm or hot after I shut down the MB from PSU. I have connected both 8-pin and 4-pin ATX 12V CPU power connectors. I tried to switch the memory sticks and populated one, two, four and eight banks trying different configuration with no luck. I then installed the Video card and it wasn't powered up either. I can turn on and off UID Switch (UID1)by pressing it and it goes blue. My memory sticks KSM32RD8/32MER are listed on Kingston site as compatible with ROMED8-2T. Looks like the motherboard is powered on but not peripherals. I know, that BMC is independent of the CPU/RAM (thanks to @hmw), but, alas, can't get to it. My layman's guess is the CPU (it was installed using Wheeler Firearms Accurizing Torque Wrench with torque settings from AMD 14-lbs/in) - it remains cold. I sent the above description of the issue to ASRock Support but so far nothing from them.

Any thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Many thanks in advance.

 

[kaz]

When I built my first EPYC workstation last week https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/amd-epyc-7551-295-gbp.30786/page-4#post-288606
I had a little similar experience to yours, but it was not exactly the same, so it may not help you, but anyway, I wrote my experience.

In my case, I put CPU, memory, GPU, and NVMe SSD to ROMED8-2T, and connected PSU and USB keyboard.
I could find the IP address of IPMI port, so I could access IPMI.
After power-on from IPMI, Dr. Debug LED was changing many times and turned off after several minutes.
However, the signal did not go to the monitor from GPU, and no fan looked working.
Fortunately, I had access to IPMI, so I could hard reset from IPMI, and it booted up normally after that.

My recommendation is:
1) First, get access to IPMI via IPMI LAN port and it would help.
2) IPMI is independent of CPU and other parts, but for BIOS (UEFI), CPU, memory, and GPU are necessary for my experience, so I recommend to put a GPU to ROMED8-2T.

Again, your issue is not exactly the same as mine, so the above may not help,
but if there were no other suggestions, you may want to try them.
Good luck.

 

[Dolpa]

Hi,

1) I recommend first try to connect to the BMC, by default it's get IP address from a dhcp server, check your router/firewall dhcp lease table which one is.
2) By the way normally the regular PC pwm fans connector not compatible with the mb fan socket because different type, U should cut off with a blade to correct connect.
3) Are you sure you used the correct pins from the system panel to start the MB?

 

[Erzdorf]

When I built my first EPYC workstation last week https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/amd-epyc-7551-295-gbp.30786/page-4#post-288606
I had a little similar experience to yours, but it was not exactly the same, so it may not help you, but anyway, I wrote my experience.

In my case, I put CPU, memory, GPU, and NVMe SSD to ROMED8-2T, and connected PSU and USB keyboard.
I could find the IP address of IPMI port, so I could access IPMI.
After power-on from IPMI, Dr. Debug LED was changing many times and turned off after several minutes.
However, the signal did not go to the monitor from GPU, and no fan looked working.
Fortunately, I had access to IPMI, so I could hard reset from IPMI, and it booted up normally after that.

My recommendation is:
1) First, get access to IPMI via IPMI LAN port and it would help.
2) IPMI is independent of CPU and other parts, but for BIOS (UEFI), CPU, memory, and GPU are necessary for my experience, so I recommend to put a GPU to ROMED8-2T.

Again, your issue is not exactly the same as mine, so the above may not help,
but if there were no other suggestions, you may want to try them.
Good luck.

Thanks for the reply.
The thing is I was trying to get to the BIOS to squire the IP address to be able to access the IPMI webUI (did I mention I'm kind of new to this?), since I was receiving the BMC heartbeat. I know there is a Remote Control inside the IPMI webUI to remotely toggle the power on/off as the MB's front panel POWER SWITCH does none of that. My monitor remained dark and was connected to the onboard VGA port through the VGA to HDMI adapter. To exclude the adapter failure I ordered the VGA to VGA cable to connect to my older monitor with VGA port and I'll try that when I get it. And that's about accessing the BIOS.
After a little research I learned, that IPMI IP is automatically assigned by DHCP (router) so there is no need to assign it manually. Since the BMC is booted up (heartbeat LED's on green), then there should be network traffic in the IMPI port. If I look up to newly assigned IP address and navigate to it on an internet browser from my laptop, I should get to the IPMI webUI. Please tell me if so far my thinking is correct. My question is where do I find the new IP (router's DHCP table?) and what's the exact ethernet cabling layout? I had the cable connecting the IMPI to my laptop's port and the ethernet cable to the port on the MB. Is that correct connection to get to the webUI? - Sorry if it sounds silly.
As to the Video card it doesn't get powered up and that's why I was trying to use the onboard VGA to my monitor to get to the BIOS setup.
Thanks again for your attention to this.

