Can't boot from CD (or anything) with IBM ServeRAID m1015 connected

[last_caress]

I currently have a bootable CD(ESXI installer), and 2 bootable HDD's installed (Win7 and ESXI).

When the RAID card is connected my system will freeze at _ and indicate it cannot boot (insert a system image) if booting from the CD

If booting from the ESXI partition it loads almost everything, but then hangs on something to do with the Kernel.

Similarly if I try to boot from the Win7 HDD it will not be able to boot and either hang at _ or boot the ESXI partition.

If I disconnect the RAID card I can boot from any of the devices without issue.

I've tried booting from the RAID controller and from the motherboards SATA ports and I"ve also changed the drives to bootable in the RAID BIOS, disable SATA ports not being used in BIOS (particularly the ones that have a Software RAID capability). None of this seems to work.

Anyone have any suggestions? I've spend days trying to figure this out with no luck.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor: Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield Quad-Core 2.8GHz LGA 1366 130W Desktop Processor BX80601930

RAID Controller: IBM ServeRAID M1015 SAS/SATA Controller

 

[rhansen5_99]

You might take a look at this and see if you can upgrade the firmware on the controller: http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/

Also have you tried moving the card to other pcie slots to see if there is maybe a conflict.

You might also check to see if there is a bios update for your motherboard: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3449#bios

It sounds like there is a conflict in there somewhere.

 

[last_caress]

I have tried at least 2 PCIe slots.
Haven't looked for a MOBO Bios update yet, I'll try that. Really nervous about the Controller bios update though, because the last time I Tried to get a similar LSI raid card to flash to IR mode i had to give up after nearly 10 hours of trying.

 

[fetoma11]

I have tried at least 2 PCIe slots.
Haven't looked for a MOBO Bios update yet, I'll try that. Really nervous about the Controller bios update though, because the last time I Tried to get a similar LSI raid card to flash to IR mode i had to give up after nearly 10 hours of trying.

I asked this question concerning a IBM ServeRAID M1015 SAS/SATA Controller and was told that when flashing to include boot.rom within the flash config.