H710 Installation Issue?
Precision T3600, H310, two 2tb drives RAID1 (mirror). I bought a H710 and installed. Imported foreign configuration, and Windows 7 booted right up... noticed that it needed a H710 driver (or drivers), and installed a thing or two. After installation, there was a H710 device in the device manager, but also a "RAID Controller" with no driver found ... and wanted to reboot (of course).
Rebooting got to the first Windows splash screen, then reboot (and etc.). It wouldn't even boot into safe mode, but would boot to "last known good configuration."
I futzed with it as much as I could bear, but I couldn't get it to boot. Replaced the H310, imported foreign configuration, and it's running fine. Most up-to-date driver, updated the firmware on the H710 ... and pretty much ran out of ideas.
Did I get a bum H710? Did I do something wrong? Anyone have any idea?
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Hi Adam,
The H710 and H310 share the same driver so I don't think there is a driver issue if your 310 still works, however it could be a firmware issue as some used cards firmware were flashed or patched to to increase the NCQ or to reflash it to IT mode to aid in performance.
Here's a link to the latest firmware from Dell's website. That may help clear the no controller found issues.
https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=9mhj5
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The reboot is a BSOD... STOP: 0x0000007B
"Inaccessible Boot Volume."
A bit of googling finds a recommendation to change the "Start" value in both of the below registry keys to '0'.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
Also, while I'm at it, I looked at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\percsas2
IastorV has a start value of 3, both Msahci and percsas2 have a start value of '0'.
I'm hesitant to change anything: If I put the H310 in, everything works fine. If I put the H710 in, BSOD 0x7b. No other changes. Is the H310 not an AHCI boot device and the H710 is? Did I miss a H710 setting somewhere?
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Hmm, I've seen the regstry issue before and the problem is a simple fix that won't affect your setup for the h310. All you have to do is simply boot into safe mode. Once it's in safe mode shutdown and start normally. What this does is it copies what boot files that are missing to your install without affecting your previous one, but if you still feel hesitant then I fully understand.
Another thing I forgot to ask was can you send me a picture or the mfg # of the h710 as it turns out there were a couple of variants with different chipsets?
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stormson weathers
Adam Goldberg
I'm a little late to the party on this one.
I would agree that the card appears to be overheating and is failing.
Dell did make an H710P card specifically for Precision Workstations. It also has different firmware than the poweredge version that you are installing. That is not to say that the poweredge version won't work.
I'll post the pn when when I have a chance to dig it up.
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Very interested to know what the pn is for a Precision-specific H710 or H710p... and I'm going to return the one I have because I continue to suspect it's not 100% good.
But note that the failures come immediately. Unless it's overheating in ~2min, the main problem isn't an overheating one.
Interestingly, when I looked at msconfig, it had me booting a Selective Startup, and the Boot tab shows a "recovered" configuration. I switched it to normal startup, and it failed to boot even with the H310. Boot to the recovery console, rebuilt the BCD, and it booted properly (and no longer in recovered configuration). I haven't had the guts/time to try the H710 again, though.
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Adam Goldberg they are indeed the same cards. However, Dell did make pn that was made specifically for the precision workstations. The firmware is different from the poweredge version. Also, unless you have that specific pn, you can't flash it to the workstation firmware. The firmware is supposed to be optimized for the precision workstations.
I believe the PN is: KYJRD
That being said, both seem to work in the precision workstations. I still think you have a card that failed.
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Thanks a bunch for all your help!
I think there's two different part numbers, one a later rev but both essentially the same. The only thing I saw about the firmware for a Precision seemed to be an older version than the most-current version of the firmware. Shrug.
At the end of the day, I couldn't get the system to boot properly with the H710 installed, and can only conclude that it's broke. It's going back.
Interestingly, it seems like a H710 never came in a Precision T36x0 (just either the H310 or H710P). I'm going to get a P at some point.
Anyone have a line on known-good H710P for a good price?