Intel S5000VSA Will Not POST

[JonnyAlpha]

Hi;

Setup
I am building a FreeNAS server with an Intel S5000VSA Server Motherboard. This is the model with 8 DIMM slots.
The PSU is the original one from the Server and I have modified an ATX chassis to take this board.

I have only installed 2 x 4GB DIMM sticks and have disconnected the SSD drive that was going to be the FreeNAS Boot device (it is currently blank).
I have tried with and without both a USB and then a PS2 Keyboard connected.

Process
When I switch on the power at the rear of the chassis the 2 x chassis fans connected to system fans sockets and the CPU fan come on for about 2 -3 seconds, the Status LED at the rear of the mobo comes on solid green and the ID LED is solid blue, the fans then stop, the ID LED goes out and the Status LED stays solid green.

When I hit the front panel power switch all the fans come on full power then slow down and when they do the Bit3 LED lights up solid red and the LSB LED lights up solid green, the status LED remains solid green?

When I removed the DIMM sticks the same as above happens and there is no BIOS Beeps complaining about no memory.

In all of the above there is no display on the VGA monitor.

What I have not done
I have not yet tried clearing the BIOS using either the BIOS jumper or by removing the CMOS battery.

Here is a link to the S5000VSA Technical Product Specification Manual
https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/motherboards/server/s5000vsa/sb/d36978010_s5000vsa_tps_r1_9.pdf

Additional Background Info
The original motherboard - also an S5000VSA and PSU was salvaged from discarded server, it booted fine so I re-flashed / upgraded the BIOS and it was still working, with 4 new sticks of 4GB Memory. However once I started to install the remaining components it stopped booting with three beeps (memory error) with or without memory (know good) it staill failed to boot, so I replaced it with another similar motherboard from eBay (listed as new / old stock). This is not new / old stock as there are signs of previous use (thermal paste and stand off glue).

[DaveLembke]

Do you have a known good power supply to install into it to rule this out. Its quite possible that the discarded server had power supply issues and by adding to it you loaded it down to fail completely this time.

Curious why you didn't leave the server in its original case? Was it a rack mount that you converted to tower case?

[JonnyAlpha]

I didn't leave the server in its original case as it was a massive beast :-)
I do have other good PSU's but sadly the power supply has an 8 pin CPU power connector which none of my spare PSU's do.

Anyway I contacted the seller as they had listed this as new, which it is not. I also said that I would be happy to keep it if they could help get it going. They suggested that it needed a firmware updated to run the E5400 series CPU which was running in the other S5000VSA board. They were going to send me an older LGA771 CPU but did not have any so they gave me a full refund but said keep the board.

I have ordered an L5300 series LGA771 CPU and will see if that gets it going?

When I pulled the CPU out and fired it up I get the CPU missing beep warning. 

[patio]

Still need a proper PSU...

[JonnyAlpha]

What's the 8 Pin CPU power plug called on server PSU's as I may be able to use an ATX PSU, if not what kind of a PSU should I be looking to buy?

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

Here is the manual for your motherboard https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/motherboards/server/s5000vsa/sb/d36978010_s5000vsa_tps_r1_9.pdf

Looking at page 27 you will see although the 24 and 8 pin sockets are standard atx PSU you also need the J1K1 power supply signal connector. If the power supply doesn't support the connector then the motherboard may not post. 

[JonnyAlpha]

Mmm, interesting.

Yes on page 27 there is a table showing the Pin Out for connector J1K1 but it is not shown on the motherboard plan on page 3. The only connector that appears to match on the physical board is shown on page 3 as an 'M' Auxiliary Signal Connector.
On the Power Supply there is no 5 pin connector to match this and this PSU was fitted in the server with the original 4 DIMM S5000VSA that did boot and that I have now replaced with the 8 DIMM version.
Both the old board and the new board have a J9D1 connector but as I said the original board did not have a cable connected to it and it still worked (until it broke of course?

On page 26 when the 5 pin signal connector is listed as J9D1, this is also the name of the actual 5 pin connector on the motherboard shown in the table on pg 5 a 'M'

What type of PSU would have this type of signal cable?

[JonnyAlpha]

Ok so the L5300 series LGA771 CPU arrived, I fitted it and guess what, still not POST :-(
Only thing to try now is the PSU ?

This is the J9D1 connector that is listed on page 26 as "SSI compliant 1x5 pin connector (J9D1) providing 12C monitoring of the power supply"
Here the connector which appears on both the old and new mobo:



Looking at the Quick Start User Guide, it says attach the AUX power connector ( C ) if using the Intel(R) Entry Server Chassis SC5299-E BRP.
It then just says that if using a non Intel Server Chassis with an ATX power supply then to refer to the documentation that came with your chassis?

[Lisa_maree]

Hi just to check , is the Processor voltage regulator installed ? if not you will need one. Not having the J9D1 cable in won't stop the board from posting. Also do you get ant red leds showing a failure on the board or is there no lights at all.

[JonnyAlpha]

I think I mentioned at the start after a short while the LSB LED is Green and the Bit3 LED is Red. Do you mean the 8 pin CPU power then yes it is connected.

[Lisa_maree]

No I was meaning the regulator board which plugs into the mother board in front of the 2 CPU sockets. The board supplies the CPU core voltages .
 

[JonnyAlpha]

This bard does not have a plug in voltage regulator board (from what I can see physically, or in the documentation). It does have an 8 pin CPU power plug which is connected.
I checked the output of all the power connections and they all seem ok, albeit not under load). This PSU functioned previously until the other board started giving constant memory beeps at POST.

Like I said, on the back of the board, the LSB light is green and the Bit3 light is red, these come on when you would expect the board to finish POST?