Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe and SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 - Won't Boot

Hello! 

New Unraid user here.  So far, a fantastic solution!  I do have a (hopefully) minor problem that maybe someone  can assist with.

Config is as follows:

UNRAID Version - 4.3-Beta6

Mobo - Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe

CPU - Athlon 3500+

RAM - 2.5 Gb  Generic DDR400

Case - Coolermaster Stacker 810 with 4 x 4in3 Modules

Power Supply - 2 x Corsair HX620W Modular (1st PS powers Mobo and Case fans, 2nd PS powers drives only)

NIC - Onboard Marvel Yukon GbE

Drives:

4 x 750Gb

4 x 500Gb

Currently the 8 SATA ports on the mainboard are all maxed out.  I set this up and successfully migrated all of my data to the box.

I have a SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 - 8 Port SATA PCI-X card (plugged into a normal PCI slot) I am trying to use for additional capacity.  I have 2 x 320Gb drives and another 750Gb (Parity) to add to the array.  The problem is I cannot get the board to boot with the SuperMicro.  I had initially tested this before building the box and it worked fine, but the problem only seems to occur when I attach any more than any SINGLE drive to the card.

As soon as I attach a second or third drive, the boot process hangs while the SuperMicro is scanning for channels.  It will identify all connected drives and then sit there for eternity.

The odd thing is, this same issue occurs with a Generic SATA 150 Silicon Image Sil3114 PCI card I also had lying around - 1 drive attached = fine, 2+ drives attached = hang.

My initial thought was that it may have been a power issue, so I added in the second Power Supply.  This made no difference, so I proceeded to update the Mobo BIOS, again no luck.

I have considered updating the BIOS on the SuperMicro (it is currently 1.0B), but the download page on the SuperMicro site requires authentication.  I am not even sure if an update exists.

Is anybody out there using a similar setup with more promising result's?

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

Cheers!

I have the SuperMicro SATA card and have used it with 2 different MB (both Intel).  It worked fine with 6 drives, but now only have 2 on it.

Three things to try ...

1.  Could some crud have gotten into the PCI slot?  Try blowing it out real good.

2.  Try putting it into a different PCI slot.

3.  I'd also suggest looking for a MB BIOS update.

Good luck.

Righto, it has now been tried in all three freshly cleaned PCI slots with no change.  All bios are up to date.

I do have this curious tidbit though...

On further testing, if I boot with no drives attached and then hot-plug them at the UNRAID boot menu, they do appear in UNRAID...

However, I Can't say I'm game to add them to the array if I cannot get this thing to boot normally... 

I have one more thing to try.  At the moment I only have a 20 main power connecter supplying power to the mainboard (because of the adapter that comes with the Stacker case allowing dual power supplies).  I might plug in the additional 4 pins and see if this resolves anything.

I think you may be on the right track considering power issues.  Drives pull considerable power on startup, and then their power needs drop.

Could you unpug some other drives and leave >1 plugged into the SuperMicro controller at boot?  If that works, PSU is definitely suspect. 

What PSU do you have?

I would not think that your 20 pin connector would affect hard disk power, but removing that adapter from the setup is a good idea.  I did considerable reading about using a PSU with only a 20 pin connector.  Unless you are running high-power graphicscards, my understanding is that the 20 pin would work okay.  It is recommended over buying a 20-24 pin adapter anyway.

Problem solved!!

The culprit was....dodgy mobo!!

The A8N-SLI Deluxe I was using is a second-hand jobby I picked up cheap.  It appears absolutely fine, except there must be an issue somewhere on the PCI bus.  I have tried this motherboard in two arrays now in may different combinations.  I have three PCI storage controllers - SuperMicro 8 Port SATA. Generic Silicon Image 4 Port SATA. Generic Silicon Image 2 Port IDE, regardless of which array, what memory, and what configuration of attached drives, this mobo will not boot with any more than one device attached to any PCI controller.

Given the the motherboard seems to be the common denominator, I pretty much must conclude that it is at fault, although given it's second-hand, I probably would not conclude that this mobo is not suitable for Unraid.

Changed my main array over to a Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R and it comes up no problems.

Yippee!

Just to add , I have the Asus A8N-SLI , It only has 4 SATAs. I was also stuck with I think is the same type of problem. It appears that the BIOS can only see 6 drives at a time, On the 7th drive the BIOS just hangs. I have tried many different combination of PCI cards and PCIe cards and with IDE hooked up or not. I always get the same conclusion that only 6 drives will boot up.I did a BIOS update and that didn't matter. I even pulled all the cards, hooked up 4 IDE and 4 SATA and still hung until I pulled out any 2 drive and then it worked.

I gave up on this board and bought a P5B-VM DO and it works great.

-Schmall

Problem solved!!

 

The culprit was....dodgy mobo!!

 

The A8N-SLI Deluxe I was using is a second-hand jobby I picked up cheap.  It appears absolutely fine, except there must be an issue somewhere on the PCI bus.  I have tried this motherboard in two arrays now in may different combinations.  I have three PCI storage controllers - SuperMicro 8 Port SATA. Generic Silicon Image 4 Port SATA. Generic Silicon Image 2 Port IDE, regardless of which array, what memory, and what configuration of attached drives, this mobo will not boot with any more than one device attached to any PCI controller.

 

Given the the motherboard seems to be the common denominator, I pretty much must conclude that it is at fault, although given it's second-hand, I probably would not conclude that this mobo is not suitable for Unraid.

 

Changed my main array over to a Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R and it comes up no problems.

 

Yippee!

 

 

 

 

I have the Premium version of this board but I have not tried anything in the PCI bus slots. I have 2 of the Adaptec 1430SA's (one in the 2nd x16 slot, the other in the x4 slot) and 1 Sabrent (on the x1 slot) with 8 drives attached. I run version 4.3.3 without issue. It's been a great unRAID board for me.