ML150 G5 possible BIOS bug with add-on pcie video card

[Laszlo Neufeld]

Hi all,

According to the user guide for this series and other threads in the forums, once I add a video card, the BIOS should disable the onboard graphics. I tried this with two cards: An Nvidia 8600 series card and ATI x1600 series card, both pcie x16 cards. Both cards are confirmed good through an x8 to x16 adapter in various other systems, including several Dell servers. (SC440, SC1430, 1900) (To be comprehensive, I tested normal x16 operation, as well as 1x, 4x, and x8 through the adapter.) Whichever slot I insert the card into, device manager will show a yellow exclamtion sign for that particular pcie slot with the following message: "This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. (Code 12)"

It seems to me that the BIOS fails to disable the onboard graphics card and allocate resources to the add-in card. I tried reseting the BIOS; no help. I tried diabling the onboard video in device manager in safemode and rebooting; no help. I tried connecting video cables only to the add-on board, hoping that it will detect better that way; No cigar. There is no BIOS option to disable the onboard video. There is no jumper.

I have the latest 5100 chipset drivers, the latest firmware for everything, etc. This strongly appears to be a hardware issue.

[AGardner · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I had exactly the same problem. The problem occurs when you have 4Gb or more of memory inserted into the server. If you have less that 4Gb the graphics card will work. It seems to be something to do with how memory is mapped to the PCI-E slots.

It's also worth noting that if you have 4Gb of RAM the add on card will work in slot 1 and the onboard VGA will disable as expected (however, you get the issue described above and the addon card is useless).

If you have less than 4Gb and install the card in slot 1, the server will boot up and display POST and OS startup, but the OS will not load it's GUI.

Come on HP, fix this. I've had to gimp my machine to make it functional (and I've tried both XP and Server 2003, same result). I expect this kind of quality from Dell, not HP!

Andrew Gardner
Steria Ltd.

[Spencer Bizzell]

Hi Guys,

I am looking at getting a ML150 G5 and need to be able to add a graphics card for Autocad. I want to use it as a vitualization server running a few copies of Windows XP with a few users connecting remotely in to use Autcad Engineering Drafting software. I will need a Graphics Add-in card and was hoping a could slot a ATI Radeon XT1900 PCI-E x16.

Is this possible, have you came right with your cards in your servers.

Please let me know,

Thanks,

Spencer

[Lucas Peres]

Hi I'm having the same issue with the exactly the same setup. ML 150 G5 with nVidea Geforce 9800Gtx on linux.

I can see both vga cards (onboard and add-on) using lspci:

03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 9800 GT (rev a2)
08:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200e [Pilot] ServerEngines (SEP1) (rev 02)

But the onboard still being used, and i can't find somehow to disable and use the nVidea card.

Thanks.

Lucas

[Laszlo Neufeld]

For those of you still strugglng with high-marging but questionable quality HP servers, move yourself to Dell. After this G5 video card snag, I returned the server and got myself a PowerEdge 2900 III. I cut the video card down to 8x with a dremel, connected the aux power on the card with an adapter, and off I went. I can also confirm that the PowerEdge T300 will work with two, yes, TWO, PCIe video cards, in addition to the SAS add-on board. Suck on that HP!

PS. The reason they never fixed this is because they did not say anything in the docs about you being able to use a video card in this machine, so if it's not in the docs, you are SOL.

[Lucas Peres]

Unfortunately that seems to be the real truth.

I've followed some other post which stated that updating the BIOS ROM fix the error. I've updated to latest version (07/06/2009).

But now my CPU FAN is at 100% ALWAYS and still can't use the video card.

It seems that HP really don't care to their customers, and people who owns their servers are completely alone without of any type of support.

Its a shame for companies at that size don't have a post-buy policy to support and keep their customers satisfied and well supported.

If anyone still interested in this problem, I will still try to find somehow a solution, as unfortunately I've spent all $ my in this server and can't switch to a dell.

But please HP, we are still waiting for at least one official input regarding this issue.

[TarunJain]

Hi,
Could HP Moderator reply to this thread?

[u84823]

Re fan speed - this issue is listed three times on the front page of this board already. You need to update the iLO management firmware, even if the iLO is not fitted.

Re graphics card, simply put the MLxxx series ARE NOT DESIGNED TO BE USED AS DESKTOPS. From the web site, "designed from the ground up as a true server; Designed to provide just the right features..."

If you need a workstation, BUY A WORKSTATION and stop moaning about it!

If on the other hand you want a very cheap server that will show a full 4GB of USABLE memory under Windows Server 2003, the ML11x are the machine for you :)

[u84823]

Also notice that video RAM DIRECTLY reduces the amount of RAM available to 32-bit Windows.

[TarunJain]

Thanks for highlighting the difference between server and desktop
Just for clarity could someone confirm which server will suit the need of "Spencer Bizzell" as posted above?
"I want to use it as a vitualization server running a few copies of Windows XP with a few users connecting remotely in to use Autcad Engineering Drafting software."
A Server or Workstation?
If a server then which model?