ESXi and PCI VGA?

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sphinx99

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 23, 2006
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Environment: standard P55 Chipset. I installed ESXi 4.1.0 without issues and it is working fine. I was using some PCIe graphics card for bios/install but it was burning a x16 slot I wanted to use for HBA. So, I put in a PCI VGA card since a slot was there, and all is well until near the end of boot when it hangs. Tried and tried again, same result. Swapped another PCI VGA card, same result.

Any suggestions on why ESXi might hang on start with a PCI vid adapter but not PCIe?

Not a huge issue. It boots without a vid card and I don't mind running it headless once it is working. But I need that slot.
 
Were the two pci vga cards the same model? I'm wondering if there is some bios setting in play?
 
Different models. One is a recent (2011 manuf) radeon 9xxx board, the other is an older (5 years) nvidia one. Both output video just fine.

Did not see a lot of BIOS options to tweak that seemed relevant. Made sure to choose PCI detect first over PEG. Not much else. I should check to see if there are iRQ tweaks.
 
Yeah I actually was going to be doing this soon also when I get a SAS expander. I was hoping there would be no compatibility issues.
 
Okay, riddle me this. I did more testing and narrowed down the cause.

When a monitor is plugged into the video card (using DVI), it hangs on boot, regardless of type of video card. If the monitor is unplugged from the computer during boot, ESXi starts up fine.
 
Is it DVI only, or does it have an analog connector you can try? Sounds like a HW problem?
 
Well, it's happening with two different video cards. One is PCI, one PCIe. The former has DVI+VGA, the latter has DVI+DVI. I've confirmed this behavior with all four interfaces across both cards. Monitor is a Dell U2711 for what it's worth.

I suppose the motherboard could be bad? The MB I'm using (Gigabyte P55a-UD4p) has dual 16x PCIe and dual PCI slots, and I've swapped each card across its two respective slot options as well and I think I've covered all permutations. So far, it reliably boots without the cable plugged into the vid card, or running headless. Add video, and ESXi hangs on load-up after "cbt successfully loaded"
 
But my point is, it could be something about the DVI interface. Possibly the two cards use the same driver/chipset or somesuch. Can you try the DVI/VGA card and plug in the VGA instead?
 
I did. I have only used one card at a time. And for each card, each of two slots. And for each card-slot combination, each of the two output ports on it. That is 2x2x2 = 8 combinations.
 
I guess I am confused. Your previous post seemed to imply it had to do with the DVI port.
 
VGA or DVI, the behavior is the same. If the monitor is plugged into the video card, ESXi freezes on boot. If it is unplugged (regardless of cable used) it does not.
 
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