GA-E7AUM-DS2H - Does the x16 PCI support non-graphical cards?

[overbyrn]

Hi, I have a HP RAID card - Smart Array P410.  It's a x8 PCIe card.

When I install it into the x16 slot, the machine doesn't display anything when powered on and never seems to get past POST.

I'm wondering if I'm not seeing anything on screen because the motherboard  is making the assumption that the card in the slot is graphical.  Or is it that the slot isn't talking to the x8 RAID card correctly?  I've tried connecting a screen on VGA and/or DVI in case one of the screen outputs was getting disabled during the process, but all combinations just give me a blank screen.

Questions raised are:
1. How does the motherboard determine what kind of card is installed in the x16 slot?
2. Can the x16 slot retrain down to x8?
3. Are non-graphical cards supported in the x16 slot/?
4. Can someone confirm if they've been able to run non-graphical cards in the x16 slot?

It could be some incompatibity on the part of the HP RAID card and I could do with establishing if other people have been able to run other cards than graphics in the x16 slot.  If so, then I'll have to assume the HP card doesn't play well in setups like this.  I don't know if it applies to this motherboard, but I've also heard that sometimes it's the BIOS that doesn't correctly train down a x16 to x8.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Rgds,
Rich.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi can you let us know if this is a new build or one that you have been running and are now installing an extra card? I am guessing from the age of the motherboard this is an existing build. If so to answer your questions as written
1) Firmware on card
2) Yes
3) Yes
4) No reason why not it conforms to the standard.
Do you have the BIOS set to boot from the card?

[overbyrn]

Hi Dark,

This is an existing build.  Been running as a fileserver (Win7 x64) for at least 12 months.  Don't have anything too fancy installed.  There's a single SATA HDD connected to the mainboard for OS and a Sil 3112 in the PCIe x1 slot connected to a 5xHDD multiplexed DAS unit.  For the purposes of this test, I ripped out the Sil card, so essentially there's nothing in the M/B other than on-board stuff and the HP 410 RAID controller. 



Cheers,
Rich

[Dark Mantis]

Have you set the BIOS up to boot from on board graphics first?

[overbyrn]

Yep.  Internal vid set as default.  Although its a 'server', it's also a part-time work from home machine and so I have a couple screens off it.  One on the DVI and one on the VGA.  As well as play swapsie with the screen cables, I also tried the other two choices for the BIOS option you mention.

I think I've tried every combination.  In fact, I even threw in a PCI video card, set the BIOS to use PCI first and that didn't work either. ie. didn't get anything on screen.

Do you know whether the slot is generic, that is to say able to support non-GFX cards?  Even knowing that right now might help, though I'm at a loss to know what else I can do to troubleshoot the problem.


Rgds,
Rich.

[Dark Mantis]

I can't say 100% but the slot is listed as conforming to the PCIe2.0 standard and for that it would have to allow it to use other cards.
Have you cleared your CMOS since you took out the Sil card and replaced it with this one?

[overbyrn]

I can't say 100% but the slot is listed as conforming to the PCIe2.0 standard and for that it would have to allow it to use other cards.
Have you cleared your CMOS since you took out the Sil card and replaced it with this one?

Haven't reset CMOS at h/w level no.  Should try that I guess, though I honestly doubt it'll make a difference.  I was running on F3 of the firmware, so did an update to latest F4 for the heck of it.  I remember it set CMOS back to defaults during that action. 

[Dark Mantis]

No I am afraid that you are wrong there it will have set the BIOS back to defaults but will not have cleared the CMOS memory. I would recommend clearing the CMOS and then resetting the BIOS to optimised default settings before rebooting.

[overbyrn]

Hi Dark,

Sorry but resetting the CMOS made no difference.  I tried resetting CMOS both by the jumper method and battery removal/shorting contacts.  Loaded Optimized Config on both occasions.  Installing HP RAID card througout tests resulted in same blank display and PC not passing POST.

Well, I assume not passing POST as it definitely does not proceed to boot.  Although for all I know, the mobo is detecting the card as a GFX card and it's sitting awating input in some manner.  However, HP RAID cards timeout after a short while so if it is waiting somewhere, it's not likely to be at the RAID card part.

That's me totally stuck.  I really need to know if anyone's had success putting in non-GFX cards into the x16 PCIe slot.  I know it says it's 2.0 compatible, but does that mean for sure it'll train down from x16 to x8?

I raised it as question to Gigabyte also,so perhaps I'll get some answers there?



Thanks,
Rich.

[Dark Mantis]

Let's hope it is the answer you require The slot should go down to even a 1x card though with no problem. Please let us know what they say when you finally get your answer.

[overbyrn]

6 days later and sadly no sign of my Gigabyte email ticket being reviewed much less responded to 

Tried HP RAID card in an ASUS P5N7A-VM mobo, which for all purposes is identical and it has exactly the same problem as this board.  Verified HP card in ProLiant ML330 and it works fine.  Rapidly coming to the conclusion that when the specs for both boards say "PCIe x16" they *really* mean x16 and no other speed!

Decided to look at other m/b options and it seems you have to make it to i5/i7 before specs start to talk about other speeds and even then the devil's in the details as a lot of boards seem designed around NVIDIA SLI/ATI CrossFire where slots will train down to x8 but there's still very little talk of what happens when you want to run a NON x8 graphical card too.

I made it all the way up to the LGA 1366 GA-EX58-UD5 Gigabyte board before I started to see a board which looks like it could take a single GFX board and accommodate a x8 HBA as well. 

I can't believe there's nothing lower that'll do the job.  The annoyance here is that I want this machine to act as a 'server' and don't really need the horsepower and functions found on high-end boards.

Time to sell the card and buy a Drobo instead 

[Dark Mantis]

Thanks for the update although not good news so far I am afraid I did try and warn you that the Gigabyte Technical Support are notoriously slow and that is after we have taken a tremendous amount of pressure off them in this forum. Believe me you are not the first to complain.

[overbyrn]

No worries Dark, I have no illusiions about a speedy reply or a reply at all.  Funny though, as ASUS replied with 24hrs.  I've been doing this for 25+yrs so I tend to not need third party help.  I thought I'd reach out on the forum in case anyone else had experience running HBA's but I appreciate a £500 SATA/SAS card is not the norm either.

Thanks for your assistance all the same.

[Dark Mantis]

No problem and good luck in finding a solution(which I am sure you will ).

[F5BJR]

*
For this HP Card Smart Array P410

If you use not for install OS , i think that yo have the possibility to modify some Smart Array P410 parameters

As exemple with some RAID cards you can remove / modify Boot options : INT 13 , Memory Relocation , with Rom / no ROM ..

Have you tested this ?

Pierre