Shut-Up and Smile

At the end of last year I got a new server. It’s a real beast (2x Dual Core AMD Opteron 270, 8 GB of RAM, and 3.5 TB of total disk). I love it. However, things are getting warm here in Southern California so I started to worry the box was getting too hot. I’ve heard good and bad about getting temperature data from the bios, but until I find a good reliable tool (anybody know of one?), I figured reading the motherboard data was better than nothing.

So, I went to Tyan’s site (I’ve got a Thunder K8SD Pro (S2882-D)) to see if they had any tools. Sure enough, they have a tool to read system data, including temperature. Well, the figures I got were not pleasant. It said my processors were hovering in the 52 degree Centigrade range. So, I start poking around and sure enough, there’s a BIOS update for my motherboard that addressed my issues. Specifically: “Adjusted CPU temp detection method for more accurate CPU temperature display”.

So far you’re wondering, yeah, so what? Well, here’s where things went downhill. I download the BIOS, install it, and Windows (Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition to be specific) blue screens and reboots. Now you’re with me.

You see, when I rebooted after updating the BIOS, the system complained about not having the correct date and time. Oh dear. In fact, it pointed out that the settings were reset to the defaults. Hmmmm. Now, of course I didn’t write down anything of the settings (or take pictures with one of my THREE digital cameras). No, I didn’t take 10 extra freaking minutes to cover my stupid …

So, I looked up the blue screen error (specifically 0x0000007B). Hmmmm. Boot device related. Crap. You see my setup is that I’ve got two 250 GB drives in a RAID 1 configuration for the OS with the other 12 drives in a RAID 5 array (11 active, 1 hot spare). So of course, the first thing I tried to do was return my BIOS back to the previous version. No joy. OK, calm down. Relax. I then started poking around for my manuals, CDs, etc. that came with my system. I then realized I had used the WRONG BIOS!!!! Oh dear could things get any worse?

The solution you ask?

I first went and put the right BIOS on the box. Then before I tried to boot Windows, I went through each page of the BIOS checking settings until I happened upon a page related to the on-board SATA controller. Turns out the setting for how the controller operated (RAID vs non-RAID) was set to non-RAID. I changed the value to RAID, saved the settings and rebooted.

And ….. success! Oh, did I do the dance of joy.

So remember, One, don’t update your BIOS unless you’ve memorized all the settings or taken pictures. Two, don’t update your BIOS if you’ve got tons of work to do on a deadline. It will only slow you down!

End of line.

Edit: Fixed typo.