Update X9SCM-F-O bios via usb


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Did it last week. Download the HP format utility, download the bootable win 98 files, format the usb drive, and then add the bios update to the flash drive and boot. Just follow the read me file for actual step to apply the bios update.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Same here :( And exactly the same sequence.

Emailed Supermicro, received the recovery instructions but none of them worked, including serial port recovery.

Will see if they honor the warranty and flash it.

Meantime I have to buy a new board. And this time it won't be Supermicro...

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Same here :( And exactly the same sequence.

Emailed Supermicro, received the recovery instructions but none of them worked, including serial port recovery.

Will see if they honor the warranty and flash it.

Meantime I have to buy a new board. And this time it won't be Supermicro...

Care to share those instructions?  I filled out a support email but it must not have posted because I never received a response.  Every other time they have been very responsive. 
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Thanks for the info.  I'm probably going to have to RMA mine as well but I thought I would try the recovery first.

I've bricked and recovered mine the same way, downgrading the bios plus using the super.rom usb stick method.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just did mine also.. same steps.

 

 

Are you on 2.0a now? Some people around say they can't get the dedicated ipmi lan port working. I wondered if this is a 2.0a "feature"

 

I created a bootable usb stick with the hp utility and win 98 files, put the bios 2.0a files on it. it boots in my laptop just fine but not on the x9scm. Either the internal usb port or on the back. Setting it as the first boot option or through the override option on the bios. i try this remotely through ipmi.

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My board came with bios 1.0... few weeks ago. I cant find if its 1.0a, b or c, it just says 1.0.

The dedicated IPMI port is NOT enabled standard on my board.

 

For updating bios, you should be able to mount an ISO through IPMI, the problem is that the ISO can not exceed 1.44MB in size. Now, ive tried formatting an USB stick to 1.44MB, which seems impossible, diskpart also does not allow sizes under 100MB as it seems, and resizing a partition also does not work. So there is no way for me te create a 1.44MB partition on a usb stick so i can convert that stick into an ISO...

 

I guess i will have to plug in the stick in the board then. So far for IPMI...

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I just did mine also.. same steps.

 

 

Are you on 2.0a now? Some people around say they can't get the dedicated ipmi lan port working. I wondered if this is a 2.0a "feature"

 

I created a bootable usb stick with the hp utility and win 98 files, put the bios 2.0a files on it. it boots in my laptop just fine but not on the x9scm. Either the internal usb port or on the back. Setting it as the first boot option or through the override option on the bios. i try this remotely through ipmi.

My replacement board came with 2.0a.  I am using the dedicated IPMI port on it.
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I am thinking about getting this board and a E3-1230V2.  From what I've read, you need the 2.x BIOS to be able to run that processor in this board.  Can you flash before POST?  If my board comes with a 1.x BIOS will I be able to flash it without having a compatible CPU?

If yours comes with 1.x I would be willing to trade my replacement 2.0a board that is currently running in an ESXi setup for your 1.x bios version.  I still haven't tried to unbrick my existing board but this would be an incentive if I was trading a working board away.
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I am thinking about getting this board and a E3-1230V2.  From what I've read, you need the 2.x BIOS to be able to run that processor in this board.  Can you flash before POST?  If my board comes with a 1.x BIOS will I be able to flash it without having a compatible CPU?

No you can't flash it with a v2 chip installed.

 

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

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BobPhoenix - Why do you want a 1.x board?

 

marcusone - Thanks for the info.  That's what I was afraid of.  I was thinking of getting the IIF but I read a couple reports of people not getting multiple HBAs all working in them.  I have three IBM M5105s I need to run in it.  I've read of people doing that in the older F version.

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BobPhoenix - Why do you want a 1.x board?

