LSI 9260-8i - web bios CTRL+H and wireless keyboard ?

[eva2000]

Haven't had much time to mess with my LSI 9260-8i until now and on my bench rig i switched to wireless USB logitech keyboard and mouse but can't seem to get into the web bios with CTRL+H ? Tried on original 2.0.03-0654 firmware as well as updated firmware 2.60.03-0829 ?

I usually use ps/2 keyboards and mouses or usb mouses, but never usb/wireless keyboards so not sure if it's related ? I remember certain firmwares had problems getting into web bios ?

System is 980X, Asus P6T6 WS Pro and Win7 Ultimate 64bit RTM

any ideas ?

thanks

[Computurd]

there are certain motherboards that have bios issues, and i believe it is asus unfortunately. you might just try a wired keyboard, i know the usb keyboards work. i would test but my 9260 is out right now...
i do know this...the wireless mouse i had never worked with it.

[eva2000]

thanks.. seems at bios boot up managed to pause it at the LSI bios loading it says - base port adaptor not responding message. And on first run of Storage Manager get a critical error with or without any drives/ssd attached to the LSI 9260-8i



but can use storage manager in windows to create arrays etc

MegaRAID Storage Manager 8.00.0500Profile Summary - Generated on Sat Sep 04 00:02:04 EST 2010
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SERVER---
	Server IP:               192.168.1.7
	Server Name:             P6T6WSREV
	OS name:                 Windows Vista
	OS Version:              6.1
	OS Architechture:        x86
	Driver Name:             megasas2.sys
	Driver Version:          4.27.1.64
	Application Version:     MegaRAID Storage Manager - 8.00.0500

HARDWARE---              
	Controller:              LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i (Bus 5,Dev 0)
	Status:                  Optimal
	Firmware Package Version:12.6.0-0017
	Firmware Version:        2.60.03-0829
	BBU:                     NO
	Enclosure(s):            1
	Drive(s):                0
	Virtual Drive(s):        0

Enclosures---
	PRODUCT NAME             TYPE                     STATUS                   
	Backplane                Sgpio                    OK

[Computurd]

strangeness. there is a guy over at ocz forums, KillingJoke who is having a similar issue. i do not believe he has ever found a fix. you might PM him or mention it in that thread, he watches it.
EDIT: he is also running asus, but a P5Q Deluxe

[IanB]

Just had an issue on first few bootings of my new 9260-4i... No problems booting and getting into the web bios, but using a USB mouse there was no movement from the mouse cursor. Not very helpful, and no keyboard shortcuts seemed to work to move around, so had to CTRL-ALT-DEL to quit.

Haven't bothered to go back in as the Windows MSM is working fine, so it may have been a glitch.

[Computurd]

new firmware out guys, issued today, can someone test ?

[eva2000]

Yeah will test it.. funky stuff going on with my setup, i had lsi controller in hdd priority in bios as last on the list so changed it to 2nd behind my os drive. Now when i hit ctrl+H it invokes my cd-rom and runs memtest86+ LOL

But wireless keyboard is now unresponsive so can't exit out of memtest heh

[Ipreferspam]

I don't know if it will help you, eva2000, but I was having severe issues with the 9260-4i on an Asus Rampage Formula x48 motherboard until I disabled the jmicron onboard RAID and also put the ICH chipset in IDE mode instead of RAID. Once this happened, using the latest firmware that was released on 9/3/2010, I am able to get into WebBIOS, install windows, etc.

Without putting my ICH in IDE mode, I was unable to get Windows to install or get into the WebBIOS.

[eva2000]

thanks, i have marvel/jmicron controllers disabled and IDE mode already. Moving LSI to PCI-E #1 slot helped with the base port adaptor not responding errors and critical error in windows but still can't get into web bios. Sort of gave up right now just resorting to windows storage manager config settings. Anyone tried creating a winpe disk with integrated lsi storage manager on it so you can use usb drive to boot to it to create lsi controller arrays ?

