Trying to make a HP SmartArray P410 work in a consumer grade motherboard

[velis]

So I decided that the price was right and bought one. However, it immediately showed that it won't play nice with my motherboards.

Tried it both in an ASUS P8Z77-M PRO and an ASUS P8H67-V, both with equal failure: The card starts doing its POST and after completion reboots the machine. No chance to enter BIOS setup during this. Doesn't really matter which PCIe slot I use, results are always the same.

So I read in plenty of places that these cards don't play it nice - and I don't mind that.

However I have also read that people simply disable "Storage ROM" which makes the computer bootable and the card operational in Windows. I don't really need boot capability as the card is supposed to handle my secondary storage, but I would appreciate any tips on how to make my PCs boot with the card in the slot. So what is this "Storage ROM" that I need to disable here?

I remember previously owning motherboards that actually had a BIOS option to turn off option ROMs of PCIe cards. However, I have found no such option in either of my MBs' BIOSes. The only settings for PCIe slots I have found were to adjust the slot speed. There were two options in the boot section as well, one allowing me to select EFI / Legacy option rom and another selecting option rom display preference (BIOS vs card). Sadly nothing about disabling option ROM.


Any ideas / experience on how to make my motherboards POST with the card in a slot?

 

[tcsenter]

Assuming you have latest BIOS for motherboards, try:

- disable 'Full Logo' display so that you can see messages during POST
- Use Legacy BIOS + CSM (compatibility module) rather than UEFI
- disable any 'fast' or 'quick' boot mode feature
- Option ROM display = "Keep Current"
- PCI ROM Priority = Legacy

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Also, the P410 and P410i was later upgraded via firmware to enhance features and capabilities, but it did so by making sacrifices in compatibility with non-HP hardware (which is fine with HP, they don't sell their cards for non-HP servers).

Firmware 3.66B is the last firmware that made the card act (mostly) like a general RAID card. After that, compatibility with non-HP servers becomes sparse. Keep in mind though that 3.66B does *not* support >2TB drives.

There's a reason that card is cheap. I use one for my ZFS ZIL SSDs and assigning the 1GB memory cache to 75% writes. The drives are only 128GB in size, so for my use case it works well with the old 3.66B firmware.

 

[velis]

I've seen that, yes. Plenty of posts mentioning 3.66. Didn't manage to see that it doesn't support >2TB though. However, my planned usage is exactly with >2TB drives. I still have to find an appropriate time to shut down my server to try @tcsenter 's advice.

However, I don't see how I could flash ANY firmware unless I can make at least ONE computer boot with the card.

Anyway, the card was so cheap that I won't exactly pull my hair out if I can't make it work. On the flip side, I'd be extremely happy if it worked. The nearest alternative I have found are Adaptec's 5805s, but I hear they're scorching hot.

 

[robons17]

Hello,
I would try to transfer the hp p410 controller, currently installed on an HP server, in a more modern architecture.
Have you make it work on non-grade server board?
Thank you.

 

[velis]

No, I gave up and threw it in the drawer. I then "upgraded" my server to linux and created an array using mdadm + bcache. It's lightspeed now.

 

[robons17]

thanks.