Intel SS4200-E

[lazor]

Hi,

Since I've been dealing over the phone with Intel tech support since Monday, it would be really nice if I can cross-reference things with anyone here who might be familiar with this...

I bought an Intel SS4200-E (software version that comes with the EMC DOM). It has 4 brand new Western Digital 500gig drives installed. I connect it to the router, plug in the power and turn it on. It powers up, the hard drive lights go solid, and the power button blinks. That's it. It never registers an IP via DHCP on my router and the Intel Management software can't find the device.

The tech guys at Intel think the device is trying to boot off the installed hard drives instead of the installed DOM. They sent a replacement, but it does the same thing.

I'm supposed to be able to plug a serial header (DH10 to DB9) into the serial debug port on the ss4200's motherboard.... I did that. I then connected to com1 on a XP machine (tried a straight serial and a null modem cable) and set the port to 115200, 8n1, no flow control. Garbage is all that ever displays.

They tell me I should be able to open a terminal window through the serial port to see the bootup screen and management console. From there, I'm supposed to be able to change the BIOS to boot from the DOM instead of the hard drives.

I'm stuck since I can't get into the management console via serial connection. I checked the pinout on the motherboard's port and I don't think it's definitely not the same pinout used by the serial port on my desktop motherboard. My desktop has a pinout of:

1 DCD
2 RXD
3 TXD
4 DTR
5 GND
6 DSR
7 RTS
8 CTS
9 RI

The port on the SS4200 has a pinout of:

1 DCD
2 DSR
3 RX
4 RTS
5 TX
6 CTS
7 DTR
8 RI
9 GND

I'm just using a standard RS232 Serial MB Header to go from DH10 to DB9 on each motherboard and then I've tried to connect between the two with a straight through as well as a null modem cable - no luck.

Is there a way for me to get the serial terminal window working? I've tried using two computers. I've tried different serial cables. I tried different network cables. I even tried an old router to see if that would make the ss4200 happy. Oh, and I tried using 2 drives and 0 drives in the system to see if it would come online - no luck.

Any ideas? Are my guesses about the pinout mismatch correct?

Thanks,

-Ed

 

[BostonDan]

I had the exact same problem. I can't understand why, but performing a quick low-level format of all drives using WD's utilities and reinstalling the drives solved the problem.

 

[johnno]

I've had more or less the same experience:

I've got a PCI-E 1x graphics card hooked up to the SS4200 using a PCI-E flex riser, and am able to get into the BIOS.
The remote access settings (which control bios console redirection) seem to be correct (equal to what i've read elsewhere and what lazor also wrote).
But, using all manner of crossover and straight through serial cables, i've only been able to get garbage output as well.
It would seem like the serial port header pinout is somehow non-standard? Or maybe that feature is somehow broken.

Regarding the boot issue, it looks to be like there is a more general problem with booting on the SS4200; i've seen that situation where you boot but the screen is blank and the case fans stay on high speed (which would indicate that the device isn't even POSTing correctly, otherwise the BIOS would have turned them down to 1400rpm after 5 seconds or so) in multiple disk configurations (using the original DOM, using a regular IDE disk, and with/without and SATA disks attached).

Another issue is that there seems to be some non-standard BIOS setting which prevents windows and the windows installation process from detecting any disks on the ICH7R IDE controller, even if it's set to legacy mode...

My conclusion is that the BIOS software is a more or less custom/stripped-down build for the SS4200, which has some bugs and non-working functionality because of the limited scope of design and testing done on this device

I suppose it could be interesting to try and flash a regular BIOS onto the board; of course the big question there is: what desktop board is the SS4200 mainboard based on...

 

[comapro]

I just got a SS4200-E and I'm having the exact same problem. Anyone resolve this yet?

I have 2 new Seagate 750GB drives, and 2 used Seagate 750GB drives, all the same model. I've tried all 4, tried the 2 old ones, the 2 new ones, tried formatting them all with Seagate's wipe utility. The device powers on but just blinks a blue power light.

edit: I figured out my problem, which was different. I bought the SS4200EHWNA. I'm returning it to get the SS4200ENA.

 

[wphelps]

The serial port is standard.

Most serial ports are standard -- one of the many standards. In this case, you ran into the difference between the AT/Everex and DTK/Intel header standards; even though their name is on one of those, Intel uses both -- just to confuse things.

 

[stoomy]

partitions on SS4200-E ???

Hi all,
I recently purchased a SS4200-E and am having the same problem expressed by those on this thread.

I put 4 1TB WD green drives and all four of the "drive lights" turn solid blue. But, the power light is flashing blue. I left it for over 19 hours and this state persisted.

Is it necessary to remove all partitions? This is the appoach I took, but doesn't seem to be working out. Should I create a partition and format with ext2 or ext3? FAT32?....the docs don't give a clue on this....

<rant warning>
I have read a few posts on various sites that claim the user had to "low level format" their drives to use them in this device. I can assure averyone that this is not necessary or even possible. a true "low level format" is still possible on *some* modern SCSI devices, but not on *any* IDE, EIDE, ATA, or SATA drives.
"Low level formatting" involves configuring the HD sector size. "Regular formatting" is installing a file system. I would like to know if a file system is needed for this device to work. If so which one?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_level_format
If you don't know what a word means, please either look it up or don't use it! You just add to the problem otherwise.
</rant>

Apologies for the above rant....please if someone really knows in what state the drives need to be....please share your knowledge.


Thanks!
~Stoomy

 

[stoomy]

no partitions

Hi All,
The answer to my question is, "no partitions". fdisk and remove all partitions. if this doesn't work, there is a linux utility called shred. e.g.
#shred -vfz -n 1 /dev/sde

I tried running this on all 4 of my drives. one of the drives started giving errors almost immediately. I removed this drive, isntalled the other three and the device came online almost instantly.

Hope this helps,


~S

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for posting the solution.

 

[halo_bone]

Hi all

I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread or post here with a similar problem, where it's already collected SS4200 users maybe.

I'm having an interesting problem. I recently relocated and now this NAS isn't showing up on my network or even as a client in the router.

It starts up just fine, goes to the point where the power button and all HDD lights are solid blue. The network light is lit blue and flashes every so often like there is activity. The ethernet port shows green and orange, and the router is showing a light when I plug it in, seems fine?

I've tried resetting everything and in different orders; tried swapping out the router for a hub just to see (same problem, computer can't see or access it), and tried just plugging directly into a PC. In all cases all lights indicate good, but the device just isn't there.

Any ideas?

- wb