Supermicro POST code B7 and B9

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Patrick

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Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Supermicro POST code B7 and B9 indicate a memory issue.

I have a Supermicro E5 V1 system that has been running for some time. During a recent reboot, it got stuck on B7 and B9 POST codes. I saw ECC errors in the Event Log. Here were my troubleshooting steps:

1. Swap out all 8 DIMMs (4 per CPU)
2. Move to 1 DIMM per socket
3. Go to single CPU socket
4. Swap CPUs in the single socket
5. Swap RAM in the single socket
6. Single DIMM in the single socket

All six of those configurations would land me either at B7 or B9.

My hypothesis right now is that I have a dead motherboard. I wanted to see what folks here think about that statement or if I am overlooking a step/ configuration.

Having two dead CPUs and/ or sets of RAM seems unlikely.
 

Marsh

Moderator
May 12, 2013
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World Traveler Patrick , looks like you are back at Palo Alto.
I still have the SuperMicro dual CPU board that I purchased from you last year. It is sitting on a shelf right now.
In case you need a replacement.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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World Traveler Patrick , looks like you are back at Palo Alto.
I still have the SuperMicro dual CPU board that I purchased from you last year. It is sitting on a shelf right now.
In case you need a replacement.
I am back. Getting demos setup for tomorrow.

I have a few other options in terms of motherboards just sitting around that I would probably just turn around and use. Thank you for the offer though!
 

darkconz

Member
Jun 6, 2013
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One of the Supermicro I bought from you last year had B9 problem but I narrowed it down to just 1 bad DIMM on the motherboard. RMAed with Supermicro and it has been running fine since then. Maybe its the batch of motherboards that was produced at that time?
 

William

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May 7, 2015
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It might also be worth a try to simply reseat the CPU. I have had systems that have been running fine starting throwing strange codes like this, a CPU reset fixed the problem.

I guess sometimes the contacts in the socket get a little rusty and reseating them clears that up. I don't really mean rust forms, its just a slang expression :)
 
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BLinux

cat lover server enthusiast
Jul 7, 2016
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For the benefit of others who may stumble upon this thread searching for a solution, I just want to mention that @William 's suggestion worked for me. I was testing a batch of 10 CPUs and during one of the tests, I got stuck at B7, and another time at BA. In both cases, re-seating the CPU solved the problem. I'm not 100% sure, but I think B7 and B9 refer to socket1, while BA and BF refer to socket2. At least, that corresponds to the CPU I reseated to solve the issue.
 

nthu9280

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Feb 3, 2016
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Use Alcohol wipe to clean the bottom of CPU. I ran into a similar issue once. Intel S2600CP2J which was working fine with V1 CPUs gave memory errors and would disable 1 or 2 sockets after I put 2 V2 CPUs. I like the feature of just disabling the offending DIMMs (in this case bad contact) and letting the system come up in stead of holding the entire system as a hostage.
 
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Skud

Active Member
Jan 3, 2012
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I had two X9SRH-7TF boards with this problem. I moved a long distance and both these system were in boxes for two years. Both were in production prior to boxing. Booting them gave B7 and B9 errors. On one I reseated the CPU and the other I reseated the RAM.

Both have been working fine since then.

Riley
 
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netswitch

Member
Sep 24, 2018
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One more day saved by this precious information.
Got B7 code, removed the cpu on socket1, cleaned it, put it back in place and now system is booting up fine.
 
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gridsat

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Oct 11, 2023
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It might also be worth a try to simply reseat the CPU. I have had systems that have been running fine starting throwing strange codes like this, a CPU reset fixed the problem.

I guess sometimes the contacts in the socket get a little rusty and reseating them clears that up. I don't really mean rust forms, its just a slang expression :)
worked for us as well - cleaning & reseating CPUs and RAMs
 
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