SuperMicro H8DG6-F - Simply unable to get reliable?

[FatRakoon]

Ok, I bought this Motherboard just before xmas.
With it, I got 2 Opteron 6380 CPUs

To work with it, I bought 16 sticks of Samsung RAM. This RAM is, according to the info gained off the website, good RAM for it.

The Server worked for the most part, but it kept blue screening.

After a short while, I had thoughts that it needsa fresh install and it completely failed to manage to install Windows 8.1 64 Bit. I thought it may be the PSU, so I have swapped the PSU over. It is NOT the PSU anyway, so thats £200 down the drain.

I then removed half the RAM, and this has helped somewhat, its still not right, but its better. At least I can use the Server now to a point.

Anyway, after talking to the guy who sold it to me, he said that he used 2 sets of Kingston and he gave me a link to the actual stuff he used. I bought that same stuff and yes, I bought 2 sets, so that gave me 64GB to use, and I thought at least as long as it works, then that will be fine, but its no different. The system is quite simply the most unreliable pile of junk that I have EVER been silly enough to buy.

I have got rid of the original RAM, and bought smaller sticks of similar stuff, in the hope that they will use up less power, but its not made any difference.

The thing is now, that with the original RAM ,and this new RAM, the Mobo & CPU bundle, the PSU and the new Case and HDs, oh, and a new copy of Windows too, I have spoent just over 2 grand on this and I am completely unable to get it working.

Can anyone help me here?


The RAM that I have to work with is this :-

Kingston KTH-PL316SK4/32G - 8 sticks
Samsung M393B5173EHD-CF8 - 16 Sticks

I am thinking that maybe a bios setting is all I need to know, as I can get into the BIOS just fine, but I just cannot install Windows or Linux without it screaming blue murder at me, it can often blue screen, but it mostly simply restarts with no warning.

Please please please help.

 

[Wizzkidy]

Have you updated the BIOS of the motherboard?

Have you removed any other devices apart from memory, USB sticks any other non critical devices etc..

Have you ran memtest to see if it is memory related?

Just a couple of things to find out first

 

[FatRakoon]

I have NOT touched the BIOS, however, its 3.5b and that is the latest, so no need.

Removed all other devices.
This is my next port of call absolutely. It had Matrox On board and so I will do that and get rid of the ATI card. I have also added a USB3 card and a SATA card too, so they will come out too.

Im a tad fed up with it and so I will be leaving it alone for the time being... I might get my head down now and have a look later on, or maybe I wil leave it for a while longer, I dont know? I need to just step away from it for a bit cos Iwioll end up kicking the thing to death and thats the last thing I need to do considering how much money I have put into it.

Memtest.
I ran it for a short while, I have also ran Prime95 for 48 hours and it was showing up as fine... This is on the original RAM. I have not tested any of the new stuff, but the new stuff is all factory sealed stuff anyway and so I have the confidence that its good RAM.

 

[Wizzkidy]

Can you explain what actually happens in more details? Can you actually build windows on it and use it for a period of time? or are you getting blue screens or resets within the setup stage of windows?

Also when you say the machine just turns off do you lose all power or does the motherboard still have power to the board, any led lights?

 

[Quartz]

Which version of Windows 8.1 have you installed? You need the Professional or Enterprise versions to support two CPUs.

 

[FatRakoon]

More detail?

Well, ok I have had BSODs and they all give completely random errors, nothing specific that I can at leat use to get to some reason as to why it has crashed, but 9 times out of 10, it simply restarts with no warning.

and yes, when I first had it, I simply did a mobo swap and it worked right off the bat, but then it got worse as it went on, leading me to think that it may have been an update or a driver, and then the issues got so bad, that I ended up taking half the RAM out - I did not do that just for fun, there were other reasons why - but this seemed to cure it for a bit, and then it got worse again.
I reinstalled and it did a few random restarts that were not in their usual place, but it was getting further each time and so I left it and it eventually worked.
I was now at the desktop and so I set about reinstalling my usual apps and updates required was coming up to just shy of 2GB ( Bloody hell ) and it was semingly ok for a few more days until it started again... an update then perhaps?

I went to reinstall and its simply not been able to since.

Its now just sat next to me collecting dust.

With everything I have spent on it trying to get it right, has now topped 2 grand, I have decided to just give up.

Tonight, I am taking all the stuff out that does not need to be there and seeing if it will start up and whetehr I can do a fresh install as it may be something like a card thats not being nice, I dont know, but I am at the end of my tether to be honest.


Version of Windows.
8.1 Enterprise 64Bit

 

[GDL]

Supermicro boards are horrid with hardware and software that isn't on the approved list, while I have nothing to offer as supporting these boards are just random as hell I feel your plight.

My X9SCM-F doesn't support HP P410 or HP P212 HBA's so it's getting might dusty as well.

 

[FatRakoon]

Argh, dont say that!

This is the first time that I have had a truly problematic system ina very very long time.

In fact the last board that gave me this much headache was my TG5VI or whatever the hell that was??? On my AMD K6 550.

I solved that simply by running the CPU at 95 instead of 100 and it was one of the best boards that I have ever had since then... I am kind of hoping that this ilwl be the same... A bugger until I find out the issue, and then it will be the best thing since sliced bread.

