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PostPosted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 4:24 pm 
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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. :x 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: 12/16/2010

I 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. :lol:

Image
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/JohnnyB1467/Misc/JJ-WHSCapture1.jpg

System 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


Last edited by psxstudio on Fri Dec 17, 2010 12:26 am, edited 2 times in total.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 6:32 pm 
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On some mobos, the first x16 slot only works correctly with graphics cards. Try the SASLP in another slot if you have one available.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:05 am 
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cavediver wrote:
On some mobos, the first x16 slot only works correctly with graphics cards. Try the SASLP in another slot if you have one available.


That's what I thought too... so I put the SASLP card into the 2nd x16 slot. System still will not boot with ACHI enabled. I put the SASLP card in the x4 slot... same thing. It will only boot if the mobo sata ports are set to IDE mode. :x

JB


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 7:23 am 
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OK, usually when it won't boot up the boot drive is not in the list of bootable drives, did you check that? There is usually F10 or some function key you can hit in the beginning to see the list of boot drives. Most motherboards have a limit on the list. Usually this only ocurrs when the drives are populated which makes it more difficult to debug.

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HP EX485, 4 GIG, E5800, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Transfer Server, Backup Server
HP EX490, 4 GIG, Q9400S, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Mediaserver
HP EX485, 4 GIG, Q8200S, WHS 2011, ITUNES Server


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 12:41 am 
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erail wrote:
OK, usually when it won't boot up the boot drive is not in the list of bootable drives, did you check that? There is usually F10 or some function key you can hit in the beginning to see the list of boot drives. Most motherboards have a limit on the list. Usually this only ocurrs when the drives are populated which makes it more difficult to debug.


Yeah. On Asus mobo, it's F8 to select the boot menu when booting the system. I've tried with no drives hooked up to SASLP card and just the OS drive on the mobo... still no boot if AHCI is enabled in bios. I put 1 drive hooked up to the SASLP card and hit F8 during POST... still no boot!!! Boot menu doesn't even show up. All I get is a blank screen. :evil: I think I've tried gazillion combinations... :shock:

If I remove the SASLP and keep 1 OS drive hooked up, change the bios to AHCI mode. System boots up fine without any issues.

Finally got the backplane back from norco and installed them in the case. I hook up the bottom backplane to the mobo sata ports (1-4) and boot up the system with just the OS drive (sata 5) w/ AHCI enabled. System boots up fine and I plug in the drive in one of the slots on the bottom row. WHS sees the drive and pops up as unmanaged disk. I can then unplug the drive w/o any problems. AMD AHCI driver does not pass the SMART data as Cavediver stated. :cry: But the system works great as long as I don't have the SASLP card in the system. I can only boot with SASLP card and mobo sata ports in IDE mode. ](*,)

JB


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 12:20 pm 
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I've seen a couple of other comments on the net about this board and the SASLP card but no resolution. Did you update the SASLP bios to the latest level? There does appear to be a conflict. I don't have this card, so I'm flying in the dark but check the card bios again to make sure init13 turned off and any other settings which makes the card a higher priority than the MB, do you have the right 32 bit drivers installed, do you have the right breakout cables.

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HP EX485, 4 GIG, E5800, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Transfer Server, Backup Server
HP EX490, 4 GIG, Q9400S, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Mediaserver
HP EX485, 4 GIG, Q8200S, WHS 2011, ITUNES Server


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 6:10 pm 
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Yeah, I've been researching on the net regarding my mobo and the SASLP card as well... not much information on it. As for the SASLP bios, it's at 3.1.21 (i think). It's the latest one from SM I believe. I did disable INT13h on the SASLP card and disabled pretty much all of the stuff I don't use in the bios(ie. ATA, floppy, comm port, parallel port, firewire, audio, etc...) Only think I kept was the SATA and USB ports. I also installed the SASLP driver from the CD, which was 3.1.0.22 version. I checked SM site and it is the latest version.

At this point, I can use the WHS with the SASLP card installed in IDE mode (losing 4 sata ports) and then add in more SASLP card down the line when I need more storage. Although, I would like to have the onboard sata in AHCI and working. I had this mobo for a while (bought it to setup as a kids comp but never setup it up). I can try (last resort I guess) Gigabyte mobo since lots people are having good success running WHS with the SASLP card.

JB


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