 

[Erzdorf]

Hi,

1) I recommend first try to connect to the BMC, by default it's get IP address from a dhcp server, check your router/firewall dhcp lease table which one is.
2) By the way normally the regular PC pwm fans connector not compatible with the mb fan socket because different type, U should cut off with a blade to correct connect.
3) Are you sure you used the correct pins from the system panel to start the MB?

Thank you for the reply.
1) For the BMC I already learned that and mentioned in my reply above to @kaz also asking some related questions.
2) As for the fans, the MB 6-pin fans are compatible with the regular 4-pins - even by no means thorough ROMED8-2T manual states that pretty clearly - by observing the black wire matching the ground pin. And incidentally, yesterday during my attempts to boot up and get to the BIOS I got the fan started and then adjusting the speed so the sensor is working - I just can't explain why it started only on couple of occasions. I have the MB out of the case on test bed, 'cause it's more convenient due to the case size and only one 14 inch fan attached along with CPU and 4 sticks of RAM, I'm not putting anything else till I get it boot up normally.
3) Please see attached how I connect Front Panel pins.
Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[kaz]

After a little research I learned, that IPMI IP is automatically assigned by DHCP (router) so there is no need to assign it manually. Since the BMC is booted up (heartbeat LED's on green), then there should be network traffic in the IMPI port. If I look up to newly assigned IP address and navigate to it on an internet browser from my laptop, I should get to the IPMI webUI. Please tell me if so far my thinking is correct. My question is where do I find the new IP (router's DHCP table?) and what's the exact ethernet cabling layout? I had the cable connecting the IMPI to my laptop's port and the ethernet cable to the port on the MB. Is that correct connection to get to the webUI?

If you directly connect the IPMI LAN port and your laptop with an ethernet cable, BMC does not get an IP address unless your laptop provides DHCP service.
Rather, I recommend connecting the IPMI LAN port to the router or switch of your LAN, so that one of the DHCP servers assigns a new IP address to IPMI LAN.
You can check the MAC address which should start with d0:55:99: at the DHCP server to find the IP address of the IPMI LAN port.

 

[Erzdorf]

If you directly connect the IPMI LAN port and your laptop with an ethernet cable, BMC does not get an IP address unless your laptop provides DHCP service.
Rather, I recommend connecting the IPMI LAN port to the router or switch of your LAN, so that one of the DHCP servers assigns a new IP address to IPMI LAN.
You can check the MAC address which should start with d0:55:99: at the DHCP server to find the IP address of the IPMI LAN port.

Thank you.
I got to IPMI webUI - I connected the ethernet cable to the NIC on MB and got the new IP from my router's webUI DHCP table as it appeared after the BMC started its heartbeat. I'm in it right now and trying to make sense of it from my laptop connected to the same network. I saw the Power Control and was wondering whether I should do a Hard Reset now or populate the MB first attaching everything I need and do it then. Many thanks for your reply.

 

[Dolpa]

Thank you for the reply.
1) For the BMC I already learned that and mentioned in my reply above to @kaz also asking some related questions.
2) As for the fans, the MB 6-pin fans are compatible with the regular 4-pins - even by no means thorough ROMED8-2T manual states that pretty clearly - by observing the black wire matching the ground pin. And incidentally, yesterday during my attempts to boot up and get to the BIOS I got the fan started and then adjusting the speed so the sensor is working - I just can't explain why it started only on couple of occasions. I have the MB out of the case on test bed, 'cause it's more convenient due to the case size and only one 14 inch fan attached along with CPU and 4 sticks of RAM, I'm not putting anything else till I get it boot up normally.
3) Please see attached how I connect Front Panel pins.
Thanks for your suggestions.

1) Yes You need a router/firewall for DHCP address.
2) OK I put it wrong words, the fan pins is compatible but not a plastic connector I cuted off my connector to correct connection.
3) Yes PWRBTN and GND is the right pins.

You sould attach one things at the same time to the MB one by one, maybe one of RAM or peripherals block up the boot procedure. You should see the DR.BIOS LED lights up after boot staring. The procedure is long maybe more than 1 mins depends how many peripherals do You have.
BTW the nice thing with many IPMI servers You don't need a monitor to attach to the VGA port. You can use the HTML5 KVM remote control and you see what you would see on the monitor.

 

[Erzdorf]

1) Yes You need a router/firewall for DHCP address.
2) OK I put it wrong words, the fan pins is compatible but not a plastic connector I cuted off my connector to correct connection.
3) Yes PWRBTN and GND is the right pins.

You sould attach one things at the same time to the MB one by one, maybe one of RAM or peripherals block up the boot procedure. You should see the DR.BIOS LED lights up after boot staring. The procedure is long maybe more than 1 mins depends how many peripherals do You have.
BTW the nice thing with many IPMI servers You don't need a monitor to attach to the VGA port. You can use the HTML5 KVM remote control and you see what you would see on the monitor.

