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No love for SuperMicro C7Q67 (BIOS fix)

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    #1

    No love for SuperMicro C7Q67 (BIOS fix)

    I bought two SuperMicro C7Q67 as "won't start" condition, thinking it's impossible to kill a SuperMicro

    Well, they wouldn't even power on, much less boot

    After blood, sweat & tears, I got the first to boot with my i5-2500K processor

    SuperMicro don't publish a Supported Processors list, and hoping to use a G1610 processor, I updated BIOS C7Q673_628

    Used a USB key booting into DOS, everything went fine, finally powered off then cleared CMOS according to ReadMe instructions

    Powered back on to get six beeps, then a CATERR LED lighting up

    Neither that beep code nor CATERR LED are documented in the C7Q67 User's Manual

    I've tried everything I can think of, can't get past CATERR


    The second C7Q67 is, if possible, even more frustrating

    Got it to power on, to get a blank screen

    If I remove memory - a pair of Hynix modules on their Tested Memory list - I get five short beeps and one long, meaning no memory

    FWIW, a POST card in the PCI slot, shows a status of 4B


    I thought SuperMicro was a brand you could trust

    Or have they gone like Asus, with Sudden Death Syndrome exacerbated by sh**ty documentation ?
    better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

    The CATERR LED is driven by the CAT_ERR_N signal and indicates a "Catastrophic Error". The 6 beeps indicate "Flash update has failed".

    Perhaps you can try a BIOS Recovery as specified in Appendix C of the user manual.
    Machina improba! Vel mihi ede potum vel mihi redde nummos meos!

    Comment

      #3
      Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

      Thanks for your feedback

      Originally posted by ReverendJones View Post
      The CATERR LED is driven by the CAT_ERR_N signal and indicates a "Catastrophic Error".
      I've followed a number of wild goose chases related to that error, on various forums - at one stage even tried hooking fans up to all unused fan connectors, after reading a thread on an Intel server forum, where someone got that error from wrongly connected fans

      Originally posted by ReverendJones View Post
      The 6 beeps indicate "Flash update has failed".
      Is there a reference to that anywhere in SuperMicro documentation ?

      There was no indication of failure during the update process, and this was one of many flash updates I've done

      Maybe no indication because there's no error checking in the crappy batch file that SuperMicro supply to do the update

      Originally posted by ReverendJones View Post
      Perhaps you can try a BIOS Recovery as specified in Appendix C of the user manual.
      I -have- tried that

      Cannot get it to register my pressing Ctrl+Home, using a PS/2 keyboard

      Speaking of Ctrl+Home - what a throwback to AMI BIOSes of 486 vintage, where processor speed was more leisurely - this is supposed to be a new UEFI BIOS

      You'd expect jumpers on the motherboard for BIOS recovery, like Intel boards, for a product having pretensions as server grade

      More suggestions would be appreciated
      better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

      Comment

        #4
        Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

        The 6 beeps indicate "Flash update has failed" came from an AMI document on their Aptio bios which is used in this motherboard.
        You haven't mentioned it, but I am sure you have tried removing the battery to reset the cmos.

        This motherboard does have a jumper to enter recovery mode, but it seems they forgot to mention it in Appendix C with the recovery instructions. The jumper for recovery mode is JPME1. See page 2-30 in the user manual for description and location. It seems to be used for recovery of the Management Engine part of the bios. I don't know if that will be helpful or not.
        Machina improba! Vel mihi ede potum vel mihi redde nummos meos!

        Comment

          #5
          Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

          Originally posted by ReverendJones View Post
          You haven't mentioned it, but I am sure you have tried removing the battery to reset the cmos.
          You're correct - one of the first things I tried

          Originally posted by ReverendJones View Post
          This motherboard does have a jumper to enter recovery mode, but it seems they forgot to mention it in Appendix C with the recovery instructions. The jumper for recovery mode is JPME1. See page 2-30 in the user manual for description and location. It seems to be used for recovery of the Management Engine part of the bios. I don't know if that will be helpful or not.
          I have tried jumpering JPME1 which is supposed to "enable ME (Manufacture Mode) Recovery"

          Didn't make any difference to the outcome, certainly didn't light up the USB key

          With nothing left to lose, I also tried jumpering JCPUVRD_SMB which is next to the CATERR LED

          It's mentioned in the manual as "PWM SMB programming header(for debugging only)" so jumpering may have been the wrong thing to do

          At least no magic smoke came out - I recall one of the positions changing the pitch of the beeps

          Thanks for your advice - you're a lot more helpful than "SuperMicro support" (an oxymoron if ever I heard one)
          better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

          Comment

            #6
            Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

            May be poorly seated DDR SDRAM modules.

