Re: IBM ServerRAID 4L Problem

The board is actually a Tyan Tiger 100 S1836 Intel 440BX. Sorry had my
machines mixed up. On my AMD chipset boards I have more recent LSI i4 IDE
controllers. Not SCSI but nice controller for a mid-range win2k03 .NET IIS
server.

Yeah sorry but I seem to either go overboard on the details or way to short.
Plus I will normally only resort to posting someplace once I have worked on
it for some time and am really tired.

Well a U160 would be a step up and match the drives I have in the machine.
So I would like to get this going but I don't want to spend much more than a
couple additional hours on it..

Here is what I have tried from memory.
Only the 4L with drives attached & Without drives attached in 3 different
slots.
The 4L & 3HB in different slots (I know that having both wouldn't have
helped but...)
cleared CMOS, Yes
disabled onboard devices? Yes
tried forcing the PCI slot is was on instead of just auto

"Are you sure it is a good board and there isn't a conflict between
Serveraid versions between the 4L & 3HB?" If by this you mean the 4L board,
no I am not 100% sure. I was told it worked when decommissioned. The best
info I could come up with at IBM was that this 6.x version of the
controller's drivers, BIOS, etc was OK on the 3HB & 4L but IBM product line
information is not cut & dry. IMO. Hard to find exactly what you need for
the older stuff.

Here is what I have run into since last time we chatted.
Using the 3HB I was trying to load CentOS 4.x and after the kernel image
would load (slowly I should add) the machine would error out on a CD-ROM
time-out. I don't have the exact error but it had an IRQ ref in it. So I
changed the CD-ROM since it was acting up in other ways like the tray not
ejecting every time I pressed the button. Same result though, same error.

Again using the 3HB I tried to install Win2k Server thinking it may be a
driver problem with Linux but install halted at ntdll.dll can't be loaded.
Now I know I had this card setup in a Win2k test machine 3 months ago and
all was good for the week or so I needed it. Same M-board but different
drives. I did notice that the driver floppy I created from the IBM CD didn't
have the 3HB, it did have the 4L.

So maybe I should call um both trash! I just done have the $ and I really
don't want to use software RAID, especially in Windows, Linux maybe.
I an going to try the 4L one more time in Win2k then I might go back to the
Linux install with the RH 9 drives on a RH9 install. If nothing else I might
get some diags verbiage that Window$ so poorly lacks.

TIA
Wiggledbits

"Curious George" <cg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:9cfkr19d57a97ree41st7tt07ijnigt2kp@xxxxxxxxxx
> On Mon, 2 Jan 2006 08:58:27 -0800, "wiggledbits"
> <abigdipstick@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>Hi, Thanks for the reply. I know this post was kina lame and expected to
>>read Folkert light me up.
>
> It would be _totally_ lame if you wanted help on a new IBM server &
> controller that's under service contract. There aren't many places to
> go to tap into ppl who've done weird HW combinations. Although there
> still is a bit more basic troubleshooting you could have done first.
>
>>It is or was going into a Supermicro 1836 dual PIII CentOS 4.x (RHE).
>
> I don't understand what Superserver or board you are referring to
> (1836?) Though IIRC the 4L should work on a Supermicro Dual PIII.
>
> <background>
>
> I know the 4L works on Supermicro boards with the i845 chipset. IIRC
> I think Serverworks boards or many other makes 440BX/GX should work
> also.
>
> The AMD 760 MP & most VIA boards are definitely no go. I think the
> AMD MPX also. Just forget about any Pentium Classic/MMX or most
> PII's.
>
> </background>
>
>> I want
>>to use it as a backup machine, to push all backups to it with a Megadrive
>>Enterprise 8 and tape drive connected to it.
>
> That's fine. Just remember the board is only 1 U160. Stay away from
> parity levels on this one. It's just not capable.
>
>> I tried changing slots, having
>>just the 4L & the 4L with the 3HB installed, changing slots. I suppose I
>>should just ditch it and stick with the 3HB.
>
> Have you tried having only the 4L with nothing else installed, a
> cleared CMOS, & disabled onboard devices? PCI slot, IRQ's, etc, can
> matter it can also conflict with onboard devices. A very finicky
> board IMHO.
>
> Are you sure it is a good board and there isn't a conflict between
> Serveraid versions between the 4L & 3HB?
>
> Haven't dealt with these things in a while. Just some starting points
> off the top of my head.
>
> Again, since it was free, is limited & finicky, I would spend a lot of
> time on this (unless you have it to spare).
>
>>"Curious George" <cg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>news:66ihr1hpt8n4u6q4fiekkth5hqnr26bhhb@xxxxxxxxxx
>>> On Sat, 31 Dec 2005 13:47:48 -0800, "wiggledbits"
>>> <abigdipstick@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>>>I want to replace a working IBM 3HB with a 4L. I know they are both old
>>>>controllers but they were free. The problem I have is on boot the 4L
>>>>just
>>>>sits at the Power-on Self-test. It has the latest BIOS and I have tried
>>>>to
>>>>boot to the IBM Management Utility as I have with the 3HB but nothing.
>>>>I'm
>>>>I
>>>>missing something or should I just trash it?
>>>
>>> What kind of system is this in?
>>>
>>> On many generic PC/servers these cards will have problems ranging from
>>> cosmetic (like misnumbering the PCI slots) to preventing the machine
>>> from POSTing and yes I think also sometimes hanging on ServeRAID post
>>> (IIRC). With other machines you could try to see if the controller is
>>> really good and if changing the firmware does anything - but I
>>> wouldn't really recommend the time expenditure if it was free and is
>>> old. I'd keep the troubleshooting time down to a minimum if I were
>>> you.
>>
>


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