My fan connectors fit right in and their plastic connectors are keyed on the right side of the 6-pin headers matching the wiring.
I almost don't have anything now attached except the CPU and 4 out of 8 sticks of RAM and I was doing that attaching one, two, four and eight when trying to boot it up in order to get to the BIOS connected through the VGA onboard port. Now, when I got to the IPMI webUI, I saw that KVM option too along with a power option under the Remote Control. As I said, it's my first experience with IPMI enabled machine and it looks like pretty powerful stuff.
Köszönöm szépen

 

[Erzdorf]

In BMC webUI when I go to Power Control, it says "Host is currently on" and "Power On" is inactive so I can't select it.
KVM display says "Powered Off. No Signal" but "Power On Server" is inactive as well.
Then I tried to Power Off and after retrying twice it fails and logs me off. Attached please find the screen shots.
The rest of the options - "Hard Reset" and "Power Cycle" - get executed, but the MB during all this stays on and does not restart.
I had only CPU installed and two sticks installed according to the manual, which should be enough for troubleshooting purposes.
So I can't power the MB on for it to POST nor can I power it down unless switching the PSU off like before.
After speaking with ASRock support, I was suggested to check the CPU if the plastic holding bracket was pre-installed in correct orientation and check is the CPU's edges match the studs around the socket's rim, as well as making sure, that those three hex screws on the CPU socket were securely tightened. They said based on my problem description, it matches to the scenario when there were a couple of incidents from other users during the troubleshooting, that they later found their CPU came in the holder in opposite position.
I reinstalled the CPU and the positioning was correct with all edges matching the the studs withing the rim. In fact I installed another spare CPU I had 7262 observing the positioning, which was the same , and the rest and the result was exactly the same.
Any thought are greatly appreciated, since I wouldn't expect the reply from ASRock before 01/04
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!

 

[Dolpa]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!

Seems your MB is powered on, but there is now video output on the onboard AST2500.
Can you see any info about CPU/RAM/PCI in BMC GUI System Information/System Inventory?

If the MB is powered on DR.BIOS should light up.

Is your MB is brand new or second hand? Try to clear CMOS by remove the battery for 1 mins. Before it unplug the PSU!!!
Maybe somehow disabled the onboard AST2500 video output?

I hope soon it's will work very well.

 

[Erzdorf]

Thank you for the reply, @Dolpa
Yes, the MB is powered on and as far as I know, the onboard AST2500 video output is enabled by default in BIOS and I can't get to it.
Attached please find the screen shot of System Inventory in System Information - there is nothing there, 'cause the MB doesn't give POST.
If you meant Dr. Debug by "DR.BIOS", it's off.
My MB is brand new bought in July.
I cleared CMOS before and did it again today. After that, when I got to BMC webUI, the Power On in Power Control was active and my two CPU fans were spinning. I then used Power On to remotely toggle the board but it didn't give POST, although one CPU and two sticks of RAM is enough for that and the board didn't change the status quo with BMC still giving heartbeat. Then I tried to use Power Off, which also went without failure but nothing happened and the board stayed on as it was. During all this the KVM screen kept toggling on/off between the Server Is Powered On/Off. Attached please find the screen shots of Power Control and the 30 sec recording of KVM screen toggling back and forth.
Even if the onboard video is disabled (although I can't see how) I didn't see any lead to enable it outside the BIOS, which I still can't get into.
So as before I'm able to power the board On/Off only from PSU.
Thanks again for the reply.

KVM screen shot.

 

[kaz]

If I were you, I put a video card to one of PCIe slot, because the VGA port is for AST2500 not for EPYC CPU.
Usually, we cannot access BIOS without a video card, but I am not sure about ROMED8-2T, because I have never tried to boot a PC without a video card.

-- 2020-12-26 edited --
I found that GPU is not necessary to boot ROME8-2T and that we get video output via AST2500 VGA port instead.

 

[Erzdorf]

If I were you, I put a video card to one of PCIe slot, because the VGA port is for AST2500 not for EPYC CPU.
Usually, we cannot access BIOS without a video card, but I am not sure about ROMED8-2T, because I have never tried to boot a PC without a video card.

I know that and I tried that and it doesn't get powered up, that's why I was trying without it. Just to exhaust that option I connected the onboard VGA today with my old monitor w/VGA port through the VGA to VGA cable and there was no incoming signal to the monitor. I'll try again with the card tomorrow maybe after clearing CMOS again.
And maybe ASRock support will be back with something feasible. I've also posted the issue on ASRock forum.
Thank you for your attention.

 

[Dolpa]

If I were you, I put a video card to one of PCIe slot, because the VGA port is for AST2500 not for EPYC CPU.
Usually, we cannot access BIOS without a video card, but I am not sure about ROMED8-2T, because I have never tried to boot a PC without a video card.

