HP DL140G3 Memory Size Issue

[Gavin Daniels]

Hello,
I have just received some DL140G3 servers, For the application I need to install a 256Mb NVidia PCI Express video card in the server. When I do this, I lose 256Mb of ram from the total amount of system ram, and the option Rom's for the onboard SATA Raid and Network adaptors fail to load.
Are there any ideas why this issue arises,

[dms_1]

What type of OS do you have? Graphic cards are supported on Windows 2003 and Linux Operating Systems

[Gavin Daniels]

I will be running the servers with Windows Server 2003, but the OS issue is presently irrelevant, as the memory size issue and the Option Rom errors are being displayed in the Post BIOS after the onboard SATA Raid bios is processed, and the output and config messages for the onboard network adaptors are not displayed.

I believe that there is a BIOS related issue with the DL140G3 servers. They are presently running Version 1.12 of the bios, and I will upgrade them to the new release version 1.13 on Monday and see if the error is still produced. My feeling is that the same error will be presented as I can see nothing in the release notes about option rom mapping issues.
It could aqctually be related to not being able to fully disable the onboard video.

[Gavin Daniels]

Some More information relating to this.
When I have 3gb of ram installed in the system, and I add the 256mb NVidia chipset PCIe card, then the total system ram is reduced to 2815mb. If I reduce the system ram to 2gb or 1gb, then the ram size is correct. If I install a 128mb ATI chipset PCIe video card, then the ram size is correct regardless of the amount of system ram installed.
The use of any PCIe video card in the PCIe slot causes the system to produce Expansion Rom not Initialised messages for the onboard network cards.
I have upgraded the systems to the 1.13 Bios. I have tried disabling the PCI-x slots in the system bios.

I am using the onboard SATA Raid adaptor.

I have also tried installing an additional SATA raid card in the PCIe8x slot, and with any video adaptor installed in the PCIe16x slot this option rom fails to load also.

I believe that there is an issue with the bios not mapping for this config properly, but I need to use the 128mb or 256mb (Preferred) video cards because the software being installed (in a windows 2003 environment) does graphics rendering using the video card chip and ram.

[Gavin Daniels]

Some more additional information. I believe the issue is that there is some error in the system bios relating to the mapping of PCI Express adaptors. As a test, I removed the PCI Express riser assembly, which then exposes the PCI-X slots. I installed a 128mb ATI chipset PCI video card in the system, and the system BIOS processes without any error. I am waiting for a PCI based raid card to install in the system also to test if this works also.
But at this time I would have to say that the PCI Express.
For the application I have, I can use the PCI based cards, but would prefer the use of the PCI Express adaptors for the increased performance this would provide.