OK here is the tale: My AVer Media Duet TV tuner is not recognized with a 2.0a bios on a X9SCM-F in ESXi 5.0.  I have a bricked board that I upgraded to 2.0a from 1.0 (something).  The tuner card was working wonderfully in my SageTV Windows 7 x64 VM but I was having a few problems with my unRAID VM that I thought a bios upgrade might fix.  After the upgrade to 2.0a without changing anything else the card was not available for passthrough in ESXi anymore.  As far as ESXi was concerned the card didn't exist no matter what combination of cards and slots tried.  So I tried to downgrade my bios back to 1.0 to get the card back.  But that bricked my X9SCM-F.  So then I emergency next day aired a new MB from Newegg.  Moved the Xeon to it - installed it - and found that it also had 2.0a installed and it TOO was unable to recognize the Duet tuner card in ESXi.  I just haven't had time to try (or have a compatible V1 CPU free) to try the recovery procedure.  Also if I end up RMA'ing it I figure I'll just get the 2.0a bios again.  So if I can find someone to trade with I will down a ESXi server and ship the MB out - put the V1 Xeon on the bricked board and try the recovery procedure while I wait for the swap to arrive.  I figured I might have to recover to 2.0a for the recovery procedure to work.
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Sorry to make you rehash that all again.  Actually, I now remember reading that, but I didn't associate a screen name to the story. Yah, I'd be willing to do that.  That makes me wonder though if it's the 2.0 BIOS that made the IIF not work with multiple HBA's for some people?  This sucks trying to make sure you get exactly what will work since everything seems to have little potential issues with ESXi. 

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My board came with bios 1.0... few weeks ago. I cant find if its 1.0a, b or c, it just says 1.0.

The dedicated IPMI port is NOT enabled standard on my board.

 

For updating bios, you should be able to mount an ISO through IPMI, the problem is that the ISO can not exceed 1.44MB in size. Now, ive tried formatting an USB stick to 1.44MB, which seems impossible, diskpart also does not allow sizes under 100MB as it seems, and resizing a partition also does not work. So there is no way for me te create a 1.44MB partition on a usb stick so i can convert that stick into an ISO...

 

I guess i will have to plug in the stick in the board then. So far for IPMI...

 

We have over a hundred of these boards at work. Ours shipped with every different Ver 1 Bios there is (we did not get any with 2.x yet). we even have 2 sample boards, everyone of them has a working, enabled ipmi port. if it didnt work we'd kick it out as defective. we had only one defective for the x9scm's it had a bad ram slot.

 

That is how we build these servers.We rack the servers and put the IPMI network all on its own subnet and we then find it via the IPMI tool from SM and name the server and give it a static IPMI IP. Then install the OS via an ISO through the IPMI.

 

to contradict what you said..  Our ISO's are several hundred megs in size. we also have no monitors or KVM's for our racks. we only use management tools or IPMI to remote these if there is an issue. If the ipmi is unresponsive,. then we have to use a triage cart or unrack it. so far, that rare with boards. I can only think of one or 2 that needed a monitor at any point...

 

I also would not try to flash a board via ipmi mounted disk, im pretty sure it is not possible, but if you could, you're asking to brick the board when it disconnects while flashing.

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We have over a hundred of these boards at work.  everyone of them has a working, enabled ipmi port. if it didnt work we'd kick it out as defective

 

to contradict what you said..  Our ISO's are several hundred megs in size.

MY board,  did NOT use the dedicated IPMI port from scratch. NEITHER was it defective. I never claimed it was defective. It was, for some reason, set up so that IPMI was using the lan1 port. So did other X9SCM boards from others users here. After switching it to the dedicated port using the IPMIView tool, i'm now using the dedicated IPMI port.

 

Furthermore, the IPMI webgui is very clear about the size of a mounted floppy iso. It may NOT exceed 1.44MB. It even fails mounting if you do so...

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i'm just saying. it "should be on" out of the box. we just rack them and and power them up.

 

our servers are in a major e-tailers datacenter. we don't have time to deal with misbehaving hardware. we just toss it out or make the vendor come get it.

 

We dont use the web gui. We use the ipmi tool for management. that might be the difference. Also, we mount it as a bootable CD. not floppy. that might be another difference.

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