The onboard AST2500 VGA is work as a simple VGA card like on many server boards. You don't need any PCIe VGA card to work with video output, You can boot up any OS and You will have picture and you will see the BIOS as well. In my case the Proxmox server use the AST2500 as video output and a secondary PCIe card for my VGA passthrough card to use in VM desktops (like Windows, Linux, MacOS).

 

[Dolpa]

@Erzdorf Yes, the DB.BIOS is DR.DEBUG The KVM video is very strange. The GUI say the MB is ON but seems like is OFF and vica versa.
Have you ever tried to update the bios and BMC? It's very simple in the BMC/Maintenance/BIOS update.
You can also try to BMS/Maintenance/Restore Factory Defaults.

You said the NB was bought in July. Haven't you used it yet? Has it ever worked at all?

 

[balnazzar]

Now I did not read the whole discussion, but if everything else didn't work, try this:

1. plug out everything except the CPU and the A1 dimm module.
2. connect the power cord and the ipmi ethernet cable.
3. go to your router's "connected ethernet devices" tab, and find the ipmi ip address.
4. access the ipmi and power on the mainboard.
5. tell us what happens.

Note: my suggestion stems from the fact that if there is a gpu plugged in, the board deactivated ast2500 video output, since the bios is set to do that by default. Furthermore, I had no problems in running the EPYCd8 without a discrete gpu, so I assume it's the same for the romed8.

After doing that, you should have full access to the bios through the ast2500. If it still doesn't work, try to reseat the CPU. Check that you installed it the proper way, check that the mobo has no bent pins, and be advised that 1.38 Nm is the MAXIMUM allowed torque (1.4 is too much already). Set your screwdriver to 1.2 Nm, it's more than sufficient.

If all of the above doesn't work, I think you got a defective mobo (the video is quite strange indeed), and you will have no problems in having a replacement from your vendor.

 

[kaz]

The onboard AST2500 VGA is work as a simple VGA card like on many server boards. You don't need any PCIe VGA card to work with video output, You can boot up any OS and You will have picture and you will see the BIOS as well. In my case the Proxmox server use the AST2500 as video output and a secondary PCIe card for my VGA passthrough card to use in VM desktops (like Windows, Linux, MacOS).

Note: my suggestion stems from the fact that if there is a gpu plugged in, the board deactivated ast2500 video output, since the bios is set to do that by default. Furthermore, I had no problems in running the EPYCd8 without a discrete gpu, so I assume it's the same for the romed8.

Dolpa, balnazzar; thanks for correcting me on GPU. I didn't know that.
I may want to try that (without GPU) for my next EPYC "server" build because this was my first EPYC "workstation" build.

 

[balnazzar]

Dolpa, balnazzar; thanks for correcting me on GPU. I didn't know that.
I may want to try that (without GPU) for my next EPYC "server" build because this was my first EPYC "workstation" build.

Keep us posted!

However, once you have access to the bios, enter it and find "primary video adapter". Set it to "onboard" for debugging purposes. In that way, you can still install your discrete gpu, while POST and BIOS will remain upon the aspeed graphics adapter.

 

[Erzdorf]

Thank you very much for your replies.

@Dolpa That type of toggling KMV I had only twice. Usually I have the one w/ Powered Off, No Signal as I have it now after re-attaching and re-inserting everything. Please see attached.
I didn't try updating the BIOS/BMC, 'cause I'm not sure if it's worth trying in my situation, when I can't simply Power On/Off the MB - I know it's rather simple and straightforward. I've read on this forum one reply stating the problems after upgrading to the latest 1.30, which resulted in rolling back afterwards.
As for the Maintenance I did both Reset and Restore Factory Default yesterday with the same result.
Yes, I got the board in July after waiting for more than a month from Provantage and couldn't get to it up until November - so, yes, it was untouched.

@balnazzar I did what you've suggested as I did it before mentioned in my earlier replies above with the same outcome displayed in screenshots: the Power On is inactive, KVM is off signal, Power Off fails logging me off the webUI - so no access to BIOS.
I did reseat the CPU, checking the socket pins and they do not show any visible signs of being bent. I was kind of aware of the excessive recommended torque when I first installed it and applied less before and even less now as you've suggested and cleared CMOS again. There is no strange behavior of KVM as I mentioned in my reply to @Dolpa - it appeared only twice since I started this build - instead I have Powered Off/No Signal.
Of course I was able to find the IPMI address in my routers devices and DHCP table as before and there is network traffic in the dedicated IPMI management LAN port (blinking yellow and steady green).
Also I'm attaching the all sensors IPMI Event Logs and Sensor Monitoring screenshot if that could be of any help and wondering how justified in this situation would be the BIOS/BMC update.

Thanks again everyone and I very much appreciate your attention.





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