Server won't start - is my motherboard fried?- Yup it is- now what? Help upgrade


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First thanks in advance for looking:

 

My system wasn't working, so I rebooted and I think my motherboard is fried.  When I power up, I do not see anything on the monitor, no bios booting up, just a blank screen (reverts to monitor standby mode - as it senses no input).  The powersupply seems good, because all the fans work.  The motherboard has a green light that comes on when I power the system.  The keyboard does not light up when I power it on.   I have rebooted several times obviously.

 

Here is my system that I've been running for about 4 years or so. . .

 

Intel Celeron 440 Conroe-L 2.0GHz LGA 775 35W Single-Core

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Power and cooling 750 Watt PS

SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA Controller Card

Asus P5B VM DO motherboard

3 sets of Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B drive cages with 15 drives

 

Everything had been running just fine up to a few days ago.

 

What do you think?

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I would disconnect all connections such as sata cables, ram and try it again. See if you get anything different. It could be anything simple as bad ram to well a bad motherboard, but I would start from scratch and add things back in one you start from scratch.

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Unplugged everything and redid it.  No help.  The computer will not POST. 

 

As far as the cables go, my understanding is that all I should need to do a POST test is a motherboard, memory, CPU and a Power supply.  Having a loose SATA cable wouldn't matter right?

 

I also removed my MB battery for a couple minutes to see if that would reset thing.  Nothing.

 

If the 4 previously mentioned things are all that are necessary for a post test, and I know the powersupply is working, Is there any way to tell if its the CPU, MB or Memory that is the culprit?

 

Is there any other possibility?

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Depending on the mobo, you may be able to post without RAM. Some will beep at you if none is installed, others will at least post BIOS. That would be at least something. But, I would also try my best to test with another PSU. Could be a bad mains power connector, an issue with one of the rails, who knows. But at least another known good PSU would rule that out. Then you be left with cpu/mobo. Hard to test thoughs unless you have other systems there you can swap known working parts with in and out... But try without RAM and then try and get your hands on a PSU to test that...

 

Shawn

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Ok well I tried everything as above, including switching to known PSU and Memory and it still won't post. 

 

I've unfortunately come to the conclusion that I have a bad MB or CPU.  Don't know how to easily tell the difference between the two as I don't have a system I can swap with.

 

So looks like I have to do some shopping.  Here's the thing, when my system had 8 or so drives it used to be pretty fast.  Recently as I've added drives now to 15 including parity, it has become quite slow.  It was taking roughly 30 minutes to transfer a 5 gb file to the server.  I don't remember exactly, but I feel like it used to take like 5.  I was actually thinking of upgrading anyhow.

 

Again here is what I have: 

 

Intel Celeron 440 Conroe-L 2.0GHz LGA 775 35W Single-Core

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Power and cooling 750 Watt PS

SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA Controller Card

Asus P5B VM DO motherboard

3 sets of Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B drive cages with 15 drives

 

Is there a way I can make this faster?

 

I'm obviously going to be buying a new motherboard, but I'd be willing to buy some addition new stuff (eg SATA controller) to make it faster.

 

Price is not a huge concern.  So what MB would you recommend? Any other upgrades I should consider while I'm revamping the system?

 

Thanks!!

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These boards have IPMI:

 

All require a Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8.

 

Supermicro X7SPA - But only good for 14 drives: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5133.0

 

SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-F-O http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12732.0

Also need a 2 port pci-e card, DDR3, and i3

 

Supermicro X8SIL-F http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7577.0

Also need a 2 port pci-e card, DDR3, and CeleronG1101

 

 

If you want to reuse as much as possible, find a LGA 775 board with 6 onboard SATA, a PCI-Ex4 for a AOC-SASLP-MV8, and a PCI slot for the AOC-SAT2-MV8 and use it for only 1 drive.

 

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Well, to start, finding a mobo to support that PCI-X card will be a pain. That was probably why things were slow as well. I would start with:

 

Find mobo on the reccommnend list or Raj's Prototype List. You could try just that, find one that supports your CPU and RAM and then you also be able to test them as well. Save you buying them unless you really need to.

 

Then look to replace your controller with SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8. What a lot of us use. You will also need the forward breakout cables...

 

That be a good start I think. Raj's list though will have a lot of ideas...

 

Shawn

 

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PCI-X is compatible with a PCI slot. But more than one drive will slow some operations.

 

EDIT: I should say most PCI-X cards will work in a PCI slot. It may hang over the edge of the slot so cover the unused card pins with electrical tape to be safe.

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These boards have IPMI:

 

All require a Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8.

 

Supermicro X7SPA - But only good for 14 drives: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5133.0

 

SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-F-O http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12732.0

Also need a 2 port pci-e card, DDR3, and i3

 

Supermicro X8SIL-F http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7577.0

Also need a 2 port pci-e card, DDR3, and CeleronG1101

 

 

If you want to reuse as much as possible, find a LGA 775 board with 6 onboard SATA, a PCI-Ex4 for a AOC-SASLP-MV8, and a PCI slot for the AOC-SAT2-MV8 and use it for only 1 drive.

