F*xki*g sh*t*y computers...

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

What IS it about computers?

I've tried to setup Ubuntu on a Xeon mobo, that's been sitting around since I got it, due to various issues, mainly one of time.

Tried to install 14.04 LTS from a USB stick and it failed.

Downloaded 16.06LTS and tried that, but similar error.

Gave up and decided to put Win XP on it to at least get it working.

It booted fine from the CDROM, after me changing the boot order. But that failed with a blue screen and a strange error code.

I assumed it might have an issue with HDD, as that had been formatted with the previous Ubuntu attempt.

So, took out the HDD, put it on a different PC, via USB adaptor and it was formatted with GPT.

Windows can't reformat it, as all the options are greyed out. I have a spare copy of EaseUS Partition Master, so tried that. Likewise all formatting options are greyed out.

Thought laterally and sure enough I can "mark" the partition table as a different type of partition, so I set it to NTFS.

That worked and sure enough I was able to reformat it.

Put that back into Xeon PC and rebooted.

Xeon mobo only has connections for keyboard and mouse, via USB. And now when I boot from the CD (which worked before) now it says:

"Press any key to boot from CD...."

...and it doesn't respond to any keyboard response

The CDROM booted before, when HDD had a GPT partition on it and nothing else has changed.......

Am just about to chuck this Xeon mobo out the window !!!

regards
Angry of Mayfair

[UBT - Mikee]

You wanna hug mate?

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi Mike

LOL - I think a hug, even a virtual one, might help !!

OTOH, once I got my brain in gear, I had a thought about this mobo and Win XP....and that maybe as the mobo is quite recent and Win XP isn't, that maybe there was a driver clash or something similar.

The actual error code is 0x00000007B, which seems to relate to a hardware issue, related to the HDD controller.

I did a bit of Googling and it seems one can change the BIOS from IDE to AHCI and that might fix it. Except that the BIOS was already set to AHCI.

But then I saw the dates of these Googled pages and they are quite recent. Meaning people are having issues installing perhaps a newer OS (Win 8 or 10) onto older hardware...and I was trying to do the reverse. !!

So, I then switched the Xeon mobo BIOS (within the Mass Storage section) to "ENHANCED"...and sure enough, Win XP set up started to proceed.

HOWEVER: I then got to thinking about all the other chipsets on the Xeon mobo and I thought that it only takes one to need special drivers or to not be supported and Win XP will come crashing to the ground.

So, I've got one of my Win 7 DVD's and I'll install that on a test basis and see how it goes...I can always get a license at a later point if it works OK.

regards
Subdued but hopeful of Kensington

[UBT - Timbo]

Update:

Xeon mobo is now working...with a "test" install of Win 7

Keeping things simple, it has an on-board USB socket so I've plugged a Netgear WNDA3200 dual band wifi dongle in there and I don't need worry about installing hardware drivers for the onboard NIC, as the Netgear has it's own drivers built-in

A quick perusal of the BOINC Download page and BOINC+VirtuaBox is now installed and I have got me some NumberFields tasks, all crunching away.

This will help towards our mini-Crunch on the the Formula-BOINC sprint this weekend.

More info here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5982

regards
Happier dude from Happyville

[chriscambridge]

Did you reset the bios to clear out existing settings?

Also, to boot from USB you have to go UEFI and set the boot option to USB; changing the option within the normal BIOS does not work. If you remember I had the same issue when I tried to do the first install from USB and in the end had to do it from CDROM. It was only later I realised about the UEFI setting.

On my 3rd one of these dual Xeons mobos, I installed Windows 10 from USB in one go without having to change anything in the BIOS; it just depends who had the mobo previously and how they used it. The same thing goes with fan speeds and running the FRSDR update. This is why you want to reset the BIOS before you do anything.

Also to get the network working, you have to turn the Network port on within the BIOS, as well as update the Intel network driver. Personally like you I did not bother and just used a USB Wireless dongle which Windows has drivers for.

--

You should have pinged a message to me and/or Mark as we have setup 5+ of these machines already and know them pretty well know now!

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi Chris

Thanks for the reply.

It was some time ago that you went through the issues you faced when you got your 1st mobo, and in my haste to get it up and running I didn't read the older postings on the forum.

