[SunHELP] Sunfire v20z BIOS update

[Martin Frost]

On Thu, 11 Nov 2010, Aaron C Johnson wrote:

> The server works fine with the cpus that it came with but when I install
> the opteron 275's the server starts to post, and then it hangs at the
> initial boot screen. What's even weirder is that it only counts half the
> memory that is in the system when using the 275's. It counts memory
> correctly when using the cpus that it came with.

In Opteron systems, memory is local to a particular CPU socket (if a 
different CPU needs to access it this happens over HyperTransport).

So if you have a 2-socket system and the CPUs are not being initialised 
properly then it's not implausible that only the memory attached to the 
first socket (running the POST) would be recognised.

> So I'm thinkin it's either a memory compatibility issue or it needs a
> bios update. Problem is I can't get access to the bios update because it
> is secured on Sun's website (if only I was mr. mitnik I could get it!)

> I think the latest version is located here:
> http://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=45b0166d

It says on that page that the download is free - have you tried just 
creating an account and logging in?

Martin