Did I brick my M1015 "no mr controllers found"

[jesseasi]

Just purchased 3 M1015's off ebay.

 

The process to flash these to IT mode has been a long process.  Using the steps found here.  http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/29059-sas2008-lsi92409211-firmware-files/

 

I ran into the dreaded PAL error. 

 

Which means that my motherboard was not going to work.  After trying 3 different boards - and managing only to erase the firmware from my cards. 

 

I found this tread - which uses an EFI shell to finish the job.  The EFI feature is available on my supermicro 9SCM board. 

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=20761.msg186485#msg186485

 

I recently flashed 3 M1015s to IT mode on my X9SCM (BIOS ver. 2.0a) using sas2flash.efi version 12.

 

Here is what I did:

 

1. Create a FAT32 bootable usb thumb drive. I use HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.

 

2. Copy all the necessary files to it. Everything from the first post here and sas2flash.efi from here.

 

3. Write down the sas address from the sticker on the M1015 card. (500605xxxxxxxxxx)

 

4. Shutdown and install the M1015 card.

 

5. Boot from the USB drive.

 

6. Enter the following commands:

Code: [select]

megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin

megarec -cleanflash 0

 

7. Reboot. Enter BIOS setup. Boot to buit-in EFI shell. (It's on the exit tab near the bottom.)

 

8. Enter the follwing commands:

Code: [select]

fs0:

dir /p

 

9. Check the file listing to ensure that the thumb drive you created is fs0. If not, try fs1, fs2, etc. until you find it.

 

10. Enter the following commands:

Code: [select]

sas2flash -o -f 2118it.bin

sas2flash -o -sasadd 500605xxxxxxxxxx

 

11. Reboot once more and you're done.

 

I hope this helps.

 

-Cliff

 

credit to:

http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/29059-sas2008-lsi92409211-firmware-files/ &

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1658731

 

Two of my cards flashed perfectly after this.  But one of my cards may have been corrupted during the process of trying to find a working board.

 

When trying to run any of these commands - I get the "no mr controllers found"

 

Seems that I may have bricked my card.  Not sure where to go now.  I think I need to find a way to restore the original IBM firmware to the card and start over.  Unfortunately I am having no luck at all in trying to find a way to restore it. 

 

There is an IBM file called megacli.exe but when I try to run that I get "not enough extended memory to load application" 

 

Discovered I needed to make a different boot disk that would support hi-mem (a windows based boot disk).

 

But what now?  What command will help me recover my M1015?

 

 

[ogi]

You need to flash the firmware when in UEFI mode, there are some instructions with how to do that for the X9SCM-F motherboard (which gets the same error when you try to flash the M1015 from the bootable DOS.

 

TL;DR no you didn't brick your M1015, they're fine, you just need to flash them in UEFI mode, not from the DOS environment.

[jesseasi]

You need to flash the firmware when in UEFI mode, there are some instructions with how to do that for the X9SCM-F motherboard (which gets the same error when you try to flash the M1015 from the bootable DOS.

 

TL;DR no you didn't brick your M1015, they're fine, you just need to flash them in UEFI mode, not from the DOS environment.

 

I was able to flash 2 of the three M1015's I have in UEFI mode.  The 3rd is not working - reporting that no card is found when trying to do so.

 

 

[jesseasi]

Anyone with any ideas here?  I think I need to get the original IBM firmware back on the card before I can start the whole process.

[ogi]

Anyone with any ideas here?  I think I need to get the original IBM firmware back on the card before I can start the whole process.

 

Sorry didn't read the first message fully.  I would try flashing it in another motherboard if possible.  Do you get the LEDs lighting up?

[jesseasi]

Yes the LED's light up on the card.  Whenever I run any of the commands to clear the firmware - I get no card found.  Not sure what to do....maybe the card is bricked...

[Ford Prefect]

...sorry, I have no clue as to why the procedure is not working with this single card.

Just for the records...

 

...you did not try and flash all-in-one go...meaning you inserted only one card at a time?

...you did try different slots in your mobo?...also you should try a x4 slot, just in case.