T7910 HDD Recognition

SAS PERC controllers need F6 mass storage drivers.

Integrated RAID Controller
The PERC H330/H730P storage controller driver 

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER04038968M/2/SAS-RAID_Driver_M1N4H_WN32_6.604.06.00_A00.EXE

is installed by the F6 method.

You cannot point to the EXE file.  Rename .ZIP and extract the contents to a flash drive to point to.

Chipset drivers are not native to windows.

Nothing whatsoever to do with UEFI

https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/sln298613/dell-precision-workstation-r7910-driver-installation-guide?lang=en

perc sas 3

Speedstep, aren't SSD's also mass storage devices? The T7910 BIOS recognises my SSD drives but not my HDD drives! I tried three different SATA Hitachi Ultrastars with SAS on and none of them are recognised by the T7910! Again, the T7610 is just fine. Why one and not the other?

Thanks for your contribution @PeterSfa. I ended up not using any HDD's! I agree that there is something odd about the T7910. It doesn't seem to like "legacy" hardware at all.

One other issue that I have been struggling with, for over a year now, is the white PCI slot (not PCIe) on the motherboard. I simply cannot get a parallel port adapter card to work in it.

Someone suggested that I should buy an old parallel port printer, and see if I can make that work, but I suspect that the problem is with the T7910 system.

With "Enable Legacy ROMS" on, the BIOS reports that an ISA bridge is present in the PCI slot. Further, Windows 10 Device Manager reports that the device is working properly, with no conflicts, but the card simply refuses to work. I constantly get a "The system cannot find the device specified" error message.

Very frustrating, because I tried everything, and my T7610, with an almost identical configuration works just fine. Go figure!!

@PeterSfa Your best option, if you want to boot an OS from a PCIe NVME M2 drive on the T7910, is to use a quad Dell adapter card, which is expensive.

I have one, and can report that a Samsung 950 Pro stick works fine with it as a boot drive. Not all do! The others are fine for storage but not for booting, so be careful.

I wouldn't waste money on single third party adapter cards because they are a bit "iffy". Most simply do not work.

The Dell card may turn out to be more economical in the long-run. I'm sure that your time is more valuable than testing stuff eventually destined for the scrapheap.

Have you thought about using a normal PCIe drive? Samsung and Intel make fast large capacity models. Again, you must be careful. The Intel Optane, for example, may not work with the T7910 at all. I'm not aware of anyone using one.

Highpint also have a Quad bootable version.

https://www.techpowerup.com/248873/highpoint-releases-bootable-quad-m-2-nvme-raid-card-the-ssd7102

Yes what I had in mind from the beging was DELL Duo or Quad. When I dig into it I discovered they do not support RAID.
Here in Thailand I can buy a Dell Ultra Speed Drive Duo, for about 1790 TBH, that is around 60 USD (new). If I would buy on eBay or similar, the shipping would make it too expensive compared to what I buy here locally.

I was thinking about RAID for speed, so a striping was what I had in mind. I make a copy of my boot drive from time to time and I can afford the time it takes to restore my system if needed.
Data is on another drive.

HighPoint make a RAID NVMe. I used them before for SATA RAID and had no problem with them at that time. I saw this modell: https://highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series-ssd7202-overview.htm But it is new, so maybe wait and se what people say about them. The ad claim it is bootable.
I am curious about this HighPoint NVMe RAID.

About the NVMe drives, yes I have look into them a little bit, but to my understanding they are similar to using a Duo or Quad card from DELL and put M.2 NVMe on them.
I also belive the Quad card would be cheaper in the long run. But, then again, I have never had one of those, so I do not have experiense with them.
In old times they where only HDDs mounted on a PCB and into the PCI, not much difference.
Today with NVMe and PCIe its another story.

I use my T7910 manly for CAD and software development. In CAD feel the most performance is in the grapichs, but I belive my compiler would gain speed with faster NVMe in RAID 0 mode.

Boot time would also be faster, but, most of the time for boot is the BIOS enumerating anywhay, soo.

I was thinking about maybe erase the BIOS version on the SAS controller and only use Firmware with UEFI. I have not tested, but as long as I use only UEFI, the BIOS should not be needed on the controller.
That would bypass the SAS Bios time it makes before the DELL LOGO, some time saved. But, then again, I only boot it once a day, not a big deal.

In my experience, boot speed is not dramatically faster with an M2 drive. To be honest, I do not really care. As you write, what's a few seconds per day?

As for RAID, another option is to upgrade to a T7920. I understand that a flexbay NVME upgrade kit (two 2TB drives maximum, if you have two CPU's installed) does support it.

Should I run the download as is from the dell site (maybe Dell Fixed it) or use the 15.00.00.00 signed file from Broadcom?

I am not at the system now but can remote in.  Is there a way to see the controller firmware version in windows?

@PeterSfa 

Hi.  I have a T7910 and after a Bios Update, with secure boot enabled, the system no longer recognizes any drives on the LSI3008 integrated Controller.  All my drives including the boot are on this controller.  I did previously download from Dell the PH15.  I reported this to dell pro support about not seeing the drives with secure boot on at the time when my system was under warranty (June 2019).  They wanted to replace the MB and I chose not to at the time.  My system is no longer under warranty so I want to look at updating the firmware as you noted in your post.  I have been running it for the last two years with secure boot off.

I updated the 3008 firmware to PH15 around May of 2018.  The issue of not seeing the drives happened when I went from Bios A29 to A30.  I am on A31 now and have not done any bios updates since.

I just checked the Dell Site and it shows the version at 15.01.00.00.  I am not sure if the one I installed in May 2018 was 15.00.00.00 or this 15.01.00.00.  

Will this fix, fix the secure boot issue?  I am assuming the issues is that the driver is not signed.

I downloaded

9300_8i_Package_P15_IR_IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows

I grabbed the signed file mpt3x64.rom but I have not run the Dell Flash yet.

Is there any reason I should use the 16.00.10.00 on the Broadcom link?  I see a 17.00.00.00 but there is no windows file there.

I just want to be able to finally enable secure boot.

rinconman285,

Run the Dell Flash and see if that will work and let us know.

Thanks.  I found it in device manager, but did not see anything that shows the firmware version.

rinconman285,

Run it from the Dell site and if that does not work for you then  try the Broadcom site.  You should be able to see the version by located it in Device Manager and then right click on it and choose properties.

Dell-Jesse L