VMware ESXi 3.5 gives purple screen of death on install - Incorrect microcode level 0x0000
Hi guys.
We are trying to install ESXi 3.5 Update 2 on a server. We keep getting the purple screen of death at the end of the initilisation of the ISO image (installing from CD) That states:
VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 build-103909
The system has found a problem on your machine and cannot continue.
Incorrect microcode level 0x0000
I have included a crude screenshot of this error.
Here is our background with this, worth noting. We have run ESXi successfully on this server before. However, we have made some changes to the server in the last week, before running this fresh install:
* Upgraded the Athlon X2 FX processor to a 9950 Quad Core Phenom
* Upgraded the 4 Gb of DDR 800 ECC memory to 8 Gb
* Switched from using a GeForce 7 series PCIe video card to a onbaord graphics - ATI ES1000 (We need the PCI slot for a SAS RAID controller we will be using)
Our wider specification (that hasn't changed since the last successful run of ESXi):
* Asus M2N-LR Server board - latest BIOS
* Adaptec SCSI 2200 Dual Channel RAID Controller
I'm guessing that the greatest likelihood is that the Phenom is causing issues. But why would this be? It should be based on the same foundation as the Opteron Barcelona (B3 Stepping) and this is confirmed by VMware to work fine. Otherwise could it be something else?
It's also worth noting that we tried installing the older version of ESXi we had that worked fine before, just incase this was a bug with the new 'UIpdate 2' release. Alas, we got the exact same error message.
Any feedback greatfully received :D
Many thanks,
Bluemercury
DSC00021.JPG
We are trying to install ESXi 3.5 Update 2 on a server. We keep getting the purple screen of death at the end of the initilisation of the ISO image (installing from CD) That states:
VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 build-103909
The system has found a problem on your machine and cannot continue.
Incorrect microcode level 0x0000
I have included a crude screenshot of this error.
Here is our background with this, worth noting. We have run ESXi successfully on this server before. However, we have made some changes to the server in the last week, before running this fresh install:
* Upgraded the Athlon X2 FX processor to a 9950 Quad Core Phenom
* Upgraded the 4 Gb of DDR 800 ECC memory to 8 Gb
* Switched from using a GeForce 7 series PCIe video card to a onbaord graphics - ATI ES1000 (We need the PCI slot for a SAS RAID controller we will be using)
Our wider specification (that hasn't changed since the last successful run of ESXi):
* Asus M2N-LR Server board - latest BIOS
* Adaptec SCSI 2200 Dual Channel RAID Controller
I'm guessing that the greatest likelihood is that the Phenom is causing issues. But why would this be? It should be based on the same foundation as the Opteron Barcelona (B3 Stepping) and this is confirmed by VMware to work fine. Otherwise could it be something else?
It's also worth noting that we tried installing the older version of ESXi we had that worked fine before, just incase this was a bug with the new 'UIpdate 2' release. Alas, we got the exact same error message.
Any feedback greatfully received :D
Many thanks,
Bluemercury
DSC00021.JPG
ASKER
Many thanks for input - I'm just about to head into work - will try out your suggestion as soon as I'm there! Will let you know how I get on.... Thanks :D
ASKER
That's a shame - you're solution sounded very viable, but it still fires up with the exact same error :(
Any other suggestions at all?
Many thanks for your help so far. I will run the recommend mem and cpu tests over the weekend as well.
Any other suggestions at all?
Many thanks for your help so far. I will run the recommend mem and cpu tests over the weekend as well.
You need to deal with this problem using the process of elimination: change the components back one by one and test if it makes a difference.
When you know, come back and tell us.
ASKER
Hey robocat.
I was going to give this a go tomorrow. I'll start with changing back to the previous CPU, as a I suspect this is a likely cause.
Cheers,
Bluemercury
I was going to give this a go tomorrow. I'll start with changing back to the previous CPU, as a I suspect this is a likely cause.
Cheers,
Bluemercury
bluemercury,
any progress ?
ASKER
Hey robocat.
Really sorry for the delay in replying - had some other major problems at work, and my resources got tugged in a different direction. I also put the pause on experiments whilst VMware released the new build, pending the awful 12th August error (which you no doubt heard about).
