NUC12DCMi9 with Intel X710/E810 NICs

[Reuben_Farrelly]

I've recently purchased an NUC12DCMi9 kit and have attempted to replicate my existing setup that I have with an NUC11BTMi9.

All has gone well, with one exception.   I have an Intel X710-T2L and also an Intel X810XXVDA2 NIC which I have been attempting to install in the PCIe expansion slot in this NUC12 chassis.

Both however, cause a No Boot situation with the NUC12.  The skull appears during POST, but POST never proceeds and the Skull never progresses to an actual boot up of any OS (or USB Key to install).  Remove the cards and POST and boot completes normally.  So it is 100% something to do with the presence of these cards that is causing the problem.

The system has BIOS version 0052 installed which is the latest posted on the Intel Website.

Because of the inability to boot up with these cards installed, there is no way to send diagnostics or boot Windows and run any sort of tools such as the Intel SSU.

Both cards are proven good.  They are both updated with the latest NVM firmware, and both work perfectly in the NUC11 and other PCs.  It is only when they are moved to the NUC12 that they cause the hang during POST.
If I interrupt POST with F2, I can see in the BIOS that the card is recognised as an Add On card, can query it, see the slot details, see the MAC addresses on the card and see the NVRAM version.

If I replace these with a dual port Intel I350 card in the same slot then the system boots.  But that is a much lower PCI spec card and I don't really want to use it.

I have also disabled the PXE boot on these cards which made no difference. 

This looks to me like a bug in the BIOS or implementation on the NUC12 itself.

Has anyone been able to get an X710 or E810 PCIe card working in their NUC12?

Would someone from the Intel NUC team be able to talk to the Intel NIC team to test and get a complete Intel system to boot and proceed past POST?  I realise that the X710 and X810 cards are not on the tested hardware list but being standard PCIe compliant cards these should at least not cause any normal system to hang and fail to boot?

Thanks,
Reuben

[Steven_Intel]

Hello Reuben_Farrelly,

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

We would like to investigate and work on this issue. In order to continue, could you please provide a video of your NUC trying to boot (locked at POST screen) while the NICs are connected?

As well, for documentation purposes, please provide the SSU report, though the cards are not connected to the NUC at the time of the report.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Steven G.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[Reuben_Farrelly]

There isn't anything on the screen except the NUC Skull and normal boot options of F2/F7/F10.  Eventually the boot will timeout and the system will restart.  But I will take a video and upload it in the next day or so anyway.

What is also very interesting is that I discovered last night that if I put an old Intel X520 card in the NUC it POSTs, boots up and runs fine.  So it therefore appears that there is something different with the X710 and E810 cards that is stopping the system from booting.

[Reuben_Farrelly]

Hi again Steven,

I have also tested with more Intel NICs.  So the running results are:

Intel i350-T2 - Works fine
Intel X520 (Also known as Ethernet controller: Intel(R) 82599 10 Gigabit Dual Port Network Connection) - Works fine
Intel X710-DA2 - Hangs at POST on NUC12
Intel E810-XXVDA2 - Hangs at POST on NUC12

Note that all the above NICs are recognised and boot fine in the NUC11, specifically the NUC11BTMi9.  So this is a regression specific to the NUC12.

I have attached the output of ssu.txt from when the NUC12 is booted with a Gentoo Linux Boot Disk.  There seems to be plenty of output in there so I hope this is sufficient.  At the time the X520 card was installed in the chassis.  I do not have a Windows Install nor a spare NVMe in the NUC to install Windows to (this is probably going to be used for ESXi or Linux in the near future).

A rather exciting video of the system failing to POST is here:

https://youtu.be/xcMFVKT8CGc

Hope you enjoy it

Let me know what else we need to do to have this escalated.  I think the next step is going to be for someone from Intel to get a brand new NUC12 out of the box with an X710 or E810 NIC and power it up and see for yourselves that it just doesn't work.  No operating system even required to be able to reproduce this one.

[Steven_Intel]

Thank you for your response.

We are going to work on this case based on the information provided. As soon as I have an update, I will let you know.

Best regards,

Steven G.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[Reuben_Farrelly]

@Steven_Intel How is the case going?  Do you need any further information from me to progress this?

[Steven_Intel]

Hello Reuben_Farrelly,

I will e-mail you to the e-mail address associated with your community profile requesting some information.

Best regards,

Steven G.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[Reuben_Farrelly]

Thanks @Steven_Intel for your help.  Hopefully a fix will be integrated into the next public release of BIOS for this platform.

[Steven_Intel]

Hello Reuben_Farrelly,

Since the thread is now solved, we will close it. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question, as this thread will no longer be monitored.  

Best regards,

Steven G.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[eBebby]

Hello

I recently purchased a NUC 12 and an X710 as well. Unfortunately i have seen this forum post here only now.

I have the same problem with the Card in the NUC. The firmware is the latest. Is there any solution to the problem?

King regards

Marco

[Reuben_Farrelly]

Yes, upgrading the firmware fixed it.  The fix was in version 0055 released some time ago for my platform which is a NUC12DCMi9.

I would suggest you also update the firmware of the X710 as well - not sure if this will fix it but it's worth a go.

What are the exact symptoms, and have you tried with another (different) NIC in the same slot?

If both your mainboard and the X710 firmware are updated then post here what exact NUC model you have and the firmware version on it.  It is possible that the fix was not ported to all NUCs, but only an Intel rep with the information above will be able to tell you for sure.

[eBebby]

Thanks for the Hint. It was the Firmware of the Card, came from the seller with a Version from the Time Period of the Flintstones.

Firmware of the Card updated to the most recent Version, Problem solved...