ML110 G4 won't turn on with aditional PCI card.

[Marcelo Iturbe]

Hello,
I have a ML110 G4 with SAS drives.
There are 2 PCI slots, the first is taken up with the SAS card and in the second I want to place a Modem.
Whith the modem in place, the server does not boot at all. Doesn't beep, nothing happends...
The SAS card lights flash but that's it.
Not even the CPU fans spin.

Take out the modem and everything is fine.

I need the modem since this machine is going to run asterisk.

Thanks for your help.

[James ~ Happy Dude]

Hello Marcelo,
Could you post more details on the MODEM that you are using... technical specifications !

Regards.

[Víctor Cespón]

The only modem supported on ML110 G4 is:

Agere 2006 PCI Hi-Speed 56K Modem - 440519-B21

If you have installed any other, you're risking damaging your motherboard and it will cost you the price of a new part and technician time.

[Marcelo Iturbe]

Hello,
Thanks for your replies.
The modem chipset is "Ambient MD3200"

Which is really a temporary device, becuase we ordered a VoIP Telephony device from Digium.

Now, if this server only supports a limited number of PCI devices how will I know if the Digium card will work?

This server was bought to build an asterisk IP phone central/switch. Did I make a mistake purchasing this hardware?

Thanks for your help.

[Marcelo Iturbe]

In particular, the piece of hardware that I want to place in the second PCI slot is the
Digium Wildcard TDM400P

http://www.digium.com/en/products/analog/tdm400p.php

Regards,
marcelo

[Víctor Cespón]

Well. let me explain. You have purchased a Proliant server from HP, not a generic IBM Compatible computer. These servers have a specific hardware and firmware, guaranted only to work with HP hardware.
Since you have purchased the server. it's yours and you can connect whatever you want on it, but do not expect it to work.
HP, like any other hardware manufacturer has a list of compatible and certified hardware and software. Anything outside that is unpredictable.

[KarloChacon]

hi

well that is difficult to know if that card is going to work with your server

why if you ask Digium in which servers is that card supported? or at least tested

they should know that and recommend that also

regards

[e4services]

I have had a little too much experience with PCI modems (having tried to build a serial communication server once) and can tell you, it may be that you simply have a VERY simple PCI software based modem. We had a lot of trouble finding modems that would not cause IRQ problems, which may be what you have with this one.
You will probably have to wait for the real hardware to know. We had to buy a lot of modems to find a few that would work for us. We needed to be able to have the device not search for an IRQ, but have one assigned as to not cause such problems. You may also need to force the server to clear its configuration to reassign IRQs when the modem is in place. But like I said, doing it now with a piece of hardware you are not going to be using will only make you go through it again when you have the hardware you and going to be using.

[e4services]

I just took a look at the specs for the ML100G4 also. It says there are 4 slots, 1/2 are 3.3V 32bit PCI slots, slot 3 x4 PCI Express, and slot 4 x8 PCI Express.
I would have thought the SAS card was PCIe, but when you say there were 2 slots, I guess it is in one of the regular PCI slots. And if that is the case and this modem you have is going into the other 3.3V PCI then it would have to be a 3.3/5V PCI card. Some older cards do not support a 3.3V only PCI bus and may be THAT is the problem

[rick jones]

Keep in mind there is PCI, PCI-X and PCIe, and while a PCI-X slot may "allow" some PCI cards, as indicated, it cannot allow all PCI cards, only those with compatible electricals. In _theory_ the slot keying should help there but that protectoin may not be complete.

FWIW, an HPspeak decoder for "works" vs "supported" is attached.