Microserver Gen10 hangs on boot

[A1lexis]

Hello,

I have a Microserver Gen10, the server has a OS disk which is connected to SATA-Port 5. If I remove the two data disks, then I can boot the server without errors. The error occurs also if only on data disks is connected.

The error occurs first after a restart of Windows Server 2016 Essentials.

The Server shows only the HPE logo and the number 92 in the right bottom corner, it isn’t possible to enter the BIOS or boot menu. After pressing ALT + TAB the server shows the help text and after pressing F2 the message enter setup is shown, but nothing happens.

Before the error I installed Windows and tried the Marvell controller to build a RAID for data disks, but I removed the Marvell RAID-Volume and switched to Windows Storage Spaces.

[A1lexis]

I fixed the problem, I connected both data disks to a other computer and cleaned the disks with diskpart.

But I don’t have any clue what was the cause.

[bosko1333]

I have similar problems!

In my case some sata disks works and some does not. WD Red 1TB (filled with data) works fine, but my old disk Maxtor 120GB (empty and formated) cause blackscreen (in legacy mode) or HPE logo loop (in uefi mode).

After long time of waiting on blackscreen and pressing del or f11, server has finnaly come to setup utility. I searched for Sata connections, but regardless of 2 connected HDDs, there were no visible sata drives in sata configuration menu.

[ebbex]

Enable SMART on your drives. Boot from a usb-stick with smartmontools installed, "hot-plug" in your drives, "smartctl -s on /dev/sdX".

[Dabasinskas]

Thank you!

It seems to be a bug (feature?) that Microserver Gen10 does not boot if one of the drives has S.M.A.R.T. disabled. And, it also seems, that if you setup Storage Pool on Windows, running this server, it gets S.M.A.R.T. disabled.

After the latest BIOS update, it's now possible to enable S.M.A.R.T. withou any additional tools:

1. Remove the disk(s)
2. Boot the computer to UEFI prompt
3. Insert the disk(s)
4. Type RAID
5. Use the loaded Marvell utility to go through the disks and enable S.M.A.R.T. on them.

[JDL1]

Hi,

I have one stubborn disk that I still cannot get to work. SMART is enabled with smartctl, all the partitions are removed but still the Gen10 wont see it (BIOS ZA10A360 loaded). When I try to enable SMART using Marvell RAID option it looks like it doesn't "save" it. When you go back in it still says enable. I am at wits end !

Anyone have some more options to try ? BTW Disk is Seagate Barracude 2TB ST2000DM001. 

<edited> Tried an old Samsung HD200JH too. Same problem. Why only these disks ? If there is a specific supported list of drives does anyone know where to find it ? I would hate to buy another drive and it doesn't work either...

[Nerdian]

I have this prolem too. I happend for brand new (unused) WD Red 4TB Retail Harddrives.

I wonder is this problem exits on all machines and if there is a fix for it. Changing the SMART Status on a different machine or by going into some firmware setup after hotplugging the drive is not a sustainable solution...

[Anguel]

Thank you all for the hints. I have Win 10 on my MS Gen10 and I had 4x Seagate Exos 10TB drives in a Win 10 storage pool but now I decided to use the 4 drives as single drives. So I just deleted the pool using the Windows 10 tool and thought that it would be a good idea to reboot before repartitionioning the empty drives. However the server never came up again because of this stupid bug!

I know that the MS does not support hot-plug so I decided to attach the drives via USB 3 docking station to my PC and checked the SMART status via gsmartcontrol (smartmontools with GUI), however SMART showed ENABLED. So this did not solve the problem.

To not waste more time I just created a new NTFS volume and formated just clicking next next next. I had to do this for all 4 drives and now my MS boots up again :-)

Hope this helps and as usual - many thanks to the big IT corporations for making our life hard.

Anguel

[Sposh]

Had some trouble flashing BIOS 360 from 290, but once done, worked like a charm. 

[teamitdenver]

I have 4x 2TB SAS drives for this MicroServer Gen10, and when any of them are plugged in, the server hangs on boot with 92 in the lower right corner. If I unplug them all, I can boot to USB.

If I try to power on the server, boot to the UEFI shell, plug in a drive, then go to the RAID utility, it never loads. It seems like the Marvell BIOS is locking up detecting drives.

I don't have another machine with SAS connectors and a chipset so I can try to wipe the drives and check if S.M.A.R.T. is enabled.

Ideas?