Supermicro curse strikes again

[ratdude747]

Yup, I had another supermicro die... this time it's my X5DAL-TG2.

What happened was I on a SLIC 2.1 mod streak and like some other units (Including my Tyan Thunder K8WE) I flashed a modded bios I rolled my self.

What happened was the BIOS installed correctly but then on reboot it froze during the really slow first boot (before optimizing settings)... I hard resetted, now it spins fans.

I suspect it's a faulty BIOS chip, as in the past it's:

-randomly reset settings, even on a known good (brand new) CMOS battery
-radomly died for a few hours, fixed after time (or reseating memory)

Would ebaying a replacement (pre-programmed) for $16 be the way to go, or is there a low cost (<$50) programmer out there for such PLCC chips (I have dead boards to source chips)? Or does this not even sound like a bad flash chip?

[pfrcom]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

SuperMicro are a curse - a company that -claim- to be server oriented, yet their own production BIOS release stuffs a previously working board https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=36190 and effective BIOS recovery is non-existent

At least you have a removable BIOS chip

If you're going to flash home-grown BIOSes regularly, and using PLCC BIOS chip technology for a while, I reckon you're better off putting your $16 towards something like http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEWEST-PCB6-.../291149206554? so salvation is in your own hands

BTW, I'm skeptical about bad flash chips - if you have your own programmer, and it can program and verify a chip, that chip's unlikely to be faulty

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

Yup, I had another supermicro die... this time it's my X5DAL-TG2.


What happened was the BIOS installed correctly but then on reboot it froze during the really slow first boot (before optimizing settings)... I hard resetted, now it spins fans.

May be a faulty CPU or a bad solder joint.....

[mockingbird]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

I think it's possible to flash those chips yourself with a PCI NIC that has the same socket. Don't know any specifics, as I've never tried it myself.

[stj]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

no, the pci trick only really works on parallel-flash and upto 64k
most mobo's use hub-flash or lpc-bus

given that these chips were in the xbox, i'd be surprised if there arent home-brew programmers on the net though.

[ratdude747]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

I wasn't doing assembly level hacks... just using the phoenix mod tool.

yeah, I'd kill to have a proper programmer (mainly so i could flash my own AVR chips) but from what i was seeing if i want plcc I'll have to pay at least $75... $75 I frankly don't have.

I don't think a CPU went as it had been running for 8 days straight w/o crashing before I rebooted to install the BIOS update... given the stability leading up, my guess is either I had a corrupted file (not likely) or the chip itself died due to the flashing (hard to conceive).

[stj]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

you want to flash AVR?
well look at this link.
and if you want to go 100% self make then i can post stripboard layouts.
because i built one!
http://www.fischl.de/usbasp/

[stj]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

oh - if you want to flash PIC 8/16bit,
the official pickit 2 has it's binary's and schematic on microchip's homepage so you can build your own.
and tbh if your going down the pic route you want a pickit2 or 3 because it works with the official mplab-x software.

[brethin]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

Why not just flash the non mod bios back to the board? This board supports Recovery Flash so you don't need a programmer or have to remove the bios chip.

To recover BIOS: a recovery flash requires an update key over the COM
port as follows: hardwire Pin4 wires to Pin8 and Pin9, Pin7 wires to Pin6,
Pin3 wires to Pin2 and leave Pin 1 and Pin 5 open. Use the Supermicro CD
to make a “Phoenix BIOS Crisis Disk for Supermicro Mainboard”. This disk
includes a BIOS file named “bios.rom”. Please note, this BIOS file can be
changed to a different Phoenix BIOS file as long as it’s named “bios.rom”.
Connect the serial key to the COM port, insert the recovery disk into floppy
drive and power on the system. When the system starts to read the disk,
remove the serial key immediately. When the system is done with the BIOS
recovery, it will automatically reboot.

[Topcat]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

that'll teach ya to mess with with what wasn't broken.... Kinda hard to blame SM for that!!

[stj]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

that'll teach ya to mess with what wasn't broken....

hey, that's what we do!

[cheapie]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

Why not just flash the non mod bios back to the board? This board supports Recovery Flash so you don't need a programmer or have to remove the bios chip.

To recover BIOS: a recovery flash requires an update key over the COM
port as follows: hardwire Pin4 wires to Pin8 and Pin9, Pin7 wires to Pin6,
Pin3 wires to Pin2 and leave Pin 1 and Pin 5 open.

Makes me wonder if there's a reason that they didn't just use a switch...

I have an MSI board that can boot using a ROM file on a USB flash drive, even if the firmware on the board gets corrupted. I've never had to use it, but I tested it and it works.

[ratdude747]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

that'll teach ya to mess with with what wasn't broken.... Kinda hard to blame SM for that!!

Did I blame SM? No. I just seem to have a personal curse with SM...

[ratdude747]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

Why not just flash the non mod bios back to the board? This board supports Recovery Flash so you don't need a programmer or have to remove the bios chip.