Did fresh install of newly built Win7 Ultimate SP1 slipstreamed cd on the LSI 9260-8i raid controller (without fastpath cache) and WEI 7.8 index

• i7 980X
• Asus P6T6 WS Revolution
• Sapphire HD5870 10.8 Cat
• 6GB SuperTalent 2200C8
• 8x60GB Gskill Phoenix Pro SSD raid 0 on LSI 9260-8i PCI-E raid controller
• Corsair HX1000
• Win7 Ultimate SP1 slipstreamed cd

Performance doesn't seem that good though ?

[eva2000]

[Anvil]

A mixed bag of results you've got there, could be a lot of things. (stripe size for one)
Having said that, 90'+ points in the HDD suite is a great result using the 9260 controller

Try enabling Disk Cache Policy as a first measure and most importantly, try using No Read Ahead.

[eva2000]

yeah tried disk cache enabled and no read ahead and got pcmark vantage score of 24k and hdd suite of 40200 ish so bit better but still pretty low for some reason

[Anvil]

OK
You could also try using Write Through in combination with Disk Cache Policy Disabled.
(still using no read ahead, direct IO)

Then there is the stripe size, 16KB is worth trying.

[SteveRo]

Very nice set up there Mr Eva, keep up the tuning, you will get there!
For pcmv - try fewer and try odd numbers of drives, x5 might be the magic number.
pcie oc? not sure how high with 9260, 1231 goes to 119.

[eva2000]

thanks guys so far best pcmark vantage score is 24699 with cache unchanged, direct io, no read ahead and write thru with hdd suite 41929 but with directio changed to cacheio get pcmark vantage score of 23805 but hdd suite jumps to 49000

all tests pci-e frequency = 100mhz

will try less ssds later

directio (left) vs cacheio (right)





I have SATA mode set to IDE in bios instead of AHCI but seeing as windows is on LSI 9260-8i shouldn't make any difference ?

[SteveRo]

@ Mr eva - You're making progress!
You are #13 on the orb - congrats and well done!
Try fewer and odd #s of drives - several of us have found that odd #s of drives works the best - 5 and 7xR0 - for me - gave best scores.

[eva2000]

Thanks Steve

Eureka managed to get into web bios now. I changed the LSI 9260-8i from PCI-E slot #1 to PCI-E slot #2 and CTRL+H works! PCI-E slot #1 and #3 and #4 didn't work.

[SteveRo]

Odd - slot 2 only - well atleast you've got it working now!

[eva2000]

Interesting put LSI 9260-8i back into PCI-E #1 slot but left HD5870 in PCI-E #5 and web bios still works.

Seems write cache was disabled, tried enabling it but get error message ?

[Computurd]

that is because the write caching is set by you on your device (in bios or MSM). it wont allow the OS to do it, it is independent of that

[eva2000]

ah strange, when lsi 9260 was installed as non-os drive with sata as OS, it allowed enabling (or at least it was checked) no idea if it was actually enabled.

[eva2000]

something is really up with the configuration maybe board/bios/pci-e related ? as 3x60gb sandforce ssds gives me around same vantage numbers as 8x60gb - if you look at 4k read/write in as ssd 3x60gb raid 0 vs 8x60gb raid 0 and 1x 60gb single non-raid for sandforce drives i get about same numbers 23-25MB/s reads and 55-67MB/s writes.

I ordered the fastpath key so maybe that will help

[eva2000]

Not much luck still so far best can do with 8x60GB Gskill Phoenix Pro Raid 0 on LSI 9260-8i with 16k stripe and this config below is 25,245 suite and 46173 hdd suite. Then I broke the 8x SSDs down and used 3x 60GB Gskill Phoenix Pro SSD in raid 0 on ICH10R with 9.6.0.1014 drivers and got 24,956 suite and 48572 hdd suite numbers.





More 3x 60GB Gskill Phoenix Pro SSD in raid 0 on ICH10R with 9.6.0.1014 benchmarks

[SteveRo]

Very good - very nice #s! - did you try 5x or 7xR0?
sweet spot for me was 5 @ 4800 and 7 @ 5200mhz.

[Computurd]

eva, does your board have one or two NF200?
nF200 is a hardware raid killer in all setups that i have seen, sans one, on a e762. outside of that it is ridiculous.