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  • Problems with Server Motherboards

    Hi Friends,

    I wanted to up my hardware capability a bit and so looked for a MB for my COS 7 server. I decided thought I've had good luck with consumer MBs, I'd be professional and get something server oriented. It's ITX sized, so the selection is limited.

    This approach has been frought with problems. Every item I have purchased used the 222, 224 or 226 chipsets. Another common link is the inclusion of a IPMI port, and the ASpeed server chipset. Nothing but error messages, video problems, and instability. The ASRock Rack boards were especially problematic.

    I'm now using a 222 based board from MSI. Here are the strange symptoms:

    Starts to boot OK.

    GIves error: TSC_Deadline disabled due to errata. Please update microcode....etc
    Then error i8042: No controller found

    Then the boot progress stripe starts and looks normal. Part way through, the video mode changes as I expect, but then the progress stripe has bizarre colors.

    When the progress stripe finishes, there is no video. The system stays that way for approximately 5 to minutes. Then, suddenly I get the sign on screen. I can sign in, and the graphic interface seems normal. However, it does not seem stable and often reboots upon changes.

    There are boards that supposedly support Linux well. I am using a Xeon E3-1200 v3 series processor. No luck at all. I've tried quite a few "ordinary consumer" boards and every one seems fine.

    Is there some major problem with that ASpeed support device, or the 22x Intel server chipset series? Any ideas out there?


    Thanks,
    Drew VS