However: The weird thing is that I had it up and running, booting off an SSD, shortly after receiving it from Mark and all I have done was to dis-assemble it, with a view to fitting it into a case. I thought I had a case for it, but there was an issue with the drive cage, that I couldn't remove, so the mobo was put aside for a time when I had some time

But the SSD was now in another PC, and hence I was trying to do a fresh install on a new HDD...it was fine booting off a CDROM, but getting the OS onto a bootable HDD was the issue.

In the end, and only after about an hour or two of watching successive attempts end in failure, I was able to sort it. So, I'll see how it goes over the next couple of days, whilst our attempt on gaining some FB points continues.

I may well have some Q's for you and Mark in due course, once I can figure out if this PC has any quirks?

regards
Tim

[chriscambridge]

To be honest the chips are excellent; loads of cores (16/32) and quick speed (2.9 GHz); as you know.

The motherboard, being a server, is slow to start up, has that flashing orange/amber light, and often slow to switch windows/tasks (even with 64 GB RAM) but in terms of CPU crunching can put out some impressive number; 9 years WCG, over 300 CPDN, and many Rosetta WUs prove this, and that is only running these boxes some of the time.

They full system also seem very stable; out of 3 boxes I think I have only had 1 or 2 restarts in all the time they have been running. So if you are only running BOINC on them they are perfect, but trying to use them as a desktop I personally I would not bother.

What I would say, in terms of the start-up and switching windows speed, on Windows 10 it is much quicker than Windows 7. Not sure why though.

Glad you got in running in the end. Any questions just ping me a message as often I do not see these post's, such as this one which I have only just seen.

[chriscambridge]

Just to update on these mobos; they are great for CPU crunching but useless for GPUs. They are only run Gen2 and x8 speed/slots.

This was hidden away in the manual. The only way to get them running Gen3 is to update the BIOS and use V2 Xeons.

[Woodles]

To be fair though, for Boinc crunching, PCIe 2.0 and a x8 slot is more than adequate.

I have three GTX970s spread amongst two of them and they produce the same numbers as when they were plugged into an i7 powered x16 slot running at PCIe 3.1.

Running the latest games might be an issue though.

Mark

[chriscambridge]

Its good to hear that you got two GPUs working on these mobos, and that Gen2 on the x8 slots was no issue.

I just know that when using a x1 PCIE riser on Collatz it ran 2 mins slower on Gen2 than Gen3, on the Gaming3 mobo. In truth I assumed that running Gen2 in a x8 slot would have a similar affect; It is good to hear this is not the case.

Although I wonder perhaps if running a 1080/1080Ti/1090/++ in these slots may have different results.

[Woodles]

You did better than me with the x1 risers then, when I tried one in a native x8, PCIe 3.0 slot running Collatz, roughly 20% of the tasks failed.

I didn't find any difference between 2.0 or 3.0 in a x8 slot or higher (x4 attempts were a bit hit and miss but for other reasons than the PCIe slot)

[chriscambridge]

To be honest I did not have any issues with any WUs failing, apart from once when the riser on one side was not level and therefore not 100% in place.

What I did have issues initially with was the USB cable; if its too long or slightly faulty, then you have major issues - non detection of card, failed WUs etc.

Now we know you can run x8 at Gen2/Gen3 with no speed issues on the 970s, what it does mean is when the 970s become very cheap, less than £100 each, then it would give the option of getting one of those ten x8 PCIE slot mobos and running a GPU Rack with ten 970's! I think that would look quite impressive.

[UBT - Timbo]

Just to update on these mobos; they are great for CPU crunching but useless for GPUs. They are only run Gen2 and x8 speed/slots.

This was hidden away in the manual. The only way to get them running Gen3 is to update the BIOS and use V2 Xeons.

Hi Chris

Just resurrecting an old post !!

I got a replacement S2600CP Xeon mobo (as my first one stopped working and wouldn't boot) a while back and this weekend, I had some time to set about getting it up and running.

My query relates to the above "Gen2 and "Gen3" references...as I've connected a NVidia GTX560 (yeah, I know, old school, but it was just for setting up purposes)...and the mobo doesn't recognise it.

So, I'm wondering if the PCIe slot is only going to recognise later versions of NVidia GPU's.

Can you remember what a Gen2 is equivalent to?


Also: The BIOS on this mobo is quite recent but the option to allow "dual" monitors is greyed out...so, I'm wondering if this might just be because the GPU I installed in the slot isn't recognised ? Or maybe there's another "hidden" function that I haven't found yet ? (I seem to recall that this mobo defaults to the on board VGA adapter, until you tell it otherwise).

regards
Tim

[Woodles]

Hi Tim,

The PCIe slot version purely controls the speed of data sent to/from the GPU and has nothing to do with the detection of the card. Gen 2 transfers data at 500k per lane, gen 3 at 1G per lane.