Basically, I have done various tests in the last few days, swapping around the CPUs and changng many BIOS settings. In short, if I put the Dual Core FX processor back in, everything boots and works fine, and the installer runs if needed. Running with the Quad Core Phenom, we get the oh so familiar screen of death, both running the installed version (not a major surprise) but also trying to install a fresh copy.
Look at other articles out there, I suspect there is some issue with the CPU or the BIOS. Some people have suggested (not to me, but others with similar problems) that it could be the board vendor (Asus) need to release an update. I'm not so sure that will happen! I'm contemplating downgrading the BIOS, but then it may not support the Phenom, so I'm probably on a losing streak with this one.
If you guys have any more advice, I'd be grateful to receive it! Thanks again for your input thus far.
Bluemercury
Really sorry for the delay in replying - had some other major problems at work, and my resources got tugged in a different direction. I also put the pause on experiments whilst VMware released the new build, pending the awful 12th August error (which you no doubt heard about).
Basically, I have done various tests in the last few days, swapping around the CPUs and changng many BIOS settings. In short, if I put the Dual Core FX processor back in, everything boots and works fine, and the installer runs if needed. Running with the Quad Core Phenom, we get the oh so familiar screen of death, both running the installed version (not a major surprise) but also trying to install a fresh copy.
Look at other articles out there, I suspect there is some issue with the CPU or the BIOS. Some people have suggested (not to me, but others with similar problems) that it could be the board vendor (Asus) need to release an update. I'm not so sure that will happen! I'm contemplating downgrading the BIOS, but then it may not support the Phenom, so I'm probably on a losing streak with this one.
If you guys have any more advice, I'd be grateful to receive it! Thanks again for your input thus far.
Bluemercury
I checked the VMWare hardware compatibility list, and there isn't a single system on there with the 9xxx Phenom processor, so this processor might not be supported. The error code also implies this (microcode = the internal code executed by the processor).
ESX needs to do some pretty low level stuff to your machine, so my guess is that ESX doesn't recognise the microcode level of the processor because it's too recent.
Future releases of ESX probably will include support for this processor.
ASKER
Hi Robocat.
These have been my thoughts also. When I posted on here, I suspected it would be in vain, as I know the CPU doesn't list on any support lists. Lots of people posted on similar errors relating to motherboard BIOS' as well - I found one post that listed a self built system with a supported CPU (AMD Opteron), but it still didn't work till the motherboard vendor released a BIOS update that then got rid of the Microcode error.
Interestingly, the FX Athlons we were using were never listed on the compatibility list either, but worked from day one with the version of ESXi that was around when they were first put to market by AMD. I know it's a different architecture, but interesting nonetheless.
Thanks for your input. I'll leave the post open for now, so if nothing else I can post back when VMware release a patch that fixes this, or there is a BIOS update from the manufacturer. I'm also going to try the Phenom on some other AM2 boards that we have, just to see if anything changes for the better.
Cheers to all that have posted for your help :D
Bluemercury
These have been my thoughts also. When I posted on here, I suspected it would be in vain, as I know the CPU doesn't list on any support lists. Lots of people posted on similar errors relating to motherboard BIOS' as well - I found one post that listed a self built system with a supported CPU (AMD Opteron), but it still didn't work till the motherboard vendor released a BIOS update that then got rid of the Microcode error.
Interestingly, the FX Athlons we were using were never listed on the compatibility list either, but worked from day one with the version of ESXi that was around when they were first put to market by AMD. I know it's a different architecture, but interesting nonetheless.
Thanks for your input. I'll leave the post open for now, so if nothing else I can post back when VMware release a patch that fixes this, or there is a BIOS update from the manufacturer. I'm also going to try the Phenom on some other AM2 boards that we have, just to see if anything changes for the better.
Cheers to all that have posted for your help :D
Bluemercury
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But I would try the following:
- At the initial bootloader screen (when booting from the ISO), press TAB to edit the boot options
- Hold down the left-arrow key to move the cursor back to thebeginning of the boot options, and add "nocheckCPUIDLimit" right after"vmkernel.gz", so that the first part of the boot options BEFORE thefirst "---" reads: "mboot.c32 vmkernel.gz nocheckCPUIDLimit ---"
- Press ENTER.
Does it make any difference? If it does we can set it as a permanent option...Another thing I would do (since this is a new system) is to run memtest86+ over the weekend to verify that the memory (&cpu) is good.