            Or the socket... (because it's LGA)
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            "did I see a chair fly? I think I did! Time for popcorn!" -ratdude747

            Comment

              #7
              Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

              Now that it's getting warm in the Southern Hemisphere, I can play in the workshop without freezing

              Inspired by
              http://mondotech.blogspot.com.au/200...spi-flash.html
              and
              http://www.mylesgray.com/hardware/fi...n-motherboard/
              I tried a reflash in situ

              Without success - maybe would have worked had I known at first, what I subsequently learned
              Attached Files
              better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

              Comment

                #8
                Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

                So I desoldered the BIOS chip - what a tiny little thing, beside a CR2032 battery for comparison
                Attached Files
                better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

                  Then learnt the hard way how to reflash it with the latest Supermicro C7Q67 firmware image - which has changed, together with their reflash script, from the version I originally used

                  The Rube Goldberg setup used for reflashing, via the LPT port on another motherboard
                  Attached Files
                  better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

                    The C7Q67 ready for replacement of its BIOS chip
                    Attached Files
                    better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

                      Replaced
                      Attached Files
                      better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

                        And all this effort rewarded
                        Attached Files
                        better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

                          A pox on Supermicro and all their houses

                          My thanks to ReverendJones for setting me on the right track
                          Last edited by pfrcom; 10-31-2014, 08:33 PM.
                          better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

                            Wow!
                            My hat off to you sir. That's a very good save right there .

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

                              Nothing like saving a Supermicro!!
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                              Comment

                                #16
                                Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

                                The title should be:

                                Fixing a beloved Supermicro(the hard way)
                                Don't buy those $10 PSU "specials". They fail, and they have taken whole computers with them.

                                My computer doubles as a space heater.

                                Permanently Retired Systems:
                                RIP Advantech UNO-3072LA (2008-2021) - Decommissioned and taken out of service permanently due to lack of software support for it. Not very likely to ever be recommissioned again.
                                Asus Q550LF (Old main laptop, 2014-2022) - Decommissioned and stripped due to a myriad of problems, the main battery bloating being the final nail in the coffin.


                                Kooky and Kool Systems
                                - 1996 Power Macintosh 7200/120 + PC Compatibility Card - Under Restoration
                                - 1993 Gateway 2000 80486DX/50 - Fully Operational/WIP
                                - 2004 Athlon 64 Retro Gaming System - Indefinitely Parked
                                - Main Workstation - Fully operational!

                                sigpic

                                Comment

                                  #17
                                  Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

                                  I fixed an identical board here but afterwards noticed the MAC address for NIC1 was wrong.
                                  Instead of something sensible it was 88:88:88:88:87:88

                                  I found the following thread that described the use of Eeupdate which I've also attached to this post.
                                  The MAC address was printed on a sticker on the board and it was no problem to update it.
                                  There might be some more SMBIOS & DMI data etc still being wrong but at least the board seems to work fine like this with Server 2016
                                  Attached Files
                                  Last edited by Per Hansson; 05-31-2018, 11:45 AM.
                                  "The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it."

                                  Comment

                                    #18
                                    Re: No love for SuperMicro C7Q67

                                    The attached tool can fix the DMI data on the AMI BIOS for the Supermicro C7Q67
                                    Usage in MS-DOS as with the tool in my previous post.
                                    It has a built in help so it's easy to understand.
                                    Code:
                                    amidedos /SS 0123456789
amidedos /SV V1.01
amidedos /BS 0123456789
amidedos /BV V1.01
                                    In the post I linked before I did dump my corrupted BIOS.
                                    The data is stored in the BIOS under GUID: FD44820B-F1AB-41C0-AE4E-0C55556EB9BD
                                    I could use AMI Aptio UEFI MMTool v5.0.0.7 to extract that module and confirm my serial number and board revision.
                                    (Which is also printed on a sticker & the PCB respectively).
                                    Of course I could also have replaced the module from my backup and flashed the BIOS.
                                    But as recovery of soldered BIOS chips is not my favorite past-time I prefer a nice MS-DOS utility
                                    Attached Files
                                    Last edited by Per Hansson; 05-31-2018, 11:59 AM.
                                    "The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it."

                                    Comment

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