Sigh... Xeon POST / IPMI troubles

[yummygizzards]

I could use some help diagnosing problems with POST and IPMI on a x9scm-F I got off of Ebay recently. CPU is E3-1245v2, RAM is Crucial DDR3 ECC 8 gb, and PSU is Seasonic S12ii 430w. Basically, after connecting the 24 pin ATX power + 8 pin +12V power, the standby light (LE3 in the MB manual) illuminates. On power on, the CPU fan starts and I get blinking amber lights on the IPMI LAN socket, but IPMI does not get an IP, the "heartbeat" LED does not start, I hear no boot beeps, and VGA has no output. The only headers connected is the power button and case power LED. No PCIe cards and no SATA devices.

Here's what I've tried so far. I have two Crucial sticks and two Kingston sticks. Booting with just one stick in a blue slot from this lot makes no difference. Booting with no RAM at all leads to the same results. Booting with the system on cardboard rather than in the chassis makes no difference. I tried an old Corsair green label CX (500w?) with the same results, and this PSU is currently powering a Kaby Lake system without difficulty. The x9scm-F manual states it can support a 4 pin auxiliary power connection - using the 4 pin rather than 8 pin also makes no difference. If I boot with no auxiliary +12V power to the MB, the system seems to cycle every 3 seconds with the CPU fan powering on and off, which seems appropriate. I also tried getting IPMI via LAN1 as a failover - no dice.

Some background on CPU, which is likely relevant. In early 2015, I ran this same E3-1245 v2 and RAM in an Asrock h77m desktop board, without hiccup until late 2017 when it abruptly would not POST. I do not remember all the details of the symptoms then, but at the time, I thought the MB had fried, so I pulled the CPU and RAM out and these parts sat in my closet until earlier this year when I picked up the x9scm-F. So in retrospect, it's possible the CPU was actually the culprit all along. The Supermicro MB was "pulled from a working server" per eBay seller. I cannot vouch for the Kingston RAM since it came with the x9.

Here are my thoughts on what to do, and here's where I could use advice:

1. Does anyone know what the expected behavior of 1) the boot beep sequence, and 2) the IPMI connectivity, if the CPU is dead? On a related note, how exactly do Xeons... die? The initial system was not overclocked and cooled by the stock Intel fan, albeit in a smallish case (Silverstone ML03b).
2. I do not know what BIOS version is on the x9scm-f. There is a chance it is not updated to accept Ivy Bridge CPUs (requires 2.0 or above I believe). However, I would think the IPMI would still work, correct? Apparently you can update the IPMI firmware but I don't know how if IPMI is not getting an IP.
3. I cleared the CMOS by pulling the battery and jumpering JPT1 for ~10 seconds. I did not leave the coin battery out for many minutes though with AC unplugged, so I need to try that. The CR2032 is not completely dead per my multimeter but also isn't firmly in the "green." I could also try booting it without any CMOS battery at all I suppose, or just get a new one anyway.
4. If somehow the RAM is the culprit, I could pull some Crucial DDR3 from my x10slm-F VM server happily running in the closet as a trial, but if it ain't broke...
5. I might try to pick up a Sandy Bridge i3 off of Ebay. They are pretty cheap.

Very open to other suggestions from the community!

 

[sinisterDei]

In theory the BMC should operate even without a CPU, though I am not 100% on that. However, since this is an eBay motherboard it is equally possible the motherboard has a static IP configured into the BMC network interface, or even that is disabled, and you would need to get into the BIOS on the board to check that out. Resetting the BIOS would not reset the BMC configuration either; they are separate.

If you can pick up a cheap Sandy Bridge CPU, that might be the best way to test things out. I think a G540 would work and they are like $6 or somesuch.

 

[yummygizzards]

In theory the BMC should operate even without a CPU, though I am not 100% on that. However, since this is an eBay motherboard it is equally possible the motherboard has a static IP configured into the BMC network interface, or even that is disabled, and you would need to get into the BIOS on the board to check that out. Resetting the BIOS would not reset the BMC configuration either; they are separate.

If you can pick up a cheap Sandy Bridge CPU, that might be the best way to test things out. I think a G540 would work and they are like $6 or somesuch.

Thanks for the info and perspective. I contacted SM support and they were able to look up the S/N and confirmed the board was shipped with BIOS 2.0b, which should support IB CPUs. I removed the board from the chassis, removed the coin battery for a few days, reseated the CPU, and still no beeps on power-up. I will pick up a SB cheapie and see what happens. Could the PSU be not delivering enough juice even though it's fan starts up?

 

[sinisterDei]

Could the PSU be not delivering enough juice even though it's fan starts up?

I somewhat doubt it. Enough power to POST is pretty minimal. And the BMC not working is also very suspect and takes almost no power. It's possible that the BMC is inaccessible for other reasons, but at some point you gotta assume the hoofbeats mean horses and not zebras.

 

[yummygizzards]

SM support got back to me and thinks the board is bad... ugh. I will probably abandon getting the E3-1245 v2 back up and get a off-lease 4th or 6th generation Optiplex or Thinkcentre SFF instead, rather than rolling the dice with another used LGA1155 server MB. I just need another system to temporarily house some VMs so I can reconfigure my AIO VM host / ZFS fileserver. I need to research more but it looks like some of these office SFFs can support VT-x, and having a Win 10 Pro license tied to the hardware might come in handy later when I repurpose the box.