"Locate the boot controller" in the HP Z820

[Eugen_T]

Dear Paul,

I seem to be stuck due to the same issue with HP Z820 while attempting a fresh installation of Windows 7 x64. No Drives are found  by W7 installation. Based on various posts on HP support, I tried a few dozens options, with no susccess.

In the step-by-step Windows7 installation guide on the HP support (https://support.hp.com/ie-en/document/c03465686), there's a mention to "Locate the boot controller" in the HP Z820  - in Drivers Storage section.

Out of 12 available drivers in the HP Z820 W7 x64 download zone, only three of them refer to LSI 2308 SAS Controllers (sp69010.exe, sp69177.exe, sp56513.exe).

Is there any possible way for you to assist me with this? which one is it more specifically

Many thanks

Eugen

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Eugen:

See if this works...I have zipped up and attached below, what I think would be the drive controller drivers you need.

Download and unzip the files.

There are two driver folders.

The drivers in one of the folders should work.

What you need to do is copy just the file contents of one folder to a USB flash drive.

Click on the Load driver link at the bottom left side of this window pictured below.

If you check the box, it will only include the compatible driver.

Then see if you can proceed with the installation. 

If the first set of drivers you try don't work, do the same thing with the set of drivers in the other folder.

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

HP posts the nessary drivers on their web site, however a bit of information will make things much easer

the z820 is a workstation based computer, as such it does not use the consumer intel chipsets but rather the special workstation versions

further mudding the waters is the fact that the z820 has three seperate drive controllers

the two "normal" SATA ports (usually blue in color) thes will work under XP-win 10 with any special drivers

Five "SCU" sata ports which are right next to the blue sata ports, thes ports require the intel enterprise RST driver set in order to be used (either v3.x or 4.x) note that the eRST drivers are not the same as the consumer RST drivers, the eRST has specific support for the workstation 's intel chipset

last along the edge of the board  seven white SAS/SATA ports controlled by the LSI controlle, this controller is configured through the z820 bios and is compleatly seperate from the other sata only ports and can be enabled/disabled from the bios

this controller chip requires drivers under XP and windows 7, but has native support under win 8 and higher

i strongly recomend you download the HP service manual for this system as it has all the hardware specs and configuration help nessary to configure the system

you can download all the current z820 drivers in one package from this link:

https://www8.hp.com/us/en/ads/clientmanagement/drivers-pack.html

Service manual:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04205252

[Eugen_T]

Hi Paul,

Many thanks for your prompt reply and attachments. I have followed your instructions precisely, but unfortunatelly I still cannot see any of my three drives.

Is there a  Bios configuration I  should  apply prior to the W7 x64 USB boot?  

Would it help if I provide any other details (serial number, product no, device IDs etc)?

Kind regards,

Eugen

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, Eugen.

Unfortunately, I am not an expert on the Workstations, like I am with the general business desktops such as the dc7xxx, and 8xxx Elites.

I think your model has different BIOS settings such as RAID + AHCI, then what I am familiar with.

If you look inside those file folders I attached yesterday, you will see that one of them contains multiple driver setup information files to choose from.

What you could try is to install W10, and even if it doesn't activate (it probably won't if you didn't take the free upgrade to W10), at least you will be able to go into the device manager and get the hardware ID's for the AHCI or RAID controllers, and then I can try and figure out exactly what storage controller driver you need.

You can make a W10 USB installer from the link below using the media creation tool on another Windows PC.

You will need an 8 GB flash drive for that.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

if you are asked to enter a product key, check the 'skip' box, and W10 should install.

[Eugen_T]

Dear DGroves,

Thank you for your prompt and comprehensive answer to my post, I will open both links and follow through. 

B.t.w. fantastic link with all the combined drivers packs

Kind regards,

Eugen T

[DGroves]

for windows 7, remove all drives except for the drive to be installed connect this drive to one of the blue sata ports

connect the dvd to the other port, and boot from the dvd

if using a usb key, win 7 lacks usb 3.0 native drivers, so during the install you must use the usb 2.0 ports

[Eugen_T]

Thank you Paul,

My Bios version: J63 v03.69

Windows 10 has installed effortlessly.

All drivers were updated , except for SAS Controller, in Other Devices (still has a yellow exclamation mark). When i open properties, it says No Driver was installed for this device.

In Windows10, with File Explorer i can only see one hard drive, out of the three hard storage drives there are in total.

But when I select right-click Properties of the visible hard drive, then click on Hardware, all three storage disks devices appear, as follows:

• ATA ST3000DM001-1CH1 SCSI Disk Device (In Properties: This device is working properly. Driver by Microsoft 10.0.17134.1)
• ATA WDC WD5000AAKX-6 SCSI Disk Device (In Properties: This device is working properly. Driver by Microsoft 10.0.17134.1)
• SEAGATE ST3600057SS SCSI Disk Device (In Properties: This device is working properly. Driver by Microsoft 10.0.17134.1)

Here are their Hardware IDs:

• SCSI\DiskATA____ST3000DM001-1CH1HP34
• SCSI\DiskATA____WDC_WD5000AAKX-61H18
• SCSI\DiskSEAGATE_ST3600057SS____HPS1

In the W10 Device Manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers:

• ATA Channel 0 (Hardware ID Intel-1d3c; Internal_IDE_Channel)
• ATA Channel 1 (Hardware ID Intel-1d3c; Internal_IDE_Channel)
• Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller (Hardware ID PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1D3C&SUBSYS_158B103C&REV_05)

Screenshots below (apologies for poor quality)

[Eugen_T]

Some screen shots (all three storage devices are visible in BIOS)

[DGroves]

i do support for z820/z840 systems and personally own a z820 and i run win 10 prof 64bit

under windows 10, there is native (basic) support for all of the z820's onboard controllers, why you are having problems is a mystery.  once windows 10 is installed you can install the intel eRST 4.x driver package to update the driver for the 5 "SCU" ports (4.x is required under win 10 as 3.x is not certified for win 10)

the quickest way to get the latest HP approved v4 is by downloading the z840 eRST driver  v4.6.0.1048   Rev.1 which is a bit newer than what HP lists for the z820, and works  fine

  https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp82501-83000/sp82728.exe

the LSI 2308 SAS/SATA controller also has native win 10 support and since this chip is a OEM only model support is from the OEM  not LSI

you also need the Intel Management Engine Software for the z820 installed  v11.0.0.1158 Rev.B, if you enable the Intel "AMT" feature in the Bios, (AMT is for domain use only and should be disabled for non domain users)

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp74001-74500/sp74499.exe

last, installing the HP z820 chipset drivers from the z840 download page  v10.1.2.19 Rev.A (again a bit newer than the z820)

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp75501-76000/sp75814.exe