Intel SASUC8I stopping system from booting

Hi, I'm building a new fileserver and I'm having issues getting the system to boot when the Intel SASUC8I controller is put on the motherboard.

The system boots fine without the controller, but when I place it in the PCI-Express x16 slot the screen gets no video input, I can't even get in the BIOS. All the fans keep turning and there are no beeps or anything. I also tried placing it in the x4 PCI-Express slot, which according to http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sasuc8i/sb/CS-029898.htm should work. But it also results in a "no video input" error message on my screen.

The motherboard is an Asus P8H67-M LE and I'm using the iGPU. I've tried changing the setting that specifies which GPU to use to everything possible, but it doesn't make any difference.

The "LINK NOT PRESENT" lights on the controller are yellow, but I'm not sure if this is normal or not since I've never used a PCI-Express controller before. According to http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sasuc8i/sb/CS-029898.htm it signals a fault on the phys, but I'm not quite sure if it is meant to happen if there are no drives connected (there are no drives connected to the system or controller yet.). One of the 2 lights on the bracket is flashing green.

EDIT: I tried connecting a drive to the controller but all the link not present lights stay yellow. Is it safe to assume the controller is broken?

Try disabling the on-board controller(s).. may be conflicting with it... Or its not compatible with your motherboard. That SAS controller is generally a server product, I would venture a guess its not compatible with desktop boards...

It should be fine, as long as it's not a PCI-X card.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-X

It sounds more like you need to reconfigure the BIOS.

And connecting a data cable the wrong way can cause the same symptom!

RJARRRPCGP said:

It should be fine[/url]

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Incorrect... his motherboard needs to be on the HCL, if not, he's SOL... I would return it and get a non-Intel version... or find one that has his mobo on the HCL...

EDIT: http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/SASUC8I/sb/CS-029918.htm

It is possible that power management is causing an issue. I had to do this with my Perc 5/i RAID card as well. If you look at the card face up (heatsink up), cover pins 5 and 6 from the left side of the card. Look at the "SMBus Issue with Intel Chipsets". Use a piece of electrical tape to cover those two up, make sure it is on good and install it in the slot. See if that helps.

http://www.overclock.net/raid-controllers-software/359025-perc-5-i-raid-card-tips.html

Sounds stupid or insane, but this is the exact issue I had in my server until I did this trick. Been running for over a year without an issue.

Well, turning off all the SATA controllers in the BIOS didn't help.

My motherboard is indeed not on the HCL. Which isn't surprising because it's a cheap desktop mobo. The HCL only contains 8 or so motherboards though and all of them are from Intel. Seems natural for them to promote their own server motherboards instead of motherboards from other manufacturers.
It's very likely you, Nut-Flush, are correct about it not being compatible with my mobo though. I'll just hope you're not

I'll try to do the electrical tape trick tomorrow (if I can find some tape laying around here). Let's hope this is the issue...

It worked in the x16 (with x4 connection) slot on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P. (without the electrical tape)
The electrical tape trick didn't help for the Sandy Bridge setup

I'll probably end up using the GA-P35-DS3P, but I'm gonna talk to Asus first.

Diod said:

It worked in the x16 (with x4 connection) slot on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P. (without the electrical tape)
The electrical tape trick didn't help for the Sandy Bridge setup

I'll probably end up using the GA-P35-DS3P, but I'm gonna talk to Asus first.

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Something on that Asus board the controller does not like... H67 vs P35... H67 is brandy new.. ah... its not a BIOS any longer, maybe that's it??

Nut-Flush said:

Something on that Asus board the controller does not like... H67 vs P35... H67 is brandy new.. ah... its not a BIOS any longer, maybe that's it??

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It uses EFI, but I think that should be compatible with older hardware. It might not be mature enough for such SAS cards though.

Anyway, as I was typing that sentence, ASUS called to explain the chipset issue and try to fix the controller issue.

I was told I could get a refund from the store I bought it from or try to work out something with that store. I could also just wait until May when they start replacing broken motherboards. It was a really friendly guy btw, can't say anything bad about their technical support.