Right now, my best and most favoured boards are :-

AMD = Sabretooth 990 FX R2.0 ( Got my 8350 in this )
Intel = Saphire PureBlack X58 ( got my 970 in that )

I have newer and probably better, but I have had these long enough to know their ins and outs.

Right now, the only thing I know about this Superheadache is how quickly it will fail.

----

Now...
Having said all of that, I have just been working on it and I have found a possible cause of the issues.

The USB 3 card that I bought especially for htis server, I splashed out on a top end high quality one so that it did NOT risk the board in anyway, just happens to be a pile of cack and after taking out various cards etc, I have pin-pointed this card as the one and only problematic card... Or to be fairer, the drivers for the card.

I have now got the server to rash at an exact place every time, and that is about 5 seconds after the desktop shows its head, then it simply restarts.

But, after I swapped the slot to the next one up, it get much further in, before it crashed... It seemed to only crash once it had the drivers in.

The thing is, that this system did kind of work before ,but it does not now?
It also failed massively when I was trying to install windows too, so surely thats not the drivers? Unless of course the drivers are simply not liking this board?

I do have other USB 3 cards but they are up in the lan room and now that I am wheelchair stuck ,I cannot get them, and I rely on my idiot sons who dont know the difference between a PCI card and a motorbike engine, and I have to get them to take photos of everything and I show them the bits I need ( they still get it wrong half the time just so I dont keep asking them Im sure )

Anyway, its early days of course, but right now, I have lost USB 3 and this board has such a low number of USB ports that I am having to make do, and there is no guarantee that its the issue, but right now, its running great... Touch wood.

I will just buy a £2 USB 3 card cos this £70 one has been the biggest and most expensive pile of junk I have ever had... I will try it in my Media PC and see how that goes LOL

 

[Wizzkidy]

If its the system is now running it is most likely the USB card you are talking about.

As suggested Supermicro boards suffer from non supported devices, I'm trying to figure out why your using one with what your running, it seems .. interesting

You could buy two cheap USB cards and they will have the same problem or maybe not, its luck of the draw if there not on a supported list.

Actually Supermicro boards are fine if you use supported hardware, I would go to say there very good in this situation.

 

[FatRakoon]

If its the system is now running it is most likely the USB card you are talking about.

Yes, I certainly hope so, although I did have it hang on me earlier on when I tried to open WinAmp, but that was the once, and it was also doing something else too! - no excuses from it, but I tried to copy that again and get it to crash while doing the same thing and I could not get it to crash or hang, so maybe not, I dont know?

As suggested Supermicro boards suffer from non supported devices, I'm trying to figure out why your using one with what your running, it seems .. interesting

Interesting? Why?

Do you mean why am I running a Supermicro board as opposed to any other board?

Simple... This is what was on the MM, so thats what I got.

I have not bothered to look at alternative boards I will be honest... Even if I did, I would only be wasting even more money on something that I only really went for, purely out of curiosity and now, in typical me fashion, I have gone and spent a friggin fortune on it, like I always seem to do!

You could buy two cheap USB cards and they will have the same problem or maybe not, its luck of the draw if there not on a supported list.

I have actually done just that. I do have a nice Asus card in one of my setups somewhere that is both USB 3 and SATA and is a great card, and I would love to find out where the heck that is, but I have just bought a few other cards that might just fit the bill... Its mainly USB 3 thats the headache.

Although, for some strange reason, when I had the USB card in, when the SATA went through, it saw and setup both the DVDRW drives on it ( The third DVDRW is on the Mobo's 5th SATA port ) and it took about 2 seconds and it simply flashed them up on the screen and continiued on... Now, it seems to take yonks, does not show up any drives, as if its struggled to find anything and then it continues after 30-35 seconds of just standing there twidling its thumbs.

Both drives are therte when windows comes up mind you and they seem to be working just fine, but Im ata loss as to why it takes so long to check them without that USB 3 card? Well weird, a reversed conflict in a way that is?

Actually Supermicro boards are fine if you use supported hardware, I would go to say there very good in this situation.

But its knowing what is and what is NOT supported hardware?
Is there any list? There is a list of supported RAM of course, but PCI cards?

 

[memyselfandi]

Memtest.
I ran it for a short while, I have also ran Prime95 for 48 hours and it was showing up as fine... This is on the original RAM. I have not tested any of the new stuff, but the new stuff is all factory sealed stuff anyway and so I have the confidence that its good RAM.

I'm sorry but this is just wrong. Just because RAM is new and factory sealed doesn't mean that it automatically isn't faulty in some way. In fact the only memory I've ever had which has been faulty has, each time, been new and factory sealed (and that's not just me being kack-handed installing it)

You should still run a test against it ... it could well pass but assuming that it will, without testing it, is not correct.

 

[FatRakoon]

Oh, dont get me wrong, I see what you mean, but this does state guaranteed 100% error free etc etc, and while there is no such thing as a 100% guarantee, I am fairly confident that the RAM will be good ram.

I am never 100% but I am cert\inly in the high 99% that its good... for now.

So far, its been fine for me and I am now on day 2 without issues.