Intel Server Board S2600cp Manual

[Tarja Rabito]

HiI checked both dumps, - also without changes. I tried to change the BIOS Security Configuration (BIOS interface lock) in two places: in menu Chipset & PCH-IO Configuration, and Main & DIR(no name). Also tried this combination with all dumps (BIOS interface lock>disabled and RTC Ram Lock>disabled).

This bios is probably bewitched ?!..

Since you only need microcodes for now, lets discuss how you tried to flash mod BIOS first. Did you edit stock BIOS, then rename your mod BIOS to stock bios name and extension and then try to flash from within BIOS, this often works for MSI?

Do you use the Windows build of UEFITool? I re-downloaded and tried on two different computers, seems only version A54 and A55 crash on the FPT dump. Earlier versions like A53 work fine.

Is there any particular reason why you still use an older version?

For some intel boards, there is a jumper to put the bios in recovery mode. Most intel boards have a recovery bios within the download you can mod this (R0044Rec.cap) just make two USB (One original recovery usb and one recovery usb with mod), when system flashed original and reboots just go to EFI shell and do manual flash of the modded one.

Seems like recovery mode disables some firmware checks.

Works for me on 2600CP Intel.

@Toetje583 - yes, the hidden settings in CPU power management (And elsewhere) can be made visible.

This is done by un-suppressing, here is a general example of how to do that, which I posted yesterday (See spoiler) Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED BIOS Unlocking and Modding Issue

@Toetje583 - yes, the hidden settings in CPU power management (And elsewhere) can be made visible.

This is done by un-suppressing, here is a general example of how to do that, which I posted yesterday (See spoiler) Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED BIOS Unlocking and Modding Issue

Many thanks will look into it

Is it enough to do this just on the menu entry or all items below it aswell?

I managed to unlock the menu and can now acces it using the bios, many thanks

This post started as me wanting to take notes about a home server build of mine. Hopefully others find it useful - if you think I could add something, or find any errors in what I share here, please let me know with a comment!

This server build is almost entirely based on the build suggestions from a Reddit post in the r/PleX community. From that post, you quickly find the folks over at r/JDM_WAAAT who focus on building inexpensive home servers from used/refurbished enterprise SuperMicro/Intel/etc. gear. Of course, JDM_WAAAT is also a person who started the community (along with /u/manbearpig2012).

This is a true community behind these builds, and beyond the subreddit there is a dedicated and active Discord server with lots of people who are willing and able to help you with your build, or any questions you may come up with once you have your server. I suppose I am now among them - come say hi to me (cdine [US]) in #hardware!

This case houses all of the components of this build quite nicely with enough room to work easily, while not being entirely obnoxious in size for home server or even as a workstation. The only noticeable defect for this case and motherboard combination is that a single stand-off mounting point on the front-middle of the S2600CP motherboard is missing on the case, making for an every so slightly weaker mount to the case. But it's not enough to worry about.

You must move some stand-offs on the case, see the below photo for places they need to be moved to/newly installed. The far-right middle mounting hole on the motherboard is the one that does not have a corresponding standoff location on the case.

The standoffs can be tightened with a 5mm socket. Be careful not to over tighten and strip the threads - the metal was so soft that even my demi-torque wrench set to "0nm" wouldn't actuate when they bottomed out.

No matter what you do - count how many standoffs you have installed and remember, even write down that number. When you install the motherboard, double-check that you used that same number of screws - no more, and certainly no less! If your numbers don't match, don't turn on the system - there's a good chance you have a stray standoff somewhere that could be shorting out pins. This happened to me, and I felt dumb - so beware! In my case it disabled (just temporarily until I fixed it) 2 DIMM slots because their pins were shorted.

The front connector on the motherboard (the Intel S2600CP) pinout can be found in the manuals, and a image of it is here: - connect the front panel connector from the case to the motherboard appropriately. Be sure to get polarity right on the LEDs (polarity for the switches doesn't matter). The case reset switch goes to the front panel reset switch, not the NMI button header.

For my system, I have the following fan headers connected to the following fans. I may revise this in the future - the motherboard manual mentions that certain system fan headers are for certain zones (e.g. CPU Area, PCIe Area) - so re-arranging things to align with that may make sense.

