SuperMicro X8SIL-F Startup Beeps

[matt_garman]

The Supermicro X8SIL-F motherboard seems to be quite popular for home/small office servers... for those of you that own one, does it make unnerving beeps during bootup? I'm not talking about the normal, final beep when POST is complete. Mine makes several beeps a few seconds after being powered on:

• First, there are two short beeps, a high-pitched beep followed by a low-pitched beep.
• After about a second or two, there are three short beeps, all of the same pitch.

Does this count as one five-beep code, or two codes, one with two beeps and one with three?

Anyway, I've done the following to try and troubleshoot this, all to no avail:

• Remove all components except CPU (Xeon x3440) and RAM
• First tried Crucial CT2KIT25672BA1339.000 memory (2 x 2GB DDR3 ECC 1333). I tried with one or two modules, in every possible slot configuration. I RMA'ed the memory, and repeated the "RAM shuffle" game.
• Next I tried the equivalent Kingston ValueRAM (I forget the exact model, but it's been recommended on this site). Same thing.
• I got a brand-new board from SuperMicro through their RMA process. (They actually wanted me to send them the whole server to test with, but I can't afford to be without this system for any length of time.)

That leaves the CPU as the culprit, although it seems unlikely. As far as I can tell, the system is completely stable (and it's been in use for probably a year now). I'm tempted to RMA the CPU anyway (although I've never worked Intel's RMA process).

I've posted this message on several forums now, and never reached a conclusion: Crucial forums, HardForum, and Intel Community Support.

I even emailed the BIOS vendor to see what the beep codes meant; they basically said it's OEM dependent (in other words, ask SuperMicro). SuperMicro didn't really say what the beeps meant.

I just thought I'd solicit yet another forum for thoughts and suggestions.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Patrick]

Matt,

Not 100% sure what they are. SM boards sometimes do beep more than one quick beep on boot-up. I'd have to check the manual, but quite a few SM boards have a jumper to disable the buzzer. Assuming everything works fine, and you just want to get rid of the beeping, you could probably try that (assuming it had one).

Patrick

 

[odditory]

All my SM boards make multiple beeps at POST. Since your system is running fine I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[nitrobass24]

Pretty standard for several beeps during boot up on SM like others have said.

Those are not any of the codes listed in the Manual; that said if you are worried about it, you could install Super Doctor III and see if it shows any errors.

If it works, dont fix it

 

[matt_garman]

I forgot to mention in my original post that I've also tried several power supplies.

Anyway: I'm not terribly worried about it, since the system works fine. However, I built a similar system at work (same board, RAM, and CPU), and it does not make the start-up beeps I described (except the final POST beep). That, plus the fact that SuperMicro wanted to investigate the system, and were willing to RMA my original board, suggest to me there's something going on. Clearly it's not severe, or the system wouldn't work properly.

I'm not really worried about it so much as I am curious and mildly annoyed.

you could install Super Doctor III and see if it shows any errors.

I've never used Super Doctor III, but looking at SuperMicro's page, it looks somewhat useless for a Linux system (which mine is). Apparently it only supports CPU and chassis fan monitoring, which I already have through the IPMI GUI and also lm_sensors.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback!