HP P400 smart array SAS controller

[josepr]

Is anyone using the HP P-400 SAS controller on non HP hardware?

I am using on a Asus p5b delux MB with Vista x64 and it is nor working well.

It is much slower the the ICH8R in the MB and it constantly stops my computer for 30 seconds or more at a time.

Any help or suggestions greatly apreciated

 

[Shadow703793]

Do you have the correct drivers?
See:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?prodNameId=1157689&lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=1157687&taskId=135

 

[josepr]

Hi Shadow
In search for a working solution I tried all available drivers and 4 operating systems,
Win Server 2003
Win server 2003 x64
Win server 2008 X64
Vista ultimate x64
All the tests in the same hardware using different booy hard disks.
The problem shows up on all OS, so it must be a problem with this MB.

Any more suggestions are welcome

 

[GhislainG]

What slot is it in? It is designed for servers that have PCI-E 8x slots, like the supported HP ProLiant servers listed on HP's support site. Has it been flashed with the latest BIOS? In theory it should work, but it probably isn't supported on non-HP servers.

 

[josepr]

It is in slot 0 PCIe, I already sawaped it with video card. But the result is the same.
When copying to an external disk it just stops and go. In aplications like Adobe LR it just stops for 20 to 60 seconds.
Next week will try in an HP server, as a last resort.

HP doesnt help because it is not on an HP server.

I should have bought an Adaptec!
~
Thanks for ur comments

 

[benage]

Hi there,

Has anyone else had any experience using a P200/400/800 controllers on a generic motherboard? I'm trying to get mine running on an ECS P35T-A. Initially it detects the controller and shows as the primary boot device in the BIOS but then when i try and install 2k8 server it says the drive is not bootable. Then when i reboot and enter the BIOS the P400 is no longer shown as an option in the boot order. Really strange. I've flashed the BIOS to the latest revision and the P400 is running the latest 5.2 firmware. Im also running a battery backed 512mb cache module too.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[michine]

I was wondering, are any of the mother board you are trying to use the P400 card on, are they workstation mother board or just the stander PC?? I have used HP controllers before, they don't work well with stander PC MB, but they do work in workstation MB.

 

[bow]

Hello

I am using a P400 in an asus p5q-e mainboard and befor that in an asus p8n-sli-premium with windows xp

It is working fine, delivers very good reading preformance, writing to raid 5 is slow


But I had some issues:
A controller with firmware 5.20 did not work in the above mainboards, would stop at booting, but anoter one with firmware version 2.8 annd 5.26 work

That windows xp and vista are not officialy supported leaves you guessing wich driver one should use

That the controller does not show the individual drives is a serious handycap, I pesently think of exchanging them against LSI Controllers (3ware ore megaraid)

And the tools leave do not work fully under XP on non hp hardware, best compatibility I had with an lenovo thinkcentre

 

[wuzy]

A controller with firmware 5.20 did not work in the above mainboards, would stop at booting, but anoter one with firmware version 2.8 annd 5.26 work

Getting the controllers firmware updated to the latest should be the first thing you do.

That windows xp and vista are not officialy supported leaves you guessing which driver one should use

Easy, Win2003. XP and 2K3 differs very little in kernel while XP x64 and 2K3 x64 uses identical kernel.

That the controller does not show the individual drives is a serious handicap, I presently think of exchanging them against LSI Controllers (3ware or megaraid)

And the tools leave do not work fully under XP on non hp hardware, best compatibility I had with an lenovo thinkcentre

I uses to have a SmartArray 532 (back in U160/U320 days) in a custom-built workstation and the management software downloaded from HP website worked well on 2K3. Don't see why it wouldn't work under XP, unless it refuses to even install.

 

[kumandos]

From my experience with HP servers, I must say, that HP Smart Array Controllers are crap!!! Slow reads are likely caused by those controllers beeing optimised for high IO, which I never use. Linux Software RAID is waaayyyy faster in ANY mode (yes - even in Raid 6), at least in regards to pure read speed and write isn't bad as well.
Currently there are mainboards with good-enough built-in solutions, or you can alwes go 3ware/Adaptec/others. There's plenty of reviews in the net to help you choose something that's right. If I could I'd dump the P800 for something of my choice for less than half the price.