The motherboard BIOS controls the board detection, usually they're updated to detect new GPUs but with the limited space available in them, sometimes older ones get removed to make room. I doubt a 560 is old enough to be removed though.

The dual monitor option won't be available while the motherboard thinks there's only one GPU

The only option that should affect it is the one saying something about using more than 4G address space.and that shouldn't really be needed for only one GPU.

You need to use the blue PCIe slot furthest from the CPus if I remember correctly.

Mark

[chriscambridge]

Its been quite a while since I used that mobo..

I would agree with Mark I don't think that GPU would be old enough not to be usable; if I remember rightly I used a Geforce 210 which was pretty old also.

There were a few options within the bios though to get external GPUs working. The above 4G space was one, but I am pretty sure there were some others that I cannot remember.

I think you also had to turn off the iGPU, and I think, like Mark mentioned use the blue slot.

I think I sent Mark quite a detailed PM once outlining the steps I took to get GPU(s) working on that mobo? Do you remember Mark? I could be wrong, I guess it could have been a post.

You definitely had to save the BIOS settings and restart a few times to get the BIOS to react to the new settings.

[chriscambridge]

..then it would give the option of getting one of those ten x8 PCIE slot mobos and running a GPU Rack with ten 970's! I think that would look quite impressive.

2+ years later.. Well I guess 6x 1080Tis on a single mobo on a GPU racks was close!

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi both

Thanks for the tips

I'd plugged the GTX into the blue slot nearest the memory slots, so in the morning I'll swap it to the 2nd blue slot and see if that helps.

Interestingly (or not as the case maybe) the mobo I got is a S2600CP4, with 4x Ethernet ports.

The BIOS is SE5C600.86B.01.08.5003 which is nothing like the BIOS version on the 2 Ethernet port version of the original mobo I got via Natex.

The start up characteristics of this newer mobo is also a lot better than the old one, so I'm tempted to try and flash the firmware at some point as the old mobo is pretty useless as of now (as it won't boot up) so nothing would be lost if it fails...

WIll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again
Tim

[chriscambridge]

So a quick glance shows that mobo actually has much better PCIE slots than the previous version; one at x16 (gen3) plus five x8 (gen 3).

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... 00cp4.html

Did you take a look at the mobo manual to see what suggestions they have for discrete GPUs?

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... 00cp4.html

Did it start okay without a discrete GPU, running whatever OS you are using?

Servers/Server boards can be somewhat selective in terms of what OS they will run.

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi both

Moving the GPU to the blue slot away from the CPUs did the trick.

This also then enabled some extra options in the BIOS for the second video adapter.

Did it start okay without a discrete GPU, running whatever OS you are using?

Yup - it originally booted straight to the onboard VGA adapter (even though I'd plugged in the monitor to the NVidia card and found it wasn't "enabled"). So having the cable attached to the onboard VGA meant I could see it booting OK.

After moving the GPU, I'd left the monitor connected to the onboard VGA adapter, and the server didn't seem to boot in the same way - it was "hanging" with the initial boot screen.

I then saw the HDD activity LED flash so I thought: "maybe the next part of the boot process is now being handled by the add-in GPU" - so I plugged the monitor into the NVidia and there was the Windows 7 log in screen.

Frrom what I recall of the original S2600CP mobo, this one boots more quickly and with fewer "beeps" = so it could be that my original mobo wasn't in 100% reliable condition when I got it. (And since it failed, I've had little support from Natex ).

I'll leave this new mobo in "testing" mode for a day or so and then I can transfer to my large case (which has been sitting empty since the original mobo failed). I'll also look at all the various hardware shorting links to see if I can resuscitate the old mobo, now this new one is working OK.

One other thing: On the original mobo, after a while it looked like on of the CPU cores had stopped working. I couldn't tell whch physical CPU it might have been responsible, but the good news is that the first CPU (which had been transplanted into an Gigabyte X79 mobo, has been working perfectly ever since and the second CPU, now transplanted to this new mobo is also working perfectly too.

I still have the original Core 2 CPU from the X79 mobo, so at some point, I'll put that into the original Natex mobo and see if I can fire it up and flash the firmware

regards
Smug Tim

[chriscambridge]

Glad you got it working Tim