New Areca 1880ix-16 card- no POST

[cutterman]

Just received the 1880ix-16 RAID card as an upgrade to the 1221x. When I installed it in PCI-e slot 2 (next to graphics card) and hit the power button the computer made a buzzing sound through the internal speaker and would not POST. Tried the other 2 slots same issue. Double checked card was well seated. Stuck it in one of my PC's and it booted fine.

Have sent a message to Areca support.

Seems like an incompatibility with new mac pro, as card is not DOA. It is a new product so maybe not tested with 2010 MP. Anybody using this series of RAID card in MP?

 

[paulpthcom]

This sounds just like the issue I have with my 1880i and my Mac Pro 2,1. If you keep turning it off and on and wiggle the card a bit it eventually boots. I'm not sure if wiggling actually does anything but it seemed to. As long as I don't let the machine sleep or reboot its fine.

Just to verify that it is the same issue, when you turn it on the MP speaker starts doing a chirping like noise and the ARC-1880 speaker makes no noise?

I've contacted Areca support as well and they suggested it sounded like a power issue, but I very much doubt it since it booted fine with a 1222 and more HDs then I have in there now.

Since you are having what sounds like the same issue I hope they can just fix it with a firmware upgrade.

 

[cutterman]

Sounds like the same issue. The MP speaker makes an insect-like buzzing noise, and no chirp from the RAID card speaker.

I have removed the card for now and replaced the 1221x. I suspect either a firmware or hardware revision will be necessary to fix this.

 

[cutterman]

Update from Areca

Dear Sir/Madam,

just a quick update. after we deeply dig out the problem, we found the power
sequence of ARC-1880ix will trigger the Mac Pro PCIe slot power protect
circuit and result MacPro shut down its own power supply.
this problem can be solved by shift the power sequence of ARC-1880ix which
mean the ARC-1880ix need rework.
please contact with your supplier for assist​

Not sure what this means. I have asked them to clarify what "rework" needs to be done.

 

[cutterman]

More info

Dear Sir/Madam,

yes, the newegg.com just a reseller which do not have such ability to rework
the controller.
and the rework is quite simple, just add a capacity on controller. and it is
a hardware rework, not firmware update.
please contact with following distributor for rework assist, they sell
controllers to newegg and in charge on their RMAs.

Tekram USA, Inc.
2861 Saturn St. #B, Brea, CA 92821, USA
TEL: 1-714-961-0800
FAX: 1-714960-0899
Website: http://www.tekram.com
​

 

[philipma1957]

So they need to add a capacitor or as they say a capacity to the board. Caps can act in lots of ways with power supplies. It could be the original card had bad ones or undersized ones. There are a few measurement systems for caps.
The wiki below kind of shows how a cap could be miss sized by a factor of ten.


http://wiki.xtronics.com/index.php/Capacitor_codes

I wonder if the other Arc-1880i cards have the same problem?

 

[paulpthcom]

I wonder if the other Arc-1880i cards have the same problem?

My card is an 1880i (lower profile, 2 internal SFF-8087 ports) and it does have the same problem, but I'm running on a MacPro 2,1 (2007 8 core) model which if I remember correctly has PCIe 1.x slots. So a 1880i might function properly on a newer MacPro, but I don't know.

 

[alphaod]

Basically they're tell you to return it to your reseller and get an exchange for the updated unit.

 

[paulpthcom]

Basically they're tell you to return it to your reseller and get an exchange for the updated unit.

Actually they want you to return the card to their distributor, which isn't the same as your reseller (or at least probably isn't). I contacted the distributor and they said they'll contact me with an ETA on the new cards once they have it from Areca.

 

[cutterman]

No they are RMA'ing them to do the repair. These cards were just released. The BIOS version on the Drivers CD is from 9/3/10. The tech at Tekram told me they just found out about this yesterday and they don't have an official repair protocol from Areca yet.

I could return the card to Newegg, and wait for the next hardware revision. I'll take my chances with the fix, and if it doesn't work I would expect a warranty replacement with a revised board down the road.

 

[nanofrog]

No they are RMA'ing them to do the repair. These cards were just released. The BIOS version on the Drivers CD is from 9/3/10. The tech at Tekram told me they just found out about this yesterday and they don't have an official repair protocol from Areca yet.

I could return the card to Newegg, and wait for the next hardware revision. I'll take my chances with the fix, and if it doesn't work I would expect a warranty replacement with a revised board down the road.

They'll get you taken care of. I've dealt with a single RMA in all the cards I've had access to, and they took care of it; it was a bit slow though, as it took some time to diagnose the problem. But they indicate they know what the problem is already, and have a fix. They will have to devise a proceedure and get the RMA facility the parts though (will take a bit of time IMO, but hopefully nothing horrible). They still have to take care of this on the manufacturing line, and get the new boards distributed. Not sure which would actually be faster.

As per the problem, it sounds like either what philima1957 mentioned (value mis-read that wasn't caught before it went into production), or they chose the wrong value for the soft start during design. However, I've not seen this reported on PC's which have already been used to demonstrate performance (though it's possible I missed it). So it sounds like it's board specific to me.

My guess is, the EFI code is developed and tested in an Intel EFI board (could be Itanium based or a recent DP Xeon board, as both offer EFI firmware), not a MP (let alone tested in every Intel based MP model).

 

[rdru]

Just received this from Areca regarding the fix for the MacPro:

Please check the serial number on the controller which include or later than belowserial number.
It has fixed the MacPro hardware detect issue.
ARC-1880IXL-12: Y039CACUAR300013
ARC-1880IXL-8: Y039CACTAR200001
ARC-1880IX-12: Y039CACQAR300001
ARC-1880IX-16: Y039CARUAR600001
ARC-1880IX-24: Y039CACSAR800001
ARC-1880X: Y038CACPAR200070
ARC-1880I: Y039CACOAR200001