I've started to build a WHS system to manage all the media files. As I posted in Cavediver's thread, I'm having issues with the backplanes. I contacted Norco and returned all 5 backplanes... replacement should be here sometime this week. Meanwhile... I change the bios on my mobo (Asus M4A89GGTD PRO) sata ports to ACHI (on ports 1-4) and IDE (ports 5-6). I hook up the OS drive to port 5 and I setup WHS with ACHI drivers slipstreamed into the USB install. Everything is working great as it should and I'm using the onboard video. Once the system was up, I installed the chipset drivers, video driver and lan driver (realtek 8111E).
I've also ordered Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 controller card and it just arrived today. Yay.
Now the fun/frustrating part: I'm using Asus M4A89GTD PRO mobo that has 6 sata ports. I shut down WHS, unplug power cord and install the new SM card in the PCI-Ex16 slot 1. I plug the power cable back in and power up the system. It goes through normal POST and SM bios... I hit ctrl-M to enter the SM bios and disable the INT13h (since I'll be booting the system from the mobo sata port). The system reboots and goes through POST again. After SM bios msg's, the system locks up... stuck in endless boot mode.
I power down and try to troubleshoot... after many boot loops, bios settings I finally got the system booted up with the SASLP card installed. It seems there's conflict with the SM SASLP card and the onboard sata, if the bios is set to ACHI. I tried to put the SASLP in PCI-Ex16 slot 1, slot 2 (x8) and PIC-Ex4 slot. The system will not boot if the onboard sata is set to ACHI.
Once I set the sata ports to IDE mode in bios, system boots up normally with the SM card installed. So, I lose the hot-swap capability on the onboard sata (4 ports). Also, the SASLP only shows 6 status led's (0 and 4 are not lit). I haven't attached any drives to the SASLP card or mobo sata ports 1-4 yet... trying to get the system setup before I add drives and merge data.
Any ideas? Suggestions? I also contacted Asus regarding this issue today.
JB
UPDATE: 12/16/2010I finally got a reply back from Asus Tech Support... this is what they said, "...looks like option rom is not big enough to hold the SASLP rom, thus system can not boot...." So... I got an older firmware from Supermicro, 3.1.0.15N and flashed it tonight. The firmware size for 3.1.015N is 1/2 the size of 3.1.0.21. After flashing via UBCD in usb flashdrive, I reboot and setup the mobo bios sata ports back to ACHI (all 6 ports), reboot. Viola!!! System finally boots into WHS, no more black screen after the SASLP rom init messages, and I finally see 2 SCSI devices in the device manager. Yay!
So, I plug in the spare HD into 2nd row of 4220 case (it's hooked up to SASLP card port 0-3) and system recognizes the drive! I unplug the HD and plug it into the bottom row (mobo sata ports 1-4) and system recognizes the drive! Woot! I'm gonna do a short burn-in in AHCI mode (system was on during most of the testing process... and stable in IDE mode) before I start adding the hard drives into the rack.
Here's the picture of WHS console in infancy.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/JohnnyB1467/Misc/JJ-WHSCapture1.jpgSystem runs quite cool and as you can see in the pic, temp data is passed on from the SASLP card. If I plug the drive into the bottom row (mobo sata ports), I do not get any temp data. Dang AMD AHCI drivers. Sigh...
BTW, I changed the 2 rear fans to PWM 80mm (arctic cooler F8ProPWM ones, and it's hooked up to the PWM fan connector on the mobo) but left the fan board stock. Although I changed the cable to 3 pin connector so that I can hook it up to the mobo chassis fan connector. The fans are controlled by the mobo and runs around 1400-1600 rpm for the fan board. It's pretty quiet. If I notice the temp increase on the drives then I'll probably hook up the fan board connector to the PWR_FAN connector on the mobo since it's not controlled by mobo.
That's about it for now... I'll add few pics as testing commences.
JB