Supermicro X9SRL-F does not boot

[marelooke]

Hi all,

I acquired a system with an X9SRL-F motherboard in it, and I'm trying to get it to boot with a Xeon E5-2680 v2 (which might be unsupported as I suspect the BIOS is too old)

Out of the gate the board gives me nothing, no beeps, nothing in the IPMI event log (well, nothing related to boot, PSU plugging is registered), no nothing. No output from the VGA port either (did check VGA jumper and all looks fine there).

IPMI works fine, and when I start the system I can see the CPU and the PCH temperatures, but no PWM information (but the fans do spin down after a bit, but that might just be the backplane's doing as most fans are plugged into the backplane), nor voltages.

So far I've tried:
* booting without CPU
* reseating the CPU
* swapping memory around, or outright removing it (should at least beep at me then, but nope)
* checked the socket for bent pins, and didn't find anything out of the ordinary
The only things plugged in are the power, memory, CPU and the i2c connector for the PSU. Nothing else is plugged in to the motherboard.

I did notice the IPMI was really old, so I suspect the BIOS likely is as well. I updated IPMI to the latest I could find in hopes that I could upgrade BIOS through IPMI.

Unfortunately upgrading BIOS didn't go anywhere as all the BIOS versions I've managed to find give me a "BOARD ID mismatch" error. I did see a post on this forum where someone suggested this specific error went away after successfully booting (for a different Supermicro board, but still, hope), so I've ordered the cheapest non-V2 CPU I could find to test that theory.

In the meantime I was wondering whether any of you can confirm that this is "normal" behaviour when dealing with an unsupported CPU, or whether the motherboard is likely toast.
Any ideas of other things I could look into are also more than welcome.

 

[rayiner]

I recently faced something similar with an X10SRM-F. The IPMI would work, but the system would not start, neither through the IPMI interface nor the hardware button. It turns out the CMOS battery (the coin battery on the motherboard) was dead. When I replaced it, it booted right up.

 

[marelooke]

I recently faced something similar with an X10SRM-F. The IPMI would work, but the system would not start, neither through the IPMI interface nor the hardware button. It turns out the CMOS battery (the coin battery on the motherboard) was dead. When I replaced it, it booted right up.

I tried switching the battery with a new one, to no avail, unfortunately.

To make sure the new battery also wasn't faulty I checked both old and new with a multimeter and they both measure 3V (old one exactly 3.0V, new one 3.1V).

 

[Markess]

I can't say for certain what the problem is, and there's folks here that may. But, I can tell you from experience that if you have a really new BMC Firmware with a really old BIOS (or vice-versa), weird stuff often happens.

Since you have a v1 CPU on the way: if simply installing that doesn't seem to resolve the issue enough for you to update the BIOS, you can try disabling IPMI (there should be a jumper for it on the motherboard), then try to do the BIOS update the more "traditional way" with a bootable USB stick. If that works, you can then re-enable IPMI again via the jumper. Once the two are more in sync version wise the issues may go away, and you can install the v2 CPU again. This has worked for folks with X9 DP (X9D**) boards before, so may work with yours as well.

 

[nthu9280]

did you get the barebones system or Motherboard? Reason for my question is to rule out extra standoffs etc causing a short.
You can also update BIOS via IPMI even without the processor.
Google how to generate the key.

 

[Markess]

You can also update BIOS via IPMI even without the processor.

I hadn’t thought of the key issue. I was assuming they already had a key if they got far enough to get a "board ID Mismatch" when trying BIOS Update via IPMI?

 

[nthu9280]

If it lets you start the bios update via IPMI, the key is already activated. As @Markess noted earlier, it may be the possible incompatibility between latest IPMI and older BIOS.

 

[marelooke]

I can't say for certain what the problem is, and there's folks here that may. But, I can tell you from experience that if you have a really new BMC Firmware with a really old BIOS (or vice-versa), weird stuff often happens.

Since you have a v1 CPU on the way: if simply installing that doesn't seem to resolve the issue enough for you to update the BIOS, you can try disabling IPMI (there should be a jumper for it on the motherboard), then try to do the BIOS update the more "traditional way" with a bootable USB stick. If that works, you can then re-enable IPMI again via the jumper. Once the two are more in sync version wise the issues may go away, and you can install the v2 CPU again. This has worked for folks with X9 DP (X9D**) boards before, so may work with yours as well.

Thank you, I just gave that a try. At first nothing appeared to have changed, then I got the idea to remove the RAM once more and now I get a single beep at startup, which according to the manual means "Circuits have been reset. (Ready to power up)". Nothing further though, unfortunately (not even the memory error, which I'd have expected without memory).

Re-enabling IPMI and then re-inserting all the memory (which, for what it's worth is from the Supermicro recommendation list) retains the beep. Weird.

Since this seems to have at least reset ... something I re-tried flashing the BIOS but unfortunately still the same "BOARD ID mismatch" error.

