No boot /no Display with SAS Cards installed

I am trying to install a SAS card to test on my X570 motherboard with the card installed it will not boot. The screen has no signal and I can’t even access bios. This was similar with Thredripper system. B450 with 2200G works with some SAS cards but not reliable still. I don’t have any Intel systems to test with. I have several of these cards so they can’t all be bad. The 8708EM2 works in B450 works just fine but not in X570 system.

This happens with 8708EM2, SAS9200 cards. Does anyone have any clue why this is happening? I don’t know what I can try to get it to work.

Have you confirmed the card supports UEFI booting?
Have you tried disabling any option rom settings in the UEFI?

Not sure how to confirm it supports UEFI booting, any spec I find has no mention of anything related to booting. Would enabling CSM allow it to boot if it does not support UEFI?

Can you elaborate on rom settings?

Sadly, I dont know much more.

Im also not exactly sure what CSM does.

So w/o card in pcie slot it boots but if you have it plugged in it does not? Does the card show up in the bios?

correct. I can’t access bios even. Screen is blank and hitting power button powers off immediately so it’s not in windows.

What slot do you have the card it, is it off the cpu or chipset? (no debug info lights/code)

What gpu are you running?

Second full pci slot, first one is occupied by gpu so cant use that one. according to manual PCIEX16_2 runs in x8 mode wehn both slots are used so I believe it means its direct from cpu. Tried many pci slots on threadripper system before with no difference. No debug led on asus x570 pro. Gpu is vega 56.

You try running it off the last slot?
Are these cards new or 2nd hand, are they known good?
assuming you are on latest bios?

used and not not known good but like I mentioned at least the Dell 8708EM2 works in the B450 board but not in threadripper or x570. Yes latest bios on all systems. It could be card firmware but I just don’t know why/how and how to flash if I can’t boot at all. Will try last slot next.

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It seems now the system is booting in any slot. Not sure what happened before… Cards not detected though. THe Dell H200 that works in my B450 server also works in x570 system. I would guess now that it’s a firmware issue with the other cards or combination. Could also be faulty but that’s unlikely to be the case for all the cards. Could firmware cause no-detect condition? It could be very old firmware and there is also IT mode firmware.

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Ok, I am not an IT pro. At all.

I had a very similar problem with a sas card and z87 board. No booting or screen at all with the sas card. The problem ended up being solved by masking off the SMBus pin on the sas card. A similar thing happened with pcie intel ssd card. After masking the pin, everything worked perfectly fine.

Not saying this is your problem and solution, but it might be similar.

Worth a try. Which pin is it exactly? Do you mean pci pin or a header on the board?

This is the info I followed. I do not endorse this page, just that it was the page that got my sas card to work on my z87 board.

When I upgraded to my threadripper board, I installed the sas card and the pcie ssd without smbus mask and they worked. Now, I do not know why, but obviously the newer board has better compatiblility.