New card, no drives [Archive]

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r8500

07-08-2003, 08:03 PM

Ok, heres the deal. I was working on a Dell server tonight with SCSI drives. I tried to install a new NIC with fiber connections into a pci slot. When I boot the computer back up, it can't find the hard drives. Its like the SCSI card, (Adaptec) wouldn't start. I take it out, everything works fine :eek:

What could cause this?

BipolarBill

07-08-2003, 09:43 PM

If the NIC has a boot block BIOS, it may have displaced the SCSI card. Get the DOS utilities for the card and disable the BIOS on it. If the motherboard has a built-in NIC, you can do the same in BIOS setup.

There is only so much upper memory available in an ATX motherbord. You've used yours up.

r8500

07-08-2003, 10:03 PM

So, if I understand correctly, you saying that the bios on the NIC (if it has one) stopped the bios on the SCSI card from loading.

That sucks.

Is there any fiber NIC that don't have a built in bios?

Thanks

BipolarBill

07-09-2003, 12:04 AM

Dunno - I doubt it. All NICs at that level are PXE enabled.

gjimene2

07-09-2003, 12:11 AM

out all of the ones I've installed, I've never seen one without it.

BipolarBill

07-09-2003, 12:32 AM

What you can try is moving the SCSI card up to a higher slot.

r8500

07-09-2003, 07:16 AM

Its on board scsi :(

BipolarBill

07-09-2003, 10:28 AM

SO disable the onboard LAN and replace it with a cheap Linksysy card.

r8500

07-09-2003, 11:38 AM

It has on board scsi, but the nic that is currently in it is a cheap nic. We wanted to add this d-link NIC with the fiber ability.

I am not sure of the model of the nic, all I know is its a d-link fiber nic with gig speeds.

Does anyone know how to disable the bios on this particular nic.

I think if someone can helpme figure that out, I will try it, and see if that lets it load regular then.

Thanks for all the help, if I am missing anything, please let me know

BTW this is a SBS 4.5 server:eek:

No PNP:(

BipolarBill

07-09-2003, 11:42 AM

How in the heck can anyone help you if you don't tell us the brand and model of card?

The README in the driver pack for the card should contain info on how to disable the BIOS. If not there, try the web site. You can go there and read as well as we can.

r8500

07-09-2003, 01:43 PM

Sorry, its a D-link dge-550sx. I didn't mean to leave that out, but I was roughly 40 miles away from the card when I made that last post. I have been reading the documentation that came with it, I just can't find the part about its bios anywhere.

Thanks

BipolarBill

07-09-2003, 01:57 PM

I can't see any documentation worth looking at. I would try the card in another slot - at the lowest position available - and contact D-Link.

Frankly, I'm not a big fan of D-Link anything. I find that generic network gear is superior.

r8500

07-09-2003, 02:01 PM

I wanted the guy to buy a 3com, but he bought this instead. I think it might have something to do with the Servers bios. It says that the card is auto configured if the bios is PNP compatible, which I don't think his is.

BipolarBill

07-09-2003, 02:10 PM

Tell him that you'll fix it if you can buy the gear. Otherwise, let him do it. :p

r8500

07-10-2003, 09:27 PM

Bill, thanks for all your help, I moved the nic to a lower slot, and it worked fine. However, even though the nic is assigned an ip, and it goes out to the internet, no one can connect to the server, or get a ip from the server.

Is this just a crappy card, or is there some setting that I should look for. I already tried adjusting flow control to no avail.

thanks

BipolarBill

07-10-2003, 10:07 PM

Did you start the DHCP service and specify the new NIC? Is the server set as the default gateway on the clients?

r8500

07-10-2003, 10:13 PM

Yep to all you asked Bill. I don't think I missed anything, but you never know:confused:

BipolarBill

07-10-2003, 10:27 PM

In all honesty, getting hardware to work is much easier than networking. It's tricky - real tricky. I couldn't troubleshoot it unless I was there and knew the network layout.

I do know that most people set up the DHCP scope and permissions and then simply forget to start the service.

r8500

07-10-2003, 10:31 PM

Bill, perhaps I could add to this by saying that it always was a dhcp server, we just added a new nic, and configured it the way we needed it, and unhooked the old nic. Everything else looked ok, and all the services started.

I would like to blame it on a d-link card, but I don't want the guy to invest $600 in a 3com card, just to find out it was something else.

BipolarBill

07-10-2003, 10:35 PM

If the NIC works for Internet, it should work for DHCP. It has to be the config.