Nas issues

[Lordpickleboy]

1 hour ago, Jarsky said:

It appears to be to do with the motherboard, unsure exactly what the problem is though...I think Error 99 is a fairly generic error code off memory...i've had it before on other boards running AMI BIOS and it can be several things. 

 

I'd recommend trying to boot it with the bare minimum. Unplug any PCIe cards and SATA storage. Also if you have multiple RAM modules, try removing them and booting with just a single stick in Slot 1. See if you can get it to POST into BIOS. 

If I can't get it to post what do you recomend? You think another board or you thinking different brand of board or what? Key to note I am using am3 socket and need 2 x16 or at very least x8 pcie slots

[Lordpickleboy]

So attempted above got a slight change now if I boot still comes up with blink white light and number 99 but now if I hit f2 it briefly shows the text bios I sent a picture of prior

[Lordpickleboy]

All the frustration later I solved the not wanting to post problem I was using an old PCI diamond vga card turns out this car doesn't support booting to bios or atleast a fancy UEFI one

[Lordpickleboy]

So @Jarsky after much headache much head banging I have the parts I need to finish the project and an issue comes up while this is a simple issue to fix if i had a monitor hooked to it but i dont since the Asrock 970M Pro3 does not have a video out which I figured eh can make do. So with just the HBA card plugged in it boots to my unraid flashdrive no problem. Now when i plug in the SAS Expander Card it boots the expander Raid Utility which with a monitor is easy enough to re route but even still is there a way to disable this from even showing up? 

[Jarsky]

25 minutes ago, Lordpickleboy said:

So @Jarsky after much headache much head banging I have the parts I need to finish the project and an issue comes up while this is a simple issue to fix if i had a monitor hooked to it but i dont since the Asrock 970M Pro3 does not have a video out which I figured eh can make do. So with just the HBA card plugged in it boots to my unraid flashdrive no problem. Now when i plug in the SAS Expander Card it boots the expander Raid Utility which with a monitor is easy enough to re route but even still is there a way to disable this from even showing up? 

 

Well that sounds like progress.

 

What SAS Expander is this? I've never seen an expander with a config utility that i'm aware of...p.s expanders don't do raid, thats the controllers job...

 

Does it proceed past that screen?

[Lordpickleboy]

8 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

 

Well that sounds like progress.

 

What SAS Expander is this? I've never seen an expander with a config utility that i'm aware of...p.s expanders don't do raid, thats the controllers job...

 

Does it proceed past that screen?

So its IBM LSI 6GB 16 PORT PCI-E SAS EXPANDER CARD 9240-8i So I know from before that it will boot into a little menu that you cant do anything from if you hit enter on the keyboard it just powers off the system the way to get around it is mashing the F11 key which will give you a prompt of what you want to boot to but with no monitor to hook up to this server this is not very realistic plus it wont allow for very fast boot ups in the future

[Jarsky]

3 minutes ago, Lordpickleboy said:

So its IBM LSI 6GB 16 PORT PCI-E SAS EXPANDER CARD 9240-8i So I know from before that it will boot into a little menu that you cant do anything from if you hit enter on the keyboard it just powers off the system the way to get around it is mashing the F11 key which will give you a prompt of what you want to boot to but with no monitor to hook up to this server this is not very realistic plus it wont allow for very fast boot ups in the future

 

I don't have any experience with that SAS expander.  Perhaps its some sort of compatibility problem between your motherboard and the expander card....

 

The screen you're talking about we've already determined is your motherboards BIOS. 

With the expander card plugged in, if you go into the BIOS (mash Del) and check the boot settings, is the USB still showing as the primary? And then disable any other boot priority options?

If it does have compatibility problems you may need to try like an HP SAS Expander, or since you're using your main card in HBA mode, you could get a second HBA. 

[Jarsky]

Actually the 9240-8i (indicated by its 8 internal designation) is a HBA https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/12352149

It must be something else, like an IBM ServeRAID SAS Expander or something? Still don't have any experience with the IBM ServerRAID gear personally. 

[Lordpickleboy]

3 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

Actually the 9240-8i (indicated by its 8 internal designation) is a HBA https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/12352149

It must be something else, like an IBM ServeRAID SAS Expander or something? Still don't have any experience with the IBM ServerRAID gear personally. 

Should I then try pulling my main HBA out and seeing if it runs independently? Then I could actually use a graphics card to hook into my monitor 

[Lordpickleboy]

6 minutes ago, Lordpickleboy said:

Should I then try pulling my main HBA out and seeing if it runs independently? Then I could actually use a graphics card to hook into my monitor 

Just to update since im sitting here anyway I went ahead and tried and it doesnt act independently it requires my actual HBA card and I know they work together because i had it detect all my drives once already but i had that PCI card now i went with a monitor free setup and this expander for some reason doesnt like it 

 

[Lordpickleboy]

@Jarsky Just noticed the ebay lister is dumb as rocks or just really bad with labels the expander is 11407-1 that said my actual HBA card is the 9210-8i

[Jarsky]

1 hour ago, Lordpickleboy said:

Just to update since im sitting here anyway I went ahead and tried and it doesnt act independently it requires my actual HBA card and I know they work together because i had it detect all my drives once already but i had that PCI card now i went with a monitor free setup and this expander for some reason doesnt like it 

 

Yeah SAS Expanders are "dumb", theyre just basically a daughter card or backplane to the HBA. 

 

So I just clicked, that when you have both the SAS Card and Expander plugged in, you don't have any GPU. Most SAS Expander only use the PCIe slot for power, so you could try an x1 to x16 riser off the x1 slot to power the expander. Then you can have your GPU and HBA in the 2 x16 slots. 

[Lordpickleboy]

37 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

Yeah SAS Expanders are "dumb", theyre just basically a daughter card or backplane to the HBA. 

 

So I just clicked, that when you have both the SAS Card and Expander plugged in, you don't have any GPU. Most SAS Expander only use the PCIe slot for power, so you could try an x1 to x16 riser off the x1 slot to power the expander. Then you can have your GPU and HBA in the 2 x16 slots. 

So this sounds good in theory now i need to explain this is slightly complicated because i set this entire server up in a micro atx build form factor case with tons of modifications to allow for proper airflow its in an old Dell Inspiron case actually its heavily modified i was thinking about getting a USB 3.0 to HDMI adapter like this one linked do you think this will work to show the display of my  bios unlike the PCI card which failed to do that

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PHV489H/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2TYXU48IOKCWB&psc=1

[Jarsky]

19 minutes ago, Lordpickleboy said:

So this sounds good in theory now i need to explain this is slightly complicated because i set this entire server up in a micro atx build form factor case with tons of modifications to allow for proper airflow its in an old Dell Inspiron case actually its heavily modified i was thinking about getting a USB 3.0 to HDMI adapter like this one linked do you think this will work to show the display of my  bios unlike the PCI card which failed to do that

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PHV489H/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2TYXU48IOKCWB&psc=1

 

That won't work. It has no graphics processor to leverage off, or driver for it to understand what to do.  

That dongle is meant for once you're booted into an OS, to give you additional display connections. 

[Lordpickleboy]

1 hour ago, Jarsky said:

 

That won't work. It has no graphics processor to leverage off, or driver for it to understand what to do.  

That dongle is meant for once you're booted into an OS, to give you additional display connections. 

That is a fair point then I have another question then will I always need a GPU installed in the build or is this like 1 time setup or is it random?