Post-build note: The system seems to be very adequately cooled with this configuration, and the noise level is acceptable. I have not modified the FRUSDR configuration or changed much in the BIOS yet.

This means before you get things running with your nice V2 CPUs you built this entire machine around, you must first use a V1 CPU to upgrade the BIOS!. Either borrow one from your friend who convinced you to build this thing in the first place, or buy one on eBay for around $5 - $10, such as an Intel Xeon E5-2603 SR0LB.

As of 2018-01-01, the latest available firmware package is from July 2017, and is located at this page (if in the future, be sure to check for a newer version), the download link is the blue button in the top-left "Available Downloads" box.

Be sure to read the Read Me (txt) linked to in the Release Notes section, and follow them precisely. In particular, ensure that your current board meets the minimum firmware version requirements - if not, DO NOT continue. Instead, you must perform incremental upgrades from previous versions, each time ensuring you meet the minimum version requirements. Not doing so can (and has) result in bricking your motherboard, which becomes a big hassle to resolve.

As part of the BIOS update, you will be upgrading your motherboard's FRUSDR (Field Replaceable Unit/Sensor Data Record). This controls, among other things, how your system powers the fans connected to PWM fan headers on the motherboard.

You can use this to control how your system fan speed, and in turn system noise/performance characteristics. Without prior configuration, you can select Slow/Medium/Fast Ramp options for your fan speed. I'm not very familiar with this yet, but I believe the speed here indicates how quickly the system responds to increased temperatures - e.g. fast ramp would quickly spin up fans to higher speed to mitigate high temperatures, and slow ramp would do so more slowly, or perhaps with a lower maximum RPM.

The FRU/SDR update process will also ask you if various fans are connected, answer with just a "y" (for yes) or "n" (for no) as appropriate.Following that, you will be asked if you have chassis intrusion detection connected, and if an NMI button is connected. The NMI button is not the same as the standard reset button used with most desktop-level cases, but is included in server cases, typically as a recessed (paper-clip) button.

I couldn't find any resources detailing what to do here, but I found that if you re-run the UpdateFRUSDR step again and simply answer "n" (no) to all of the previous questions, and then allow it to upgrade the FRU at the end, it works. Figuring out how to properly program the FRU will be an exercise for a later date...

EDIT: I was wrong, this was entirely my error - I accidentally had a stray standoff under those DIMM slots, which caused a short and the system disabled those DIMMs due to that. Thankfully, once the standoff was removed - the DIMMs were re-enabled, so no permanent damage occurred. This may not be the case with all pins, so be careful! See my note about about keeping track of standoff count while installing the motherboard. I sure felt dumb!

But regardless, the sellers behavior here was great. This goes to the point JDM_WAAAT makes in his post - buy from reputable eBay sellers with great ratings, and they'll more than likely be easy to work with if something like this comes up. Don't forget to give them good ratings if they deserve it! (I let him know of my mistake, and am sorting out getting the replacement back to him / paying for it).

Selecting an HBA (Host Bus Adapter) or RAID controller can be a daunting experience. There's a seemingly endless variety of controllers out there, and among any given vendor there may be dozens of models that have only slight differences. If you get a controller that is one standard behind speed-wise (e.g. right now, 6Gb/s instead of the current standard 12Gb/s) you can save a substantial amount of money. Sometimes you'll find a gem on eBay and similar places though. so it's worth educating yourself a bit about the different models in case you see a good deal.

Note: I'm not refreshing my controller to IT (Initiator Target) mode, I am leaving it in and using it's built in RAID (Internal Raid) mode. I bought this card because of that feature, but it's common for people to prefer IT mode for use with certain software raid or NAS software - if you require IT mode, you can find guides on how to reflash online. Here are some:

The easiest way to upgrade the LSI firmware is to use their StorCLI EFI utility. Just download that, copy the contents of the EFI directory on to a FAT32 formatted flash drive, and copy the latest firmware ROM alongside it.

Then, just boot in to the servers built in EFI shell, change to the flash drive, and run StorCLI /c0 download file=mr2108fw.rom per the firmware update's readme, and reboot once it completes and tells you to do so.

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