 

 

Couple of questions:

for this option:  "If you want to reuse as much as possible, find a LGA 775 board with 6 onboard SATA, a PCI-Ex4 for a AOC-SASLP-MV8, and a PCI slot for the AOC-SAT2-MV8 and use it for only 1 drive. "

 

Would this still be a decent upgrade in speed you think?  I'm not familiar with IPMI boards, but I'll read about them.  Should I try to find a LGA 775 board with IPMI?  Are those types of boards faster than others for unraid? 

 

If there are no IPMI boards for a LGA 775, I would consider getting a new processor if it would be faster. 

 

Bottom line is that I would probably spend the extra cash to get a faster system even if it means not being able to use all my leftover stuff.  Unless just using a SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 with my stuff would be almost as good.

 

Thoughts?

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IPMI (Internet Protocol Management Interface) means that you should never have to connect a keyboard and screen to the system, even to change BIOS settings. It's very convenient if your server is in a remote location like a closet or the basement. I used to use it but now I have several servers near a KVM switch.

 

A AOC-SASLP-MV8 will speed up your system the most. Based on your current config I'm guessing you don't use any processor intensive add-ons. If I'm correct then there is no benefit to upgrading the processor.

 

Whalers right, check out Raj's prototype designs and find one that allows you to reuse as much as possible, but Raj mostly uses AMD because they're cheaper and compute power is not a requirement.

 

A LGA 755 board should not be hard to find and you can reuse your CPU. You should even be able to reuse the AOC-SAT2-MV8 in a PCI slot, but a 1-2 port PCI or PCI-e card will use less power an create less heat.  

 

When looking, remember a PCI slot is good for 1 drive, a PCI-Ex1 for 2, and a PCI-Ex4 for 8. And PCI slots usually share capacity so don't use more than one PCI slot.

 

Check the MB forums for good boards. You want onboard video, GIG-E, a PCI-Ex4, a PCI-Ex1, and 6 onboard SATA ports.

 

EDIT: 4 onboard SATA ports is less desirable but workable with a second PCI-Ex1.

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Got it!  That makes a lot of sense.  My server is in a closet and its DEFINITELY a pain to hook it up to a monitor and keyboard.  I definitely want the IPMI.  Sounds like I should reuse most of my stuff.  I'll do some looking and figure what might be the best and then post here before I buy to get approval.  thanks again.

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How about this MB?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121391

 

The MB doesn't have a PCI E x 4, but it has a PCI E 2.0x16.

 

Will the SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 work properly in a PCI E 2.0 x 16?  I downloaded the manual from supermicro, but it doesn't mention anything about it.  

 

If it does, this MB looks pretty good, with the exception that it doesn't have IPMI.  Maybe one doesn't exist that has everything I need plus IPMI?

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The SASLP card will work in a PCIe x16 slot on most motherboards.  There are a few motherboards that only accept video cards in the x16 slot.  Unfortunately there's no quick and easy way to tell if a mobo will work or not.  From what I've seen, the SASLP card will work in the PCIe x16 slot on every Supermicro board, so if you want a hassle free upgrade then Supermicro is the way to go.  There are plenty of other boards that will work too, you'll just have to do more research.  Also, as far as I know, ONLY Supermicro boards offer IPMI.  So if that's a requirement, then you must use a Supermicro board.

 

I don't know of any LGA 775 boards that have built in IPMI.  I believe there are some older boards that can take an IPMI card, but the card alone costs too much.  For a budget build using an LGA 775 slot but without IPMI, I would recommend the Supermicro C2SEE.  Discontinued, so a bit hard to find now, but a great board.  There seem to be plenty on Google Shopping.  I also have two in my inventory that I would be willing to sell.  PM me if interested.

 

If you really want IPMI and don't mind putting a lot of extra money into this upgrade, then I highly recommend this combo:

 

Mobo: SUPERMICRO MBD-X8SIL-F-O

CPU: Intel i3 540 Clarkdale (the i3 530 and i3 550 are fine too, choose based on price and availability)

RAM: Kingston 4GB DDR3 1333

 

Check my '22 Drive Beast' design for links to those parts (there's a link to my Prototype designs thread in my sig).  Keep in mind that IPMI requires that two ethernet cables be plugged into the server at all times.  One transfers the IPMI web interface (with its own IP address), while the other is the standard data network cable (with your server's IP address).

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Keep in mind that IPMI requires that two ethernet cables be plugged into the server at all times.  One transfers the IPMI web interface (with its own IP address), while the other is the standard data network cable (with your server's IP address).

 

Unless things have changed this is not correct. I'm running a Supermicro X6DHE-XG2. It has 2 Ethernet ports. One is dedicated IPMI. The other is data and IPMI. A single Ethernet connection can be used for both IPMI and data.

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