Wanted briefly... Any PC with a PCIe x8 slot, and/or any card with PCIe x8. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2013, 07:55:54 am
content: This is more a request for assistance in debugging a system I have. I've reached a point with it where there seems no other option but to try some elimination by substitution.The machine is a RAID network server. MB is an Intel S3000AH, which has two PCIe slots, both x8 size. Everything in this seems to be working, except for...The RAID disk array, which is an Areca ARC1220 board with 8 SATA drives attached. The card goes in a PCIe x8 slot.It's _supposed_ to be visible to the BIOS during boot, and should have a BIOS setup page accessible during boot.But it's absolutely not responding. It also cannot be seen at all by the firmware re-flash utility provided by Areca. There's a LED on the ARC1220 board that indicates the CPU on the board is running OK, but obviously something isn't.I'd just assume the ARC1220 card is dead (sob!) except that this system's previous, original use was a high security video surveillance server, and the whole system was severely locked down. I had to wipe the boot HD and reinstall Windows just to get it to do anything. I suspect the OEM may have modified something in either the MB BIOS or the ARC1220 firmware, to make the card not accessible to anything but their secure software. So that no one could boot from a CD or thumb drive and access the secure files on the RAID. (Which I have no interest in, and will wipe as soon as I get the RAID card to respond.)And so, what I need to do is try another PCIe x8 card in the system, to see if the MB BIOS can see it. Thus proving the slots work.Also, try the ARC1220 in another system to see if it can be seen there.PCIe x8 slots are not that common. None of my other machines have one, and I have no other PCIe x8 cards.Perhaps someone else in Sydney has such a machine? I could bring this stuff there.

author: Towger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2013, 07:58:09 am
content: Try it in a PC with a PCIe x16 slot.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2013, 08:32:58 am
content: I don't have any of those either.Since I'm not a fanatical gamer, I'm quite happy with using 'found and donated' machines. Which I generally get far more of than I need, but they are always at least a few years old.This server machine is an example - a gift, and a really nice one. Eight x 1TD drives and six ethernet ports, two of which are gigabit. Heck, if necessary I'll even break my rule (spend no money on computers!), and buy a replacement ARC1220 card on ebay. But only after I'm sure it's not the motherboard's fault here.

author: cyr
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2013, 08:57:24 am
content: Do you have any x1 or x4 cards? Those should work in the x8 slots...I have two machines with 4 x8 slots each BTW, wrong side of the globe though

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2013, 12:09:08 pm
content: No. Murphy's Law... Apart from this one pair I have no PCIe cards at all, and only a couple of machines with PCIe x1 slots. (The very short ones.)I've hardly ever even seen PCIe x8 slots, and _never_ a x8 card before.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2013, 03:19:23 pm
content: You probably tried this already, but here is a couple of idea'sEnter the intel bios and make sure the following is set-boot from other devices-disable on-board raid-disable network boot-disable the short Post so the card has time to start.

author: brainwash
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2013, 10:31:12 pm
content: I remember that on my older desktop (Core 2 Duo) the RAID array was not recognized with the default BIOS configuration. I think something had to be done in the HDD detection screen (to move from Auto to RAID or AHCI) and there was at least another BIOS option that had to be changed.

author: Alana
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2013, 07:55:52 am
content: I regularly use add-on RAID cards since like forever and some of those required that i set "int 19 capture" option in BIOS or even reflashing BIOS to latest version.Reflashing BIOS if "something is wrong with hardware" even if its just putting the same version is a good try - i have had pc faults that automagically fixed themselves after such procedure. Worked especially for optical drives but i managed to save few motherboards too.Another thing - some motherboards have lists of cards [basically interrupts] in POST screen right before windoze starts. Check if you see your card there.Another possibility is linux live cd and lspci command - displays all devices connected to PCI with their model no and vendors [usefull for tracking down drivers for unknown hardware in laptops]And for troubleshooting of those pci-e x8 slots try using a VGA card. Even x16 cards will start up in textmode on x1 connection [tested by some bitcoin miner friends of mine] so if you see POST on a VGA connected to that slot it means slot is OK.Card for tests - can be anything that works and such an oldie like geforce 7000 series or radeon x300 comes in handy if you do more PC troubleshooting and rework. Should be cheap on e-bay.

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2013, 01:48:25 am
content: Is this something that stopped working or something that never worked?

author: peter.mitchell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 04, 2013, 09:03:05 am
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on August 01, 2013, 12:09:08 pmBecause of how the PCIe interface works, you can just cut a small notch out of the back of a 1x slot and use it in there, it will run at the reduced rate just fine for testing.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 04, 2013, 09:11:55 am
content: just if you do that make sure its supported, as the center guide tab is not able to support the full force of you tightening it down if its slightly misaligned,

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 04, 2013, 04:40:43 pm
content: Quote from: brainwash on August 01, 2013, 10:31:12 pmFrom reading the doc, this card isn't supported as a Raid by the BIOS. It needs drivers loaded in Windows. But the 'setup' BIOS extension ROM it contains is supposed to be visible/accessible during POST. It isn't.The MB BIOS has it's own RAID implementation using the 4 MB SATA ports, but that's not enabled, deliberately.I've been right through every BIOS setting, matching the manual text to onscreen, and it all matches, and doesn't have anything that seems to be related to plugin RAID cards.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 04, 2013, 05:03:18 pm
content: Quote from: Alana on August 02, 2013, 07:55:52 amInteresting. It wasn't mentioned so far as recall in the Areca manual, but I'll see what's in the MB int setups.QuoteYep. Hence my attempts to reflash the ARC1220 board. But the supplied flash utility cannot see the card.I'm reluctant to reflash the MB, since it seems to be working fine. May still do it though.QuoteI've got 'quickboot' turned off, having it display all diagnost messages. Nothing visible like that.QuoteYeah, this is on my todo list. But only with faint hope - if the BIOS and reflash util can't see the card, I doubt Linux is going to do better.QuoteIn general, I need to find _any_ PCIe cards that fit, and try them. I have none atm.QuoteNow I'm back from a weekend trip, I'll be looking around. Bet I can get one for free, but if not, yeah, ebay. Thanks for the model suggestions.Stonent: The system as-is was working, in-use commercially. For unknown reasons it stopped being used a few years ago. Reasons not necessarily involving hardware failure. The secure video recording app was riddled with paid licenses, which timed out. It seems to have stopped being used around the time the licenses timed out. Maybe the owners got sick of being extorted. In any case that information is lost.Peter.mitchell & Rerouter - I'll bear that in mind, for some other future PCIe debugging on another machine. There's no way I'm hacking the PCIe connectors on this very nice motherboard, just to (maybe) avoid having to buy a replacement RAID card on ebay. Especially since I'm already about 90% convinced it's the card's fault.