Any Proliant/Compaq Smart Array gurus out there?

[Paddy]

Having completed the cat5 installation about my house, I have begun restoring the Compaq Proliant 6500 Server that I bought around a year ago. It was working at that time.

I have removed all the SCSI drives except for two which I will use as a RAID 1 OS drive. I have an Adaptec IDE RAID controller which I will use with 4x250GB IDE WD drives for 750GB of RAID 5 storage.

I have noticed that the SCSI controller, a Compaq Smart Array 4200 Controller, is giving the following error on POST.

Compaq SmartArray 4200 Controller - Rev. 1.46
1783 - Slot1 Array Controller failure
[stat=0FF01h, ret code=03FFFh]

I have searched on Compaq/HP/Adaptec's website but I can't find the meaning of this error. It is intermittant.
I can't configure the controller to use the drives until I can resolve this issue.

Now SCSI controllers are ten-a-penny on ebay, but it would be nice to determine the cause of this fault, especially as i know it works.

Any takers?

[Paddy]

Found this

1783 Slot x Drive Array Controller Failure. If this message appears immediately following a ROM installation, the ROM is defective or not installed properly. Check to see if the Array Accelerator board is attached properly. Check that the array controller is firmly inserted in its slot. Try upgrading the System ROMs. Otherwise, replace the Smart Array controller.

[Dilitante1]

time to reseat card then?

[agallag]

Your firmware is already at the latest version, but you may want to try re-flashing it.

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/19134.html

SCSI controllers are ten-a-penny, but hardware RAID controllers are still a little pricey. It's definitely worth trying to figure this out.

[Paddy]

The card is seated correctly.

[Paddy]

downloading the firmware flashing utility.
The smart start array diagnostics reports that the array controller is not configured.
The array configuration program reports that the card is bad.

HOWEVER, both programs give specific information about the card, so it must be reading it... wierd.
I'll see what reflashing it achieves.

P.

[Paddy]

I used the Firmware Update CD you linked to. When i Selected 'Custom' and 'Rewrite' The Controller showed up. It said that it would take 45secs to flash, but it was done in 5seconds. The results screen was empty.

So I guess i don't know if it has worked or not....

Any takers?

[Paddy]

bump