ARIMA HDAMA G Bios upgrade to allow Server 2008

Discussion in 'BIOS Mods' started by dogzdinner, Dec 10, 2009.

  1. zerosum

    zerosum MDL Novice

    Mar 2, 2010
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  2. tqhoang

    tqhoang MDL BIOS Modder

    Apr 29, 2008
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    Good luck. Let me know if you want/need the PowerNow support for the Opteron OSA250FAA5BL 250...just need to send me the Linux dmesg output.
     
  3. mateuszd

    mateuszd MDL Member

    Mar 22, 2010
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    So. Does this BIOS allow to install Server 2008 on it?
    I am about to return it to Charles Computers because, at the moment, I am unable to install any operating system on it. :(
     
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  4. mateuszd

    mateuszd MDL Member

    Mar 22, 2010
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    Well. I will try them but I need to buy a floppy drive because at the moment Bios update fails from a bootable dvd as it says dos is in the himem area so it can not flash.

    BTW. Does the new siliconimage rom that comes with your bios do raid 5 or is there any way of getting it on this controller?
     
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  5. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

    Jul 23, 2008
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    These units do not boot from USB?

    But you can make the CD to emulate floppy for the boot process, no need for a real floppy

    sebus
     
  6. tqhoang

    tqhoang MDL BIOS Modder

    Apr 29, 2008
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    As sebus recommended, you need to build a CD/DVD ISO that emulates a floppy image. I can build one for you if you like.

    No, the SIL3114 can only do RAID 0, 1, or 1+0 (aka 10).
     
  7. mateuszd

    mateuszd MDL Member

    Mar 22, 2010
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    #88 mateuszd, Mar 23, 2010
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2010
    I would be so happy if you could build an iso for me to flash from it.
    he thing is I already had one and it said Can not flash because of hi mem drivers. Also, I worked out that this is cause by the CD driver being loaded at the start of DOS mode, when I pressed F5 whiile loading, it did not enter himem mode but I did not have my flash application accessible.
    If your way will work, could you please make it asap for me, I am really confused and want to return this server tomorrow if I dont get it work :(.


    No I don't think so, they don't even have USB 2.0. I tried to boot it from USB and nothing came up...
     
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  8. mateuszd

    mateuszd MDL Member

    Mar 22, 2010
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    #90 mateuszd, Mar 23, 2010
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2010
    Well, Your ISO image works perfectly, I flashed my BIOS to 2.18 the Original one, but I am still unable to start Windows XP installation, have I missed something out?

    It hangs at the 0x0000007B error like it used to do before... :(
    Not good...

    EDIT. Well I tried Windows Server 2008 r2 and i need to confirm that it is now installing.. :)
    I will post whether it works or not later. ...

    EDIT 2: Installed and works, I'll do more testing and give my results.. :)
     
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  9. mateuszd

    mateuszd MDL Member

    Mar 22, 2010
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    Oh If the question was addressed to me, I solved the problem by installing Windows 2008 R2 + Sata Driver... :)

    I hope it will work when I will be testing it later...

    The DVD was attached to SATA for Windows installation and the CD-Rom was attached to IDE for BIOS flashing...

    What benefits does the modded BIOS give?
     
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  10. tqhoang

    tqhoang MDL BIOS Modder

    Apr 29, 2008
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    Yes it was...the WinXP stop error was related to either not finding the hard drive or the install CD/DVD. You're past that now with your Win2k8-R2 installation, so congrats.

    My modded BIOS'es update the embedded Silicon Image BIOS to the latest versions. The version that comes with the HDAMA BIOS is pretty old from what I recall. There was a thread here with someone saying that they had trouble getting their hard drives recognized...not sure if it was a disk size or manufacturer issue though.
     
  11. mateuszd

    mateuszd MDL Member

    Mar 22, 2010
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    Yes. I am happy with Windows 2008 r2 on it but I have some strange problems.
    After i upgraded my bios to your modded one windows had a bluescreen and didnt let me boot. i also get the driver is unsigned error at boot time so i have to use the Disable driver signature check. The new siliconimage driver does not work with neiither the new siliconimage rom nor the new one... I have to use the old one. Any solutions.
    Have any of you had bluescreens after windows 2008 was installed?
     
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  12. zerosum

    zerosum MDL Novice

    Mar 2, 2010
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    Hi guys,

    My server arrived yesterday - gave it a quick once over just to check that it at least started... it did :) Spent a bit more time with it this morning:

    Created a bootable ISO image with the original version BIOS's on it. Updated the BIOS to 2.18B (original version for the moment). All good so far. I installed a CD-ROM and hard drive onto the primary IDE bus (an old Plextor CD burner as the CD-ROM - it's all I had lying around - set as slave and an 80Gb Seagate Barracuda as master). Finally convinced it to have a stab at booting from CD :) and started to install Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. Kept getting problems with not restarting, just shutting off, during installation and shutting down randomly when booting. Took a look at the hardware monitor in BIOS and noticed that the CPUs were running just a little hot (60°C+ for CPU#0!!!). A quick shutdown and I reapplied the Thermal paste on both CPUs - it was very thick and kinda crumbly - with some Thermalright paste I had kicking around. Booted up and all fine both CPUs now running in low to mid 40°Cs. This may be worth checking if you've just bought one of these, might be a cause of some of you random problems. Shut down for today gotta get ready for work now.

    So as we stand it's running Windows XP x64 quite readily. I'll sort out the rest of the drivers tomorrow and run it for a bit. I haven't got any spare SATA kit lying around at the moment - I'll have to 'borrow' the 2nd drive out of my Mac G5 for a test and I'll give the modded 2.18B BIOS with latest SI ROM a go.

    Hope this info helpful to you all. I'll keep you updated as I go.
     
  13. tqhoang

    tqhoang MDL BIOS Modder

    Apr 29, 2008
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    #96 tqhoang, Mar 24, 2010
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2010
    mateuszd - Which modded BIOS did you install? The one with the SI 5.4.0.3 or 5.5.0.0?

    I actually don't have the HDAMA revG board or Win2008R2. I have two rigs with the *very similar* HDAMB, dual Opteron 280's, 4GB and Win7.
     
  14. mateuszd

    mateuszd MDL Member

    Mar 22, 2010
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    #98 mateuszd, Mar 24, 2010
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2010
    Well the thing is I can not disable restart wehen error occurs because I need to apply the skip driver signature check otherwise system does not boot at all, one more thing is that the drivers from their website did not work for me, they are not recognised...

    Small Question... Is there any way you could embed a SLIC certificate into this BIOS?

    The BSOD is ci.dll (Could not write to read only memory), I can not provide the error code because I can select the option to stop restarting as i have to disable driver signature thing.
     
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  15. mateuszd

    mateuszd MDL Member

    Mar 22, 2010
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    I think I got my system stable now, i use the 5.5 version and my manually modified driver (used the old INF file and new SYS file, because the new INF file was not seen as compatible). This seems to work at the moment. I will do further testing tomorrow...
    My HDD: non-raid connected to the SATA SI controller, 2GB RAM, 2 Opertion 250CPU's and Windows Server 2008 R2 x64.

    I would like you to guide me through the BIOS SLIC insert because I will need lots af time to learn to do it...
     
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