New DL380G5 will not boot Windows after BIOS upgrade

[NJK-Work]

Alas no....before I get my big lazy butt down to the data center and go through this (in my opinion) ridiculus process just to upgrade BIOS, I was hoping to see if there was a better solution.

I also kinda have a fear about pulling processors out of a server once nice and seated and working. It is probably just silly, but I believe it introduces risk in damaging the processors. You know: ESD, pins breaking, etc.

Nelson

[NJK-Work]

Yeahhhh...so I got feeling guilty for not trying the process swap solution and went down to the DC to try. I released the cage/enclosure lever, but could not figure out how to unseat the CPU. So I pulled a "little" on the heatsink, and the whole heatsink came off! Now you know why I hate messing with CPUs ;(

I am thing the little enclosure/cage is what keeps the heatsink snug on the on the CPU, so I don't think I did any damage - can someone confirm that so I can ease my mind?

I got kinda freaked out when the heatsink came off, so I stopped there and did not continue - even though I don't think I did any damage.

Nelson

[seehigh]

Chill out so far it is ok...to remove the CPU chip there is another latch you need to pull..

but nothing happened to it....so far you messed with CPU and heatsink thermal grease that is it ..not big deal ..

[Terence Tsao]

exeuse me ,whisch BIOS version you upgrade to your DL380G5 ?

[NJK-Work]

I tried the last two versions. The BIOS on the server that came with it and works (even though a brand new server) is 2 BIOS revs back. I tried the latest from HPs site and also the version right before that one that I had already downloaded several months ago.

Nelson

[AdrianJ]

Hi Nelson,

I have experienced a similar sounding issue with four new DL380G5s that we received, all which were shipped with the latest BIOS, i.e. version P56 04/10/07. We use a scripted W2K3 build deployed via RIS, and were seeing the servers BSOD (Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_or_Equal) and re-boot whenever the latest PSP 7.91(A) was being applied. I traced this back to the iLo2 driver HPQILO2.SYS, which is deployed as part of the iLO2 Management Controller Driver for Windows 2003 (cp007692.exe).

I had already tried ensuring that the firmware and software for all installed hardware was the latest and greatest, but all to no avail. The only resolution I have found to date, is to flash the BIOS revision of the servers back to P56 28/06/07. Once this is done, everything works fine, even with the latest 7.91(A) PSP applied.

N.B. The servers in question were sited in remote offices, but using iLo to flash the BIOS worked fine, so no visits to boxes required.

[NJK-Work]

That sounds about like my experiences too. Thanks for the feedback.

Nelson

[MarcelR]

I have finally the answer, our supplier called me this morning about this issue. It appeared that the stepping of the two processors was not the same. The 7.91 bios firmware checks for that. They ordered the additional processors from another supplier, so that was probably the reason for the different processor, even though the articlenumbers were the same.
We had two systems with similar problems as described above, downgrading bios firmware was my workaround until now. After I swapped CPU1 with CPU2 from the other server so each system has two the same cpu's, everything runs fine on a fully 7.91 upgraded system.
So; check the stepping of the processor, and if not the same; change!
(We have all Dual Xeon 2,0 Ghz)

[NJK-Work]

Thanks!

Nelson

[NJK-Work]

Many people suggested swapping processors. This was confirmed by MarcelR.

Thanks to all.
Peace out!