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SR-2 - Checking NVRAM and hang

M

musky

[H]ard|DCer of the Year 2012
Joined
Dec 14, 2009
Messages
3,154
This is about to drive me nuts. I have everything together on my SR-2 with 2 E5530 ES's. It gets through all of the controller checks and such, then when it should try to boot to a drive, it shows Checking NVRAM and hangs there, and the LED show 04 (Check Battery Power and CMOS.) I can get into the bios and change things, and the changes are saved. I have tried every combination of drives I have, including no drive at all, with the same result. I have cleared the CMOS numerous times, swapped out the battery, tried every combination of RAM I have, and it does exactly the same thing.

Any thoughts of what else to try? I am rapidly running out of ideas. It sounds like this guy has the same problem:

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=458507
 
maybe the cmos battery is bad.. try grabbing one out of an old system you have laying around.. they are all the same.. otherwise give EVGA a call or email..
 
I swapped the battery already, and it did not help.
 
I submitted a ticket...we'll see how long that takes...you'd think that $600 would buy you something that actually works...
 
musky said:
I submitted a ticket...we'll see how long that takes...you'd think that $600 would buy you something that actually works...
Click to expand...


shit happens ya know.. cant have 100% success rate otherwise things would be to easy..
 
All the problems i've had lately with my GT, I think they're starting to somehow sabotage any EVGA products not folding for Team EVGA. :D joking aside hope you get it running soon musky
 
There is a CMOS selector, make sure it's not stuck between CMOS's or try another one. Other than that, start a thread on the SR2 forums to get specific help from people that own them and the guy that built it is still there too
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Answer from eVGA support - E5530's are not on the supported CPU list...E5506s and E5540s are...

I also can't activate my account - the sent a reply to my ticket but have not sent me an activation email.
 
musky said:
Answer from eVGA support - E5530's are not on the supported CPU list...E5506s and E5540s are...

I also can't activate my account - the sent a reply to my ticket but have not sent me an activation email.
Click to expand...

Err Kendrak uses a pair of 5530's in his SR-2 so wtf are evga on about. The only issue i could for see is with them being es chips.
 
Yeh E5530s not being supported is BS.

RAM is in the correct set of spaces?

Have you tried with just one stick each?

Have you re seated the cpus?

Tried a diff set of RAM?
 
I actually think it is the B0 stepped ES chips that is causing the issue. The thread I linked above is about the same chips, so I suspect the bios doesn't read them correctly and there is some sort of fail-safe when it tries to actually boot. That puts me in a bit of a conundrum...a bios update may work to support the chips, but I can't boot up far enough with the chips to flash the bios. It also kills me with eVGA customer support - they won't talk to me until I have a set of "officially" supported processors, and I am not particularly keen on buying 1 or 2 E5506's just to verify that the board is not defective.

I have one stick of ram per processor right now in the correct slot (the red one closest to the CPU.) I have tried many RAM combinations, with the same result. The bios recognizes everything fine, so I don't think it is actually hardware-related.

I think my next step is to swap the processors with the two in my Asus board. I fully expect that the Asus will work perfectly with these new processors, and the SR-2 will not work with the processors currently in the Asus.
 
Two problems:

One...I can't boot to anything so I can't update the bios. That is my conundrum at the moment - I need a supported chip to boot up far enough to flash the bios so it can support the chips I have. Unfortunately, none of the 4 E5530's I have are supported. I did try the other pair, with the same results. The chips I just got appear to work fine in my Asus board, and the chips that I had in my Asus board do the same thing in the SR-2.

Two...E5530's are not officially supported in any bios. Apparently, they actually are for non-ES and D0 stepped ES chips (per Kendrak and Vaulter.) The first thing eVGA customer support said was that the chips are not supported, so they are not going to be very helpful until I have a chip that is supported.

So, does anyone have a non-ES E5506, L5506. L5520, E5540, or X5550 they aren't using at the moment that I could borrow?
 
Do you have an i7 920 or something laying around?

You can flash the BIOS with one of those.
 
I do have an I7 or 2. The problem is that it isn't supported either, so should it have the same issue, even in single processor mode? It is probably worth a try.
 
I believe an i7 chip won't work because they don't have the requisite dual QPI links.

Wow that's a tough spot. Sorry to hear about your trouble.
 
I think a single i7 will work.

Don't know for sure, but sure worth a try.
 
EVGA's list of supported CPUs is really small. Apparently the E5640s that I'm running aren't supported (actually explains why the bios doesn't report them correctly at the post screen.

What's up with the short list?

Nehalem
Xeon E5540 - 2.53 GHz
Xeon X5550 - 2.66 GHz
Xeon E5506 - 2.13 GHz
Xeon L5506 - 2.13 GHz
Xeon L5520 - 2.26 GHz

Westmere
Xeon E5620 - 2.40 GHz
Xeon X5650 - 2.80 GHz
Xeon X5660 - 2.80 GHz
Xeon X5670 - 2.93 GHz
Xeon X5680 - 3.33 GHz
Xeon X5667 - 3.06 GHz
Xeon X5677 - 3.46 GHz
 
FYI, for anyone looking to buy an SR-2 and not use one of the processors listed above. From eVGA tech support:

We have no information on processor that may one day be supported. If the CPU is not on the list it is because we have not tested and been able to verify full functionality. If your using a CPU that is not on the list you run the risk of running into random errors such as the one you described.
 
musky said:
FYI, for anyone looking to buy an SR-2 and not use one of the processors listed above. From eVGA tech support:

We have no information on processor that may one day be supported. If the CPU is not on the list it is because we have not tested and been able to verify full functionality. If your using a CPU that is not on the list you run the risk of running into random errors such as the one you described.
Click to expand...

