Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 12:50:45 -0800 From: Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org> To: Omar Thameen <omar@clifford.inch.com> Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org, freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Mylex AcceleRAID 150 problems Message-ID: <200101272050.f0RKojx00993@mass.dis.org> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 27 Jan 2001 01:35:45 EST." <20010127013545.A21945@clifford.inch.com>
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> I have a Mylex AcceleRAID 150 running in a 4.2-RELEASE server and I've
> run into a couple problems and need some advice.
>
> First, the simple one. The 150 came with 4M of memory, and I'm trying to
> purchase a 16M SIMM from crucial.com (or wherever) to avoid the
> exorbitant Mylex prices for additional memory. As best as I could
> determine, the memory is EDO Parity RAM, 36 pin, 60 ns, SIMM. I bought
> exactly that from Crucial in 16M size (# CT4M36E2M6), but the server
> will not display or do anything when powered up, even rendering the
> power toggle functionless. Is there some spec that I'm missing?
Yes. The card requires 40-bit memory (byte-ECC), and Mylex' pricing is
actually fairly reasonable. However, adding more memory won't do you a
lot of good - the card has no battery backup, so you can't use it as
write cache, and the OS already read-caches better than the card does.
The 4M on the 150 and the 8M on the 250 are actually quite reasonable
configurations for those adapters. (We've been running an 8M AcceleRAID
250 in freefall.freebsd.org for nearly a year now, for example.)
> Second, about 3 out of 5 times, the system fails to boot. It gets to the
> "press enter to boot [kernel]..." phase, then shows me the slash ( / ),
> then hangs, again rendering the power toggle functionless, but not the
> reset switch. I've checked the motherboard and mobo BIOS, and swapped
> out the RAM, eliminating those as problems.
This one's beyond me; if it's intermittent and you can't find *any*
correspondence between any external factor and the failures, then I'd be
getting pretty desperate. Does the card work OK once the system is up
and running?
> Admittedly, I am running
> the Mylex Firmware/BIOS that came with the card:
> Firmware version 4.06-0-29
> BIOS 4.10-41 Feb 2, 1999
> but I am *highly* reluctant to try and upgrade, as a very competent
> colleague of mine had not one, but 2 of the same cards get hosed after
> trying the upgrade and speaking with Mylex tech support.
I've done a lot of upgrades on these cards, and never fried one. If you
follow the instructions, it just works. Having said that, unless you're
having issues with disk interaction, updating probably won't help you a
lot.
> The only
> other thing I can think that might be relevant to troubleshooting is
> that both motherboards that I've used have on-board SCSI (and a SCSI
> CDROM is plugged in and works).
This would only be an issue if the controller thinks that it's handling
the onboard SCSI as well, and I doubt that (eg. if it's a Symbios part,
and if it shows up in the RAID config tool then you might have problems).
> Any analysis and suggestions would be very much appreciated,
I'm afraid I don't have a lot here; check your SCSI cabling, check the
card is properly seated and the memory on the card is installed. Check
your jumpers, and that you have the activity LED plugged in properly (if
it's connected at all).
Regards,
Mike
--
... every activity meets with opposition, everyone who acts has his
rivals and unfortunately opponents also. But not because people want
to be opponents, rather because the tasks and relationships force
people to take different points of view. [Dr. Fritz Todt]
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