It could be possible I didn't install the acpi specific version. The BIOS I installed last time was from a CD image - got from this forum. Its the 2.18B BIOS but it flashed straight off the disc. Is it possible its not of of the ones at the start of the thread? SJ EDIT: I just found my original post at http:/ /forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/20603-Arima-HDAMA-and-HDAMB-Motherboard-BIOS-Fixes?p=341500&viewfull=1#post341500 - It would seem that the BIOS im using is some sort of generic one? But I'm not sure so any input you could give would be great thanks (sorry for the link, post count is a bit low...)
Like I said, DOS is not an ACPI OS, so as long as you don't boot into Windows, you should be fine to flash the plain 2.18B or Opteron280-specific one after you install the Opteron 280 CPU's. But if you're really that paranoid, just flash the plain 2.18B. FWIW, I've got an updated ISO image on the first page...basically removed the Opteron250-specific one and add the SATALink version instead.
Been doing a lot of reading around this thread. Absolutely great info, with many of my thanks to TG for all of his hard work. Just installed my HdamaI and flashed with the 123 Bios. All went well so far, have server2003 installed and running, but having some issues trying to get Vista/Seven installed. Good to know that there is some help here, should I run into some stumbling blocks. For sure there is NO lack of good tools available here, Thanks again TG.
Hi TQH, Josh and everyone else! Josh - sorry for not helping you. I completely forgot to check this thread for updates and haven't done so for over a month... TQH - I shall say that the motherboard does not freeze any more but instead (from time to time) it suddenly reboots when a computer (any) gets connected (plugged to) the ethernet cable. No BSOD or signs of a fault left what so ever. This happened a few times already. Weird and random ... yes! Do you think that can be ralated the the server's PSU which is making a strange clicking noise... don't know how else to expain it, might just record it. I'm afraid the PSU is about to fail
Random re-boots could very well be a symptom of a failing PSU. If i were you i would change it a.s.a.p .
I don't recall seeing any jumpers on the card, and there was nothing in the card's documentation about one... in fact I don't think the documentation mentioned entering the card BIOS at all. This was a Syba-branded card FWIW.
Hi again peeps another update. I got the replacement sata card, but I can only use the hard drive for like 5 minutes before the disk shows up as corrupt and unreadable. But when it does work, every reboot chkdsk comes up wanting to check the disk. It does this with a clean install with the latest firmware for my sil3112a and drivers. Lools like I am going to have to get a new sata pci card
Hello, I am having problems installing Windows 7 on this motherboard "HDAMA-I" Purchased and installed new bios chip with updated bios. Installing Windows 7, begins to install then asks for a driver for CD/DVD... The motherboard can see all the drives and even gives information on all connected hardware. I think the problem is that Windows 7 cannot see any of the hardware. I think I need to install the motherboard driver, but dont know how to do this without first installing the OS. Reaching out to you because you seem to have knowlege of this motherboard from your posts. Please help, Anthony
tghoang, thank you for the adivise, last night I created the bios flass dvd using Power ISO software, did a slow burn, booted the computer with the dvd in the drive, it did not work, made a second disk using an even slower burn, nothing, could not get it to flash the bios with the bios upgrade you suggested. perhaps i am missing a step, i checked all the bios setup setting, telling it to boot from the DVD, when the mobo boots it can see the DVD drive, even names it, can see the mem, can see the hard drive, this this making me a little crazy...lol, but I am determined to make this work. Please keep in mind that I purchase a new bios on EBay with the lates greatest version for the HDAMA-I mobo and I am 99% sure its a HDAMA-I, how can I confirm this 100%... Question, could the size of the drive be a problem? Question, tried installing Windows 7, when it asked for the DVD driver, i tried giving it the SATA drivers you suggested and it wouldnt take. Is there another way to install this SATA driver? Can a bootable disk be made that would install the SATA driver, I really think this is 90% of my problem. Question, what about using a PCI type SATA Controller that is Windows 7 compatable? Then install Windows 7, then install the mobo SATA driver, then flash the bios with your bios, then remove the PCI SATA controller...and then move the hard drive to the mobo SATA controller...will this work...please help. Thank you...
OSA275 Powernow BIOS links Hi, These links to the above files are dead. Any chance of a repost? (I'd post the actual links but I've only made 2 posts in the forum so can't.) Jave.
HDAMA no SATA Hi all First post, but been following this thread for some months. Big thanks to tqhoang and others who've pioneered giving these servers a new life. I have an HDAMA board with Opteron 250s installed, but no SATA on board. The server case is unusual, I think, because it's 4U with 3U taken up by 3 rows of HDD backplane. Thanks to all the great work here, I have a running Win2008r2 installation, however, I am getting occasional lock ups. These can happen when I'm paging through the BIOS setup so I don't think it's OS specific. I still suspect temperature but have cleaned and used new thermal paste for the processors, and tried with 1 processor, less RAM etc). As I plan to add a couple of 3ware cards the box is only going to get hotter! One thing I wanted to exclude was the BIOS I flashed. I have used the HDAMA-G BIOS v2.18B + Silicon Image 3114 ROM v5.5.0.0 + ACPI DSDT PowerNow for Opteron 250 OSA250FAA5BL from the first page. Might there be some issues running this BIOS on a board without any SATA? Thanks in advance for any comments/suggestions.
There is no issue for boards without the on-board SATA. The BIOS just doesn't load the Silicon Image ROM since the device doesn't exist. I suspect that a lot of the problems have to do with the RAM that's bundled with these systems. Perhaps the PowerNow is only able to exploit the problem. One of the other user's had a mis-match of RAM speeds in his system and I believe he was stable for quite some time after he removed the DDR266 sticks. I'd strictly go with entirely DDR333 or DDR400. Also don't forget to run Memtest86+ for at least a few full passes.
You something like the free ImgBurn to burn the bootable CD ISO image. Check out my first page and there's a post on identifying the boards. Also if your BIOS posts, then look on the bottom of the screen. Also I believe if you go into the BIOS you will see the motherboard & BIOS versions. Do not plug a DVD drive into the on-board SATA controller. I have no idea if the Silicon Image controller when put into RAID mode, will work with ATAPI devices. If your DVD drive is suspect, I'd look into load the drivers off a USB floppy or memory stick. P.S. My username is "TQHOANG"...but you can refer to me as "TQ" for short
TQ, I noticed that there is only 8MB of video memory on the HDAMA-I mobo. Is there a way in the setup to draw additional memory from the mobo memory to boost video ram? If so how would I do this? Thanks
Thanks for the tips. I will run Memtest86+ Memory is Samsung, (8 x 1GB) PC2700 ECC 333MHz DDR RAM In the meantime, I have made the following changes (in case it's of use for others...) - Loaded setup defaults - HT CPU-to-CPU=1GHz and the HT CPU-to-Chipset (Golem0) = 800MHz [not sure if this is default] - Set memory frequency downgrade from Auto to the DDR333 Had *a lot* of lockups whilst trying to make these changes (Server had locked in Windows, so I rebooted and reconfigured. Incidentally, all done via the "phantom" management card) By the way, with the server at idle, in 2008R2, CPU-z reports core speed for the CPUs at 1002.3 or 1002.4 MHz, multiplier x 5.0 ... assume that is Powernow at work, correct?
balchy - Yes, PowerNow is working and you can monitor it with CPU-Z. Just opening IE or any application should cause the CPU to frequency/voltage to scale up & down. Also verify with CPU-Z that your Opteron 250 CPU's are the E4 stepping and not the CG stepping. If it is the CG stepping, then you should stop using that BIOS immediately and switch back to the one without PowerNow support until I can make you one for the CG stepping.