Re: Supermicro C2SEA problems with Windows 7

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:48:27 -0400, Bolwerk wrote:

> I have a homemade box with a Supermicro C2SEA mainboard and installed
> Windows 7 on it. I had a major problems with BSODs, which seemed to
> partially subside after I installed a few updates.
>
> But I continued to have problems. I decided to try to upgrade the BIOS
> using the relevant link on SuperMicro's site:
>
> http://www.supermicro.com/products/m.../G45/C2SEA.cfm
>
> I did it by taking a boot CD that came with the board, booting to DOS,
> and then swapping it out with another CD with the BIOS utility and ROM
> on it. It didn't reboot as the directions* in the readme said it would.
> Rather it just kicked me back to the DOS prompt, so I just rebooted it
> manually myself.
>
> Lo and behold, I try to boot and things seem normal until I get to the
> Windows 7 splash screen. Then it just freezes. I can't seem to do
> anything now. I even tried to reinstall Windows 7 - it even freezes
> when I get to the splash screen from the CD. The freeze happens right
> as the words "Starting Windows" appear. Right now I'm attempting to
> find a copy of the old BIOS somewhere so I can at least get back into
> Windows (maybe).
>
> When I try to boot in safe mode, it seems to choke on classpnp.sys.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks!
>
> * If it helps, here are the instructions I attempted to follow to
> install the latest BIOS:
>
> ================================================
> FOR <filename>.zip
> ================================================
> 1. Save this file to your computer.
>
> 2. extract the files to a DOS bootable device (such as a bootable USB
> stick, or CD).
>
> 2. Boot to a DOS prompt and type AMI.BAT filename.rom.
>
> 4. Do not interrupt the process until the flashing is complete.
>
> 5. If the computer pauses, please wait until it starts to program.
>
> 6. The computer will re-boot on completion.
>
>
> ** If the BIOS flash failed, you can contact our RMA dept. to have the
> bios chip reprogrammed.
> This will require shipping the board to our RMA dept. for BIOS
> reprogramming.
> The RMA dept's email address is

Some motherboards require special Windows drivers (or at least that was
true for me a few years ago). You might have to check into that at the
manufacturer's site.

As I recall, Windows provides an opportunity to install drivers during
installation of the OS - which might not be what you want to do. If there
are drivers needed, and if you're lucky, the manufacturer might tell you
how to install them without reinstalling Windows.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:50:00 -0400, Bolwerk <> wrote:

>Bolwerk wrote:
>> Gene E. Bloch wrote:
>>> Some motherboards require special Windows drivers (or at least that was
>>> true for me a few years ago). You might have to check into that at the
>>> manufacturer's site.
>>>
>>> As I recall, Windows provides an opportunity to install drivers during
>>> installation of the OS - which might not be what you want to do. If there
>>> are drivers needed, and if you're lucky, the manufacturer might tell you
>>> how to install them without reinstalling Windows.
>>
>> Well, I've had some success. It's definitely a BIOS problem. I mass
>> disabled some BIOS features. I'll see if I can isolate what the problem
>> was and report back.
>
>It looks like having Core Multi-Processing enabled in the BIOS was the
>show-stopper for Windows. So I am able to get back into Windows again.
>
>I'm still getting blue screens. They're much less frequent (every few
>hours, instead of a few times an hour). I'm not sure what the culprit
>is. It seems upgrading the video driver improved things, but daily
>BSODs is still a bit much.
>
>Anybody have any ideas? Memory?
>
>Thanks!

Memory and power supply are possible culprits. Run Memtest86+ to rule
out memory problems. Memtest86+ is available by itself, or as part of
the (recommended) Hiren's Boot CD.
http://www.hirensbootcd.net/download.html

On Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:50:00 -0400, Bolwerk typed this message:

> Bolwerk wrote:
>> Gene E. Bloch wrote:
>>> Some motherboards require special Windows drivers (or at least that
>>> was true for me a few years ago). You might have to check into that at
>>> the manufacturer's site.
>>>
>>> As I recall, Windows provides an opportunity to install drivers during
>>> installation of the OS - which might not be what you want to do. If
>>> there are drivers needed, and if you're lucky, the manufacturer might
>>> tell you how to install them without reinstalling Windows.
>>
>> Well, I've had some success. It's definitely a BIOS problem. I mass
>> disabled some BIOS features. I'll see if I can isolate what the
>> problem was and report back.
>
> It looks like having Core Multi-Processing enabled in the BIOS was the
> show-stopper for Windows. So I am able to get back into Windows again.
>
> I'm still getting blue screens. They're much less frequent (every few
> hours, instead of a few times an hour). I'm not sure what the culprit
> is. It seems upgrading the video driver improved things, but daily
> BSODs is still a bit much.
>
> Anybody have any ideas? Memory?
>
> Thanks!

Unless I have the problems related to the BIOS upgrades I tend to stay
away from the updates, mostly because some board BIOS updates are
specific to a M/B version, and 1 or 2 updates broke something else.
Backout a bad BIOS update to the original version. More important is
this looks like a very new and well constructed M/B, I can't imagine it
would need BIOS upgrade.

BSOD can occur for 100s of reasons, bad memory, bad/loose PCI card or
memory chip installation, failing PSU or vga card, high cpu/gsu temps, a
bad HD or sectors on the HD, etc. Did you look for BSOD messages in the
event logs? You should set the M/B to optimal settings (basic
compatibility) for your initial installation.

Not sure what would be wrong with Multi-processing enabled in BIOS. That
just means multiple cores running right? My Win7 supports 2 cores now,
so, I think you should be able to support at least 12 cores with Hyper-
Threading, unless you're installing Win7 Basic.







--