The second socket of the dual C621/3647 AWS motherboard failed to boot. It has no documentation, what to do?

[dalao]

I'm playing around with this dual C621 3647 socket motherboard. I brought this on a Chinese second-hand market app. It's said to be retired from Amazon AWS data center. The BIOS indicated it's manufactured by FOXXCON. No other documentation or user manual can be found about this motherboard. Cheap, but no support no warranty nothing.



I put in two ES CPUs with the code QL2K. At first the CPUs are working fine as the above shows. All LEDs on the board are green.

It's said that these CPUs' multiplier are unlocked. I tried unlocking the hidden menu in the BIOS using AMIBCP and then tweaking the CPU with Intel XTU and ThrottleStop. But I haven't been successfully in overclocking it. There are Power Limit and Current Limit which I don't know how to unlock.

Then after once shutdown, the board can't boot. There are 8 LEDs near the Altera MAX 10 fpga chip and the 5th (from left to right, or 4th from right to left) LED goes red just after 1 to 3 seconds right after boot.



I don't know what config actually caused the issue. I tried remove the second CPU, CPU1 and only keep the CPU0 then it works. I tried swap CPU0 and CPU1 and it works. This only happens when CPU0 and CPU1 are both installed, it appears the second socket becomes bad...

I have tried remove the CMOS battery. I also tried clean the CMOS using ipmitool ( ipmitool -U root -P changeme -H SP-IP chassis bootdev disk clear-cmos=yes ). I also tried flash the BIOS and BMC chips using flashrom and ch341a programmer to it's original backup. (https://paste.c-net.org/HarrietConcept) But nothing works...

What to do?

 

[tinfoil3d]

Out of pure curiosity where did you find it and how was this thing labelled? Whos the manufacturer of the board?

 

[RolloZ170]

Out of pure curiosity where did you find it and how was this thing labelled? Whos the manufacturer of the board?

Hardware name: FOXCONN COMPUTE16/POWERRING-B, BIOS FC1FA39A 06/02/2017
was on taoabo, but sold out now.

PIC1

PIC2

 

[sparx]

Could you take some close up photos of the CPU socket? Its not unusual with bent pins in the socket. And that can lead to funny behaviour. Its usually pretty easy to see with good lighting and a keen eye. And if you see something bent, use a really thin tweezer and preferably a good microscope. The legs are really tiny and easy to break.

 

[sparx]

I read the wrong way up. Totally missed that the board was working first. Ooopsies.

 

[RolloZ170]

But nothing works...

What to do?

lets talk about the memory. how populated ?
edit: and the PSU.

 

[Bartosz Grzelak]

Hi dalao,
Ive got close looking motherboard last week I wonder if its also amazon part that would accept those off road map xeons. Would you mind sharing photo of S/N sticker ?

 

[dalao]

I read the wrong way up. Totally missed that the board was working first. Ooopsies.

Yes, the socket pins looks ok. This was the screenshots when the two sockets was working fine. I take the screenshots because I was tweaking with overclocking with XTU and ThrottleStop, but one CPU can reach full core 3.0 but another can only reach 2.2... Wired so I take the screenshots.

 

[dalao]

lets talk about the memory. how populated ?
edit: and the PSU.

I installed two memories at the most left two sockets, and another two at the right most two sockets.
The PSU is GW-EPS1250DA(90+).

 

[dalao]

i downloaded your file with the original backup. the file "amazon-board-bios1.bin" is not in flashable format,
its a BIN, not a ROM.

The file is the full BIOS chip backup using CH341A external programmer. Do you need a ROM backup using afuwin? But it's running as a linux server (with just one CPU...). I guess the BIN dump can somehow convert to ROM backup.

 

[dalao]

Hi dalao,
Ive got close looking motherboard last week I wonder if its also amazon part that would accept those off road map xeons. Would you mind sharing photo of S/N sticker ?

Here are the photo of the S/N stickers.

 

[RolloZ170]

I installed two memories at the most left two sockets, and another two at the right most two sockets.

if Foxconn does like other vendors the blue sockets are the primary slots, the black are secondary, so avoid the black first and populate each cpu with two DIMM modules(one on each side, should be DIMM_A1 and DIMM_D1)
edit: your picture shows other labeling: cpu1_dimm_0_C_3(blue)
PIC

 

[Bartosz Grzelak]

dalao
Thank you for the photo, I think I have completely different revision.

I have another question to ask:
My board is 445mm wide and I cant find anything that would fit it, seeing as it was made to mount in 21inch server. Is your board as wide as mine? Have you figure out what case you are going to use it with?

 

[RolloZ170]

My board is 445mm wide and I cant find anything that would fit it, seeing as it was made to mount in 21inch server.

this is OEM proprietary not consumer board. it will fit perfectly in the case which was made for this board...

 

[Bartosz Grzelak]

this is OEM proprietary not consumer board. it will fit perfectly in the case which was made for this board...

Well..
DIY can fix everything

 

[ivanivanovich]

Hello, did you manage to launch this motherboard? I want to buy the same one, but the seller does not have the technical specifications. I want to put two intel xeon gold 6138 or 6133 . If anyone is interested, I can send a link to the store.

 

[RolloZ170]

I want to put two intel xeon gold 6138 or 6133

skylake works. but no 2nd gens.
OEM custom, you will not get any specs or BIOS updates because of NDA restrictions.

 

[ivanivanovich]

Hello! Have you used this motherboard? I want to use it for 3d rendering because my budget is limited. Tell me is it worth buying this motherboard, its cost is about $120

 

[RolloZ170]

I want to use it for 3d rendering because my budget is limited.

if you can build a custom case check intel S2600BP, can work with std. ATX PSU.
got some for arround 100 bucks. can run 1st gen with Fabric(6126F i.e.) 2nd gens, and if VRM modded the OEM CL's

 

[ivanivanovich]

if you can build a custom case check intel S2600BP, can work with std. ATX PSU.
got some for arround 100 bucks. can run 1st gen with Fabric(6126F i.e.) 2nd gens, and if VRM modded the OEM CL's

Should I use an extension cord for the video card?