Intel SASUC8I stopping system from booting

Diod631

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Hi, I'm building a new fileserver and I'm having issues getting the system to boot when the Intel SASUC8I controller is put on the motherboard.

The system boots fine without the controller, but when I place it in the PCI-Express x16 slot the screen gets no video input, I can't even get in the BIOS. All the fans keep turning and there are no beeps or anything. I also tried placing it in the x4 PCI-Express slot, which according to http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sasuc8i/sb/CS-029898.htm should work. But it also results in a "no video input" error message on my screen.

The motherboard is an Asus P8H67-M LE and I'm using the iGPU. I've tried changing the setting that specifies which GPU to use to everything possible, but it doesn't make any difference.

The "LINK NOT PRESENT" lights on the controller are all yellow, whether I attach drives to the controller or not. According to http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sasuc8i/sb/CS-029898.htm it signals a fault on the phys. One of the 2 lights on the bracket is flashing green.

So, given that all of the "link not present" lights are yellow, is it safe to assume the controller is dead? Or could it be that my motherboard doesn't support the controller?
 
That is an PCI-E x8 card. Perhaps that has something to do with it? Do you have another system with an x8 slot you could test it in?
 
Unfortunately I don't have a system with a x8 slot. I was under the impression x8 cards should work in x16 slots?
 
I have 2 of these I used it on both an i7 board and a socket 775 board. Both in a PCIe x 16 slot without issue.
 
Yes, that's what I thought.
I've sent an e-mail to Asus asking if maybe the motherboard doesn't support anything other than graphics cards in the x16 slot. I'm hoping it does and that the controller is just DOA. The controller was packaged rather badly, that might be the cause. Though I don't see any damage at a quick glance.

Just some extra info which may be of help debugging this: if I boot with the internal speaker plugged in but the controller not, it beeps to let me know it booted. If the controller is plugged in, nothing beeps.

EDIT: @drescherjm: are those desktop motherboards or server motherboards?
 
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Hi, I'm building a new fileserver and I'm having issues getting the system to boot when the Intel SASUC8I controller is put on the motherboard.

The system boots fine without the controller, but when I place it in the PCI-Express x16 slot the screen gets no video input, I can't even get in the BIOS. All the fans keep turning and there are no beeps or anything. I also tried placing it in the x4 PCI-Express slot, which according to http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sasuc8i/sb/CS-029898.htm should work. But it also results in a "no video input" error message on my screen.

The motherboard is an Asus P8H67-M LE and I'm using the iGPU. I've tried changing the setting that specifies which GPU to use to everything possible, but it doesn't make any difference.

The "LINK NOT PRESENT" lights on the controller are all yellow, whether I attach drives to the controller or not. According to http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sasuc8i/sb/CS-029898.htm it signals a fault on the phys. One of the 2 lights on the bracket is flashing green.

So, given that all of the "link not present" lights are yellow, is it safe to assume the controller is dead? Or could it be that my motherboard doesn't support the controller?

I don't believe the LNP lights go out until some time well into the controller's initialization process, after which the lights will go out on the channels that have drives connected. At least, that's what I've observed on my Intel and other LSI-based cards, using the LSI IT firmware. By the way, I believe the lights tell you which SATA channels are connected, not how many PCIe lanes are in use. The flashing green light on the bracket is the heartbeat, which signals that the controller's firmware is up and running, at least to some degree, and has not detected any fault condition.

To me it sounds like an motherboard compatibility problem, not a bad controller, but it's hard to tell. Consumer motherboards, especially ones with integrated graphics, are notorious for having issues with non-graphics cards in the x16 slot. Most of them automatically disable the onboard graphics when you plug any card in that slot, so that would explain why you get no video. It could be that the Intel adapter is running just fine, you just can't see it because you have no video.

Rather than plugging the SASUC8i into the x4 slot, I would suggest leaving it in the x16, then plug an external graphics card in the x4 and see if you get video out of that. It sucks that you can't use the nifty Sandy Bridge IGP, but there may not be much you can do about it.
 
Yes, I'm also beginning to think it's a motherboard compatibility issue.

Someone at http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=668000 told me to try and cover pins 5 and 6 of the PCI-Express pins. I doubt it'll work since it's a completely different controller, but it's worth a try if all else fails.

In http://www.overclock.net/raid-controllers-software/359025-perc-5-i-raid-card-tips.html there is also someone running a Sandy Bridge setup (last pages) and he was also unable (as far as I can tell) to boot up with the PERC 5/i card, even when covering the pins.

About the graphics card, I'd love to try that, but I have no x4 graphics card available. Besides, the BIOS allows me to select which GPU to choose from when initializing. It defaulted to PEG (PCI-Express GPU)/iGPU, but I changed it to iGPU. I think this is meant to force the motherboard to use the iGPU, it doesn't help though.

I'm gonna try putting it in a x16 slot on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P tomorrow, maybe that'll work. If it does, atleast I'll have a fallback.

Both were desktop Intel boards.

ASUS P5Q Pro
EVGA X58 SLI3
Hmmm, so it isn't like the controller is limited to server boards. Which would be ridiculous, but just wanted to be sure.
Thanks :)
 
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It worked in the x16 (with x4 connection) slot on the GA-P35-DS3P.
The electrical tape trick didn't help :/

I'll probably end up using the GA-P35-DS3P, but I'm gonna talk to Asus first.
 
ASUS just called to explain the chipset issue and try to fix the controller issue.

I was told I could get a refund from the store I bought it from or try to work out something with that store. I could also just wait until May when they start replacing broken motherboards. It was a really friendly guy btw, can't say anything bad about their technical support.

He said the controller problem is probably a compatability issue. Because of the chipset issue they most likely won't work on a BIOS fix until the new motherboards are out. And even then they will only work on it if there are a lot of people with this issue.

I'm not sure what I'll do now... It would be great if someone with a Sandy Bridge setup could test the Intel SASUC8I out on their motherboard and tell me if it works. That way I could get a refund and buy a mobo that supports my controller.
 
Ok, so today I received the Gigabyte GA-H67A-UD3H-B3 and installed it.
The system boots like it should and the controller gets recognized. Everything seems to be working fine :)
 
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