To recover BIOS: a recovery flash requires an update key over the COM
port as follows: hardwire Pin4 wires to Pin8 and Pin9, Pin7 wires to Pin6,
Pin3 wires to Pin2 and leave Pin 1 and Pin 5 open. Use the Supermicro CD
to make a “Phoenix BIOS Crisis Disk for Supermicro Mainboard”. This disk
includes a BIOS file named “bios.rom”. Please note, this BIOS file can be
changed to a different Phoenix BIOS file as long as it's named “bios.rom”.
Connect the serial key to the COM port, insert the recovery disk into floppy
drive and power on the system. When the system starts to read the disk,
remove the serial key immediately. When the system is done with the BIOS
recovery, it will automatically reboot.

Will try... I do have some serial adapters and the original CD (thanks topcat!).

[Mad_Professor]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

My supermirco board x9scm does weird shit as well, I only bought it on the recommendation of the brand by topcat.

Sometimes on a reboot the board forgets it's boot device/priority. The supermicro chirp is different on every reboot. The Fan on the CPU doesn't spin for the first 5 seconds. When running a pair of usb tuners on two different usb slots on the board, running digital on one and analog on the other, when running the analog, it causes the digital tuner to go all laggy and has video corruption. Doesn't matter what tuner brand, have no idea what causes it.
The two nics after sometime stop working no kernel panic, nothing, just stops working, it has to be up for a long time for it to happen.

Other than that board is pretty solid.

[Topcat]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

Did I blame SM? No. I just seem to have a personal curse with SM...

It came across that way, as per your thread title name which very much implies that you're blaming SM: " Supermicro curse strikes again "



The fitting title should be " Ratdude can't leave well enough alone curse strikes again"

My supermirco board x9scm does weird shit as well, I only bought it on the recommendation of the brand by topcat.

Sometimes on a reboot the board forgets it's boot device/priority. The supermicro chirp is different on every reboot. The Fan on the CPU doesn't spin for the first 5 seconds. When running a pair of usb tuners on two different usb slots on the board, running digital on one and analog on the other, when running the analog, it causes the digital tuner to go all laggy and has video corruption. Doesn't matter what tuner brand, have no idea what causes it.
The two nics after sometime stop working no kernel panic, nothing, just stops working, it has to be up for a long time for it to happen.

Other than that board is pretty solid.

No clue on that one..... They've always been such amazingly solid in the 15+ years I've used them.... As a matter of fact, all my big boy systems are SM boards, no quirks or abnormalities at all. RD's would still be alive if he wasn't using our government's motto on it....which is "If it aint broke, fix it till it is". I tend not to mod BIOS's unless there's an update for a major bug fix, or a major firmware update for an onboard device...

Is the BIOS ROM hard soldered on these boards or is it socketed? I really don't remember. I still have a working board in a system here that I use for my shipping desk. In all my years, I don't ever recall a BIOS ROM 'going bad' that wasn't a man-made failure, IE: bad flash or some silly twit putting it in backward.

*EDIT*

hey, that's what we do!

How did I miss this one, as I knew someone would say it!! Guilty as charged when it comes to messing around with hardware....

[ratdude747]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

you want to flash AVR?
well look at this link.
and if you want to go 100% self make then i can post stripboard layouts.
because i built one!
http://www.fischl.de/usbasp/

Mainly because my specialty is AVR in C. My arduino mega knockoff will work for now (codevision AVR has an arduino upload function), it was more of a "it would be nice" to be able to program any chip.

[stj]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

look at the site - he sells a pcb & controller for 12euro.

he didnt when i built mine or i would have just paid for the board!

[Topcat]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

Isn't anyone crafty enough to hotflash anymore? That was always a fun adventure and usually quite entertaining!

[ratdude747]

Re: Supermicro curse strikes again

It came across that way, as per your thread title name which very much implies that you're blaming SM: " Supermicro curse strikes again "



The fitting title should be " Ratdude can't leave well enough alone curse strikes again"

I was trying to free up some 7 upgrade copies I had... this was my last personal system (one of two in the house) still using one... The mod had worked on everything else in the house (minus two Insyde BIOS machines, one I may retry later). Even my weirdass MPC AIW (with a Blazing pentium D no less) accepted... it's the first failure I've had.

RD's would still be alive if he wasn't using our government's motto on it....which is "If it aint broke, fix it till it is". I tend not to mod BIOS's unless there's an update for a major bug fix, or a major firmware update for an onboard device...

I always update because I feel that if an update was made, there was a damn good reason for it. I'm also smart about when I update (I.E. not during a thunderstorm when I may lose power).

Is the BIOS ROM hard soldered on these boards or is it socketed? I really don't remember. I still have a working board in a system here that I use for my shipping desk. In all my years, I don't ever recall a BIOS ROM 'going bad' that wasn't a man-made failure, IE: bad flash or some silly twit putting it in backward.

Socketed. As it should be.

How did I miss this one, as I knew someone would say it!! Guilty as charged when it comes to messing around with hardware....

/thread

---

Made the Serial dongle (grabbed the parts at ratshack and soldered away). The floppy (which took some work to produce, I had the wrong CD in the box) is going as I type... If this doesn't take, can I take an identical chip from a dead board (different model/brand) and use the recovery to flash that?