*SOLVED* Help please with H8DME-2 – BMC/IPMI not working – No Fans


TechMed

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Hello all,

Well, I have worn the letters off of my keyboard, Google searches just default to terms in this post heading when I try to search anything, and I have simply exhausted all my energy in trying to remedy my issue(s), server issues that is ?. I have been chasing this for a little over three weeks, have read everything I can get my hands on, tried every suggestion I could find in posts everywhere, all to no avail.

 

The long intro is to show that I have tried everything I can think of to resolve the situation before posting here. I am posting in this section as I see quite a few folks have the same TAM boxes and MB’s. Also, I have tried now three separate MB’s and IPMI cards, with the same non-functional end result. I have dug deep into the BIOS settings, I have read manuals from front to back on these devices, nothing. (Worse, my vacation is over Monday! ?

 

So, here are the issues… (remember, three different MB’s and three different IPMI cards!)

One… NO fans; none of the fans spin at all, period.   (they do “jump” at power on)

Two… (In BIOS): Status Of BMC = Not Working

            POST msg: BMC Interface = No Interface Found

            From IPMICFG Utility: BMC Interface Not In Idle Or Error State

            (IPMI card(s) is lit up!!!)

 

Hardware:

n  Dual 900W (yea, the loud ones) PS; jumped and tested all outputs of ATX connector, four & eight pin CPU connectors. All stable outputs respective to their required voltages.

n  H8DME-2 (rev 2.01A)      AMI BIOS (rev 3.5)       Dual AMD quad cores     32Gb RAM   (at some point, hopefully, will be running unRAID)

n  IPMI card: SuperMicro SIM1U+ (has the dedicated LAN option)   I have no idea what Firmware as I cannot get in the thing(s) (remember, tried three of them!)

 

Attempts to troubleshoot:

FANS: measured PS outputs as indicated, put one fan in a time (checking for bad fan), measured output at fan headers (3-pin) = zero output --- No joy at all

 

H8DME-2 MB BIOS: Updated to most recent, went through every single line item using manual(s) as a reference/suggestions – No fans ~ No BMC (IPMI) – Nothing helped

 

BMC/IPMI: Cannot access board(s) – BIOS does not recognize any of them “Staus Of BMC = Not Found”

I have tried using the “IPMICFG.EXE” DOS utility and it returns: “BMC Interface Not In Idle State Or Error State” (I have tried -r, -fde arguments, neither of which will work)

Tried to “Flash” the IPMI card BIOS, no joy with that either; it simply errors out

Cold booted I don’t know how many times…

Cold booted without IPMI card, still no fans

Replaced IPMI card and cold booted: States it is installing the IPMI software and it will reboot when finished, which it does, but then hangs in POST! Can reset but still no IPMI after POST (BMC Interface: None Found)

Shorted JP5 “Reset” pins to see if that would restart/reset the KIRA processor on the  IPMI card – No joy with that either!

“Heartbeat” LED: plug in power supplies, wait ~ one minute, get “heartbeat” and solid “status” LED’s.

Power up/boot: “heartbeat” goes dark, “status” stays lit (same on all three cards)

LAN connections: Understand there is Dedicated|Shared|Failover – have tried every variation; with USB connected/not connected, LAN on both LAN 1 and Dedicated IPMI LAN, Just LAN1, Just Dedicated IPMI LAN…

 

There is probably more I have tried that I can’t think of at the moment, but this is getting long. ANY feedback will be appreciated. Plus, hopefully, this post may prove beneficial to someone else that may have the same issue(s) in the future. Given that all of this issue is repeatable, I suspect the BIOS(s) of the MB and IPMI card. It has been my experience that when something fails at exactly the same place each time, it is usually software related. Lots of vague posts/documentation indicating these BIOS's are finicky, but nothing offering exact direction on how to get them to work; anyone good at Voodoo?

 

Thanks in advance for putting up with my rambling and any assistance that may come of this!

 

BTW, I have a NON-IPMI SuperMicro unRAID system that is just fat, dumb, and happily working away with 20 Tb of storage! Works like a champ! So, I know this is totally un-unRAID related, but short of SM support, I figured this community would be my best and last resource! TIA everyone!

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What is the history of the parts you are testing? Did they once work? Do you have a spare mb to test?

 

I had 5 of these and now have 2 still working. They have been rock solid. Sorry, don't have any salvaged components. Mine were dual core AMD.

 

Mine are all working as off site remote backup servers. They are too slow and power hungry for daily use.

 

(A raspberry pi sits listening at all times and when a server needs to do something the raspberry sends the ipmi startup command over the local lan. )

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for the reply...

 

Well... the bucket's providence is unknown. I got it from TAM Solutions (like many here, did I read in a post you got one from there too???). I asked if it was working before it was sent and was told that it was. TAM sent me another MB, and through various sources (eBay and Amazon), I got two more MB's and the three IPMI cards; two of which are brand new, best as I can tell. They were all under $20 each so what the heck...

 

Knowing the H8DME-2's/Opteron's are "Watt Guzzlers," I too am only (hoping) going to use this box for the requisite backups of the everyday server. Getting this box running has become more of a "mission" now. I can usually suss this @#$% out, but this one has me stymied, and I don't like it. ?

 

Any future TAM, or the like, purchases will be with the eye that the guts are coming out! I am looking to build another one to two units for SONARR and RADARR, for now anyway.

 

Any links you can provide on the Pi setup would be nice. I like the concept a lot!

 

Any thoughts on the current conundrum?

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All mine are from Tams.  Yeah some of them had the guts removed and newer mb installed.

 

Your problems are either power, mb, cpu, or ipmi card.  Seems like you have tried replacing most of these.  Since these are enterprise boxes with redundant PS, I wonder if power could be your issue.  Can you boot them with a bog standard normal powersupply?

 

 

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Sadly no joy with the normal PS, wouldn't even boot. However, I did discover something else, but I have nothing to reference to.

 

So, if anyone has an H8DME-2 out there, and ready access to it, there is a (black ?) 5-pin header immediately adjacent to the the white ATX/CPU headers.

 

Does anyone only have 4 wires going to that black 5-pin header? The manual calls for five, but mine only has four and the missing one is a 3.3V lead.

 

Maybe I just need a new PS docking unit?

 

Fingers crossed for a reply!

 

image.png.1eddc13cd94c5092483b92e68fef3e99.png

Edited by TechMed
Cut from manual
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  • 2 weeks later...

HA!

 

I stated it was more of a mission now than anything else.

 

OM!G… it was the CPU fan PINOUT!!!

 

Turns out that the YELLOW and BLUE leads for ONLY the CPU fans are swapped.

So, literally, depending on your view, leads 3&4 need swapped on a non-stock (SuperMicro) CPU fan.

 

I was using what I thought were original factory/stock server CPU heatsink/fans that were manufactured by Cooler Master (CM), but obviously not. I swapped the leads (yellow for blue) and the CM fans came right to life.

AND, joy of joys, the IPMI is humming away and working like a charm!

 

Many thanks to those that helped and hopefully this post will save some other unsuspecting unRAID user the grief of no fans nor IPMI on the SuperMicro H8DME-2 server board.

When I get time I will post some images to help others.

 

As an aside, MANY thanks to those of you who have served, or are serving, to protect our great NationHappy Memorial Day!

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  • TechMed changed the title to *SOLVED* Help please with H8DME-2 – BMC/IPMI not working – No Fans
  • 4 weeks later...

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