Perc h310 RAID controller in Dell Precision T5600

[JoeBargo]

On arrival the motherboard was faulty (no I/O ports working), but it was replaced.

Next the RAID controller would not recognize hard drives, and the controller is not visible as a boot device in the BIOS (Revision A09). Dell sent out a new card since they could not diagnose the problem either.

I received the new card, but no luck either.

I have little experience with RAID controllers, and I'm pretty lost.

Drivers, boot files, anyone know how to fix this?

 

[Pinhedd]

On arrival the motherboard was faulty (no I/O ports working), but it was replaced.

Next the RAID controller would not recognize hard drives, and the controller is not visible as a boot device in the BIOS (Revision A09). Dell sent out a new card since they could not diagnose the problem either.

I received the new card, but no luck either.

I have little experience with RAID controllers, and I'm pretty lost.

Drivers, boot files, anyone know how to fix this?

Dell has some pretty top notch tech support that are trained specifically on their workstations. Your purchases finance them, so I highly recommend giving them a call and ask them for help.

One thing that I did notice is that the h310 has a UEFI driver, but makes no indication of having an accompanying BIOS OPROM. If your motherboard's CSM is set to Legacy only, it may not initialize the UEFI driver on the PERC controller.

 

[JoeBargo]

On arrival the motherboard was faulty (no I/O ports working), but it was replaced.

Next the RAID controller would not recognize hard drives, and the controller is not visible as a boot device in the BIOS (Revision A09). Dell sent out a new card since they could not diagnose the problem either.

I received the new card, but no luck either.

I have little experience with RAID controllers, and I'm pretty lost.

Drivers, boot files, anyone know how to fix this?

Dell has some pretty top notch tech support that are trained specifically on their workstations. Your purchases finance them, so I highly recommend giving them a call and ask them for help.

One thing that I did notice is that the h310 has a UEFI driver, but makes no indication of having an accompanying BIOS OPROM. If your motherboard's CSM is set to Legacy only, it may not initialize the UEFI driver on the PERC controller.

Oh don't worry pinhedd, I have been talking with dell support for the last week. We have about 25 of these machines, all with the same set up. All the computers are using legacy BIOS, so that's not the issue.

I'm almost certain its a boot file or driver issue.

 

[Pinhedd]

On arrival the motherboard was faulty (no I/O ports working), but it was replaced.

Next the RAID controller would not recognize hard drives, and the controller is not visible as a boot device in the BIOS (Revision A09). Dell sent out a new card since they could not diagnose the problem either.

I received the new card, but no luck either.

I have little experience with RAID controllers, and I'm pretty lost.

Drivers, boot files, anyone know how to fix this?

Dell has some pretty top notch tech support that are trained specifically on their workstations. Your purchases finance them, so I highly recommend giving them a call and ask them for help.

One thing that I did notice is that the h310 has a UEFI driver, but makes no indication of having an accompanying BIOS OPROM. If your motherboard's CSM is set to Legacy only, it may not initialize the UEFI driver on the PERC controller.

Oh don't worry pinhedd, I have been talking with dell support for the last week. We have about 25 of these machines, all with the same set up. All the computers are using legacy BIOS, so that's not the issue.

I'm almost certain its a boot file or driver issue.

UEFI firmware has the ability to load UEFI drivers, and with the CSM enabled, can also load BIOS OPROMs. BIOS firmware does not have the ability to load UEFI drivers. If the PERC h310 does not have a BIOS OPROM, it will only work with UEFI firmware.

I'm not sure what firmware the Precision T5600 has, but it seems to be based on the C600 chipset would would imply UEFI.

Are all of the computers having the same issue? Or just this one?

 

[JoeBargo]

On arrival the motherboard was faulty (no I/O ports working), but it was replaced.

Next the RAID controller would not recognize hard drives, and the controller is not visible as a boot device in the BIOS (Revision A09). Dell sent out a new card since they could not diagnose the problem either.

I received the new card, but no luck either.

I have little experience with RAID controllers, and I'm pretty lost.

Drivers, boot files, anyone know how to fix this?

Dell has some pretty top notch tech support that are trained specifically on their workstations. Your purchases finance them, so I highly recommend giving them a call and ask them for help.

One thing that I did notice is that the h310 has a UEFI driver, but makes no indication of having an accompanying BIOS OPROM. If your motherboard's CSM is set to Legacy only, it may not initialize the UEFI driver on the PERC controller.

Oh don't worry pinhedd, I have been talking with dell support for the last week. We have about 25 of these machines, all with the same set up. All the computers are using legacy BIOS, so that's not the issue.

I'm almost certain its a boot file or driver issue.

UEFI firmware has the ability to load UEFI drivers, and with the CSM enabled, can also load BIOS OPROMs. BIOS firmware does not have the ability to load UEFI drivers. If the PERC h310 does not have a BIOS OPROM, it will only work with UEFI firmware.

I'm not sure what firmware the Precision T5600 has, but it seems to be based on the C600 chipset would would imply UEFI.

Are all of the computers having the same issue? Or just this one?

Yeah, there are 25 machines. They are all configured to use the perc card as a boot device in the priorities in the legacy BIOS. Also, I can get into the raid setting and see the perc card there, but no drives are visible. Oh and I did test each drive and cable to see if they were functional. Oh and you're correct, the T5600 is using the C600 chipset.

 

[Pinhedd]

On arrival the motherboard was faulty (no I/O ports working), but it was replaced.

Next the RAID controller would not recognize hard drives, and the controller is not visible as a boot device in the BIOS (Revision A09). Dell sent out a new card since they could not diagnose the problem either.

I received the new card, but no luck either.

I have little experience with RAID controllers, and I'm pretty lost.

Drivers, boot files, anyone know how to fix this?

Dell has some pretty top notch tech support that are trained specifically on their workstations. Your purchases finance them, so I highly recommend giving them a call and ask them for help.

One thing that I did notice is that the h310 has a UEFI driver, but makes no indication of having an accompanying BIOS OPROM. If your motherboard's CSM is set to Legacy only, it may not initialize the UEFI driver on the PERC controller.

Oh don't worry pinhedd, I have been talking with dell support for the last week. We have about 25 of these machines, all with the same set up. All the computers are using legacy BIOS, so that's not the issue.

I'm almost certain its a boot file or driver issue.

UEFI firmware has the ability to load UEFI drivers, and with the CSM enabled, can also load BIOS OPROMs. BIOS firmware does not have the ability to load UEFI drivers. If the PERC h310 does not have a BIOS OPROM, it will only work with UEFI firmware.

I'm not sure what firmware the Precision T5600 has, but it seems to be based on the C600 chipset would would imply UEFI.

Are all of the computers having the same issue? Or just this one?

Yeah, there are 25 machines. They are all configured to use the perc card as a boot device in the priorities in the legacy BIOS. Also, I can get into the raid setting and see the perc card there, but no drives are visible. Oh and I did test each drive and cable to see if they were functional. Oh and you're correct, the T5600 is using the C600 chipset.

Okay, if you can get into the RAID controller setup interface then I'm inclined to believe that this is a compatibility issue between the drives and the controller.

There's a firmware update for the PERC controller available on Dell's website. Perhaps installing that will help