That is truly pathetic, given that 55xx xeons have been out for a while now any board should run all of them with out any problem, to support only a fraction of already released cpu's on launch is just plain stupid,its the first time i've ever seen that happen and it doesn't leave a good impression of evga's support for this board, especially given all the delays at launch
 
it could also have to do with intel wanting them to only support specific processors to get people to buy the more costly chips.. but who knows maybe a bios update will come out eventually..
 
Last edited:
APOLLO said:
I wouldn't be surprised. Look what Intel is going to do with Sandy Bridge...
Click to expand...


yeah i had a feeling something like that was going to happen sooner or later with how well the 920 overclocked... the signs of the sandy bridge fiasco in my opinion started with the gulftowns and them delaying the low end gulftown processors for as long as they have.. specifically to get people to buy the high end unlocked chip..
 
FYI, an SR-2 will not even boot up with an I7-920 in it and the second CPU slot disabled.
 
MrValentine said:
Thats an amazing way to get people to buy AMD!! Thats just plain stuipd.
Click to expand...


its stupid and smart.. its dumb because yes you will lose a lot of customers to AMD but its also smart because they have a lot of fan boy idiots that will stick with a company no matter what they do and thus will buy the unlocked processors just to overclock and thus will gain profit off those idiots.. but its the same way for both sides.. at least those of us that have stuck with AMD have gotten our money's worth and are not forking over a grand for a processor like a lot of people are.. not saying that the 1000 dollar processor isnt better then what AMD has but theres no chance in bloody hell im spending a 1000 dollars on a friggin processor when a phenom II x6 1090T will play a game just as well as the x980..
 
Well hell.

I'm not sure what to reccomend.

Do you have a local comp shop that you could ask them to take it in back and flash with a diff bios?
 
Kendrak said:
Well hell.

I'm not sure what to reccomend.

Do you have a local comp shop that you could ask them to take it in back and flash with a diff bios?
Click to expand...


lol id like to be the fly on the wall of the local shop he takes that to and opens the box with the SR-2 in it and watch the person freak out and look dumb founded because he has no idea what to do with that board.. :p
 
That CPU support list looks kinda funky.
This is the same issue I had with my supermicro boards until we got the 1.0 Bios with the ES microcodes. LocoLaptop modified the other versions to include them manually.

Have you contacted him about moding a bios to use for that EVGA board?
(Will still need a working cpu to flash to board.)

My EVGA X58 board does not list my X5550 on the supported list but it works just fine.

If Kendrak has the D0 working, then getting an ES working is as simple as injecting those codes, which Loco did last time with about 5 min work on a supermicro board.
 
D0 - ES here, nothing wrong, maybe just the B0 ES need added, EA makes it sound like an easy fix
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
I have already been in contact with Loco Laptop about modding the bios to support these chips. Assuming that works, I'll just need a supported chip.

Where do all of our SR-2 owners live? I am in Madison, WI.
 
Kendrak said:
You have 2 in OH.
Click to expand...

I actually used to live in Dayton. Unfortunately (for this at least), I moved 6 years ago. That would have been perfect for troubleshooting.

I think that LocoLaptop has me set up with a bios, so all I need is a supported chip. I'll start calling local computer shops tomorrow.
 
APOLLO said:
I wouldn't be surprised. Look what Intel is going to do with Sandy Bridge...
Click to expand...

Similar things were rumored with Nehalem, I remember posting them at 3DGameMan at the time and telling people not to buy any i7's, look at what happened there. ;)
At the time that was one of my reasons for not buying Nehalem and waiting for Sandy Bridge, oddly enough. :D
I'm not worried about it, those rumors always end up false.
 
zero2dash said:
Similar things were rumored with Nehalem, I remember posting them at 3DGameMan at the time and telling people not to buy any i7's, look at what happened there. ;)
At the time that was one of my reasons for not buying Nehalem and waiting for Sandy Bridge, oddly enough. :D
I'm not worried about it, those rumors always end up false.
Click to expand...
that's quite an inflammatory article headline.....

The purpose of the linked USB, sata, etc isn't to limit overclocking.......it's to lower costs and integrate the CPU further by bringing the entire system onto the CPU. That's the reason current p55 has pci-e controller integrated.

Notice, though, the focus is on the low end Sandy Bridge chipset. My guess is the high end X68 or whatever it will be called won't be limited in such a way.

Also, I have a feeling there are a few Gigabyte and Asus engineers currently slaving away in attempts to build mobos that will still overclock the low end chips.
 
jebo_4jc said:
Also, I have a feeling there are a few Gigabyte and Asus engineers currently slaving away in attempts to build mobos that will still overclock the low end chips.
Click to expand...

Where there's a will, there's a way...and there's always plenty of both. :D
Companies never learn. :rolleyes: :D
"Our solution cannot be defeated!" haha
 
jebo_4jc said:
Notice, though, the focus is on the low end Sandy Bridge chipset. My guess is the high end X68 or whatever it will be called won't be limited in such a way.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the article admits that at the end. The first paragraph talks about the "mainstream LGA1155 Sandy Bridge CPUs ... deliberately limit overclocking" but near the end the article says the "upcoming LGA2011 Sandy Bridge-E and 'Patsburg' chipset that will replace the current X58 and LGA1366 platforms ... follows previous current generations basic designs so overclocking potential is unaffected."

So basically there will continue to be two Intel sockets, the low end and the high end, but as they continue to cram more stuff onto the low-end processors, it makes overclocking more difficult. Conveniently, they still have high-end processors and chipsets to sell to enthusiasts.
 
So it's basicly like having i7s on 1366 and then i3s on 1156 (or whatever the small one is)??

That makes sense actually, one series to offer to guys like Dell to build cheaper all in ones and one set to offer to us that has all the bells and whistles we use
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