He said the controller problem is probably a compatability issue. Because of the chipset issue they most likely won't work on a BIOS(/EFI) fix until the new motherboards are out. And even then they will only work on it if there are a lot of people with this issue.

I'm not sure what I'll do now... It would be great if someone with a Sandy Bridge setup could test the Intel SASUC8I out on their motherboard and tell me if it works. That way I could get a refund and buy a mobo that supports my controller.

Diod said:

It uses EFI, but I think that should be compatible with older hardware. It might not be mature enough for such SAS cards though.

Anyway, as I was typing that sentence, ASUS called to explain the chipset issue and try to fix the controller issue.

I was told I could get a refund from the store I bought it from or try to work out something with that store. I could also just wait until May when they start replacing broken motherboards. It was a really friendly guy btw, can't say anything bad about their technical support.

He said the controller problem is probably a compatability issue. Because of the chipset issue they most likely won't work on a BIOS(/EFI) fix until the new motherboards are out. And even then they will only work on it if there are a lot of people with this issue.

I'm not sure what I'll do now... It would be great if someone with a Sandy Bridge setup could test the Intel SASUC8I out on their motherboard and tell me if it works. That way I could get a refund and buy a mobo that supports my controller.

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I'm glad you have a solution / explanation. Just curious, are you using SAS or sata drives with that controller and why do you need such power?

Nut-Flush said:

I'm glad you have a solution / explanation. Just curious, are you using SAS or sata drives with that controller and why do you need such power?

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It is probably for a business or he is just as insane as I am. ;D

I am using SATA drives and it's for both business and private use.
My dad owns a small business and he needs a file server. I need a file server for all my stuff too.
And also, I'm insane. Just as thideras is apparently .

I actually don't really need the RAID functionality. I'm gonna use ZFS' RAIDZ instead. I just bought it because it was the cheapest controller with the capability of connecting at least 8 drives. The other option was 2 PCI controllers with 4 ports each, but that would've meant reduced bandwidth.

But yeah, I'm hoping that I'll find someone willing to pull out their SASUC8I of their server for a minute or 2 and plug it in their Sandy Bridge system. It would be so great if I didn't have to swap the motherboards and processors of 2 systems, I simply don't have a lot of time at the moment. Right now, I'm not quite sure what to do about this. I don't really have a good option.

Diod said:

And also, I'm insane. Just as thideras is apparently .

I actually don't really need the RAID functionality. I'm gonna use ZFS' RAIDZ instead

Click to expand...

I like this guy.

If I had either of those parts, I'd test it for you.

thideras said:

I like this guy.

If I had either of those parts, I'd test it for you.

Click to expand...

I take it that's an offer?

If had the means to make it an offer, I would! But, I do not.

Haha, well, thanks anyway
I appreciate the help guys

Looks like a PCI-E bus mode issue.

Hmmm, do you mean it might be mistaking my controller for a graphics card?

Tomorrow I'm gonna try putting in a graphics card in the x16 slot and put the controller in the x4 slot.

I've also noticed that the keyboard doesn't get any power when the controller is put in. All fans turn, the HDD's spin, but no power goes to the keyboard. The LED light on my motherboard does light up.

From my understanding of PCI-e (and I may be wrong), the ports aren't made for graphics cards and they certainly don't expect it. Check my server, for example. I'm running two RAID cards in the "video cards slots" and a video card in the PCI slot.

Some are picky what order they are in the system, though. I would always put the video card in the top slot (or whatever slot 1 is) and anything else in the others.

Yeah, I doubt putting the graphics card in will help, but I'm just trying every single thing before I completely give up on trying to use this motherboard.

I just find it very weird that the screen doesn't show anything with the controller plugged in. It's as if the controller causes the motherboard to halt during the initialisation of the connected devices. It simply tries to initialise the controller and bam, it halts.

It's probably an EFI issue, but I'll try the graphics card nevertheless.

I'm just wondering, if I were to be able to swap this board for a Gigabyte H67 board (yes, I know it would be hard, if not impossible atm), would I have more luck? Given that the controller works on my old Gigabyte (LGA775) board, and that the Gigabyte H67 boards appear to still use BIOS instead of EFI.