I hadn’t thought of the key issue. I was assuming they already had a key if they got far enough to get a "board ID Mismatch" when trying BIOS Update via IPMI?

Yes, I do have the option unlocked

did you get the barebones system or Motherboard? Reason for my question is to rule out extra standoffs etc causing a short.
You can also update BIOS via IPMI even without the processor.
Google how to generate the key.

It did come in a system (Supermicro CSE-847 chassis with the SQ PSUs). My impression is that the board is original to the system, but I'll take it out just to double check nothing got lost underneath it when it got decommissioned and stripped.

Upgrading BIOS via IPMI was my original intention, as I suspect the BIOS is pre-3.0, and as such does not support the v2 CPUs.

I should note that I also found this thread which seemed to imply that the IPMI BIOS update feature might be checking the FRU information. Since mine was empty (as it has been on all Supermicro systems I own) I entered what I found on the board, but that unfortunately didn't change anything either (can't say I really expected it would, but you never know).

 

[edge]

When I search board id mismatch and bios, nv is always the culprit. Have you tried disabling the onboarding VGA ( jumper jpg1, move to pins 2 -3 ) and adding any old video card you have on hand? Worth a try.

 

[edge]

Also, have you tried booting with the BMC disabled (JPB1)?

 

[Markess]

So, a possible next step is to install the v1 CPU when/if you have it, disable the IPMI/BMC (@edge notes this is jumper JPB1, I didn't know the jumper for your board when I mentioned it above), and install a single RAM module in DIMMA1. Then see if it boots at all.

Adding a VGA card as @edge recommends is a good possibility too. What @edge say's about video actually would explain some past problems I had with another board I got used.

Another dumb question...are you using a port converter to connect to the onboard video? DP to VGA for example? I've found that Supermicro boards can be picky about that.

 

[marelooke]

When I search board id mismatch and bios, nv is always the culprit. Have you tried disabling the onboarding VGA ( jumper jpg1, move to pins 2 -3 ) and adding any old video card you have on hand? Worth a try.

Threw in an external video card and disabled onboard VGA with no effect, no change whether IPMI was enabled or disabled. Alas.

So, a possible next step is to install the v1 CPU when/if you have it, disable the IPMI/BMC (@edge notes this is jumper JPB1, I didn't know the jumper for your board when I mentioned it above), and install a single RAM module in DIMMA1. Then see if it boots at all.

Expecting the v1 CPU at the earliest on Friday (and given the current state of the world, no weekend deliveries, so worst case somewhere next week...)

Adding a VGA card as @edge recommends is a good possibility too. What @edge say's about video actually would explain some past problems I had with another board I got used.

Another dumb question...are you using a port converter to connect to the onboard video? DP to VGA for example? I've found that Supermicro boards can be picky about that.

No, attaching via VGA straight to a good old CRT.

If nothing else this thread will definitely have increased the number of troubleshooting steps I will perform in the future!

 

[Markess]

Expecting the v1 CPU at the earliest on Friday (and given the current state of the world, no weekend deliveries, so worst case somewhere next week...)

I think that most of the troubleshooting steps listed above (disabling BMC/IPMI, adding a GPU, etc.) will only have a chance of working if the v1 CPU is installed. Without that v1 CPU, the BIOS incompatibility with the v2 CPU is going to block anything you try.

 

[edge]

What Markess said, we are trying to eliminate the bmc/VGA as a possible culprit.

 

[edge]

Btw, I did another google and found that the supermicro ipmi firware was updated several times in the 2013-2014 time frame due to "board id" mismatch errors with varying x9 platforms.

 

[marelooke]

Hi all, just a quick update.

The v1 CPU arrived today and I now was able to successfully upgrade the BIOS to the latest version, the "classic" way using a DOS boot medium. IPMI BIOS upgrade still refused to work with the same "BOARD ID mismatch" error. Maybe now it has reset all those IDs and it would work in the future, but I'm not really expecting new BIOSes for this board anymore so I guess we'll never know...

As a related observation, and possibly useful for anyone who might run into this in the future:

• the v1 CPUs don't support 1866Mhz memory, so with the v1 CPU socketed it would only see 32Gb of the 64Gb that were installed. After BIOS upgrade and with the v2 CPU all memory shows up.
• the v1 CPUs run way hotter than the v2s at idle (~20degrees Celcius more for an E5-3680 vs E5-2680 v2, according to sensors), just something to keep mind in case of ghetto rigging up some cooling...

Thanks again for all the responses!

 

[Markess]

The v1 CPU arrived today and I now was able to successfully upgrade the BIOS to the latest version, the "classic" way using a DOS boot medium.

Sometimes the most difficult part of the build process is waiting for a needed part to arrive if you're hoping it will transform a recent purchase from "frustrating Ebay return" into a "computer" .