Technical Advisory 845

This Technical Advisory describes an issue which may or may not affect the customer’s product

Intel Technical Advisory TA-0845-1

5200 NE Elam Young Parkway

Hillsboro, OR 97124

October 23, 2006

System Software Updates Require Special Attention on Intel® 5000 Series

Chipsets Server Boards

Information in this document is provided in connection with Intel products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise,

to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document. Except as provided in Intel's Terms and Conditions of Sale for such

products, Intel assumes no liability whatsoever, and Intel disclaims any express or implied warranty, relating to sale and/or use of

Intel products including liability or warranties relating to fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, or infringement of any patent,

copyright or other intellectual property right. Intel products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, or life sustaining

applications. Intel may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. Current characterized

errata are available on request.

Products Affected

All Intel® 5000 Series Chipset Server Boards.

Description

As support for the Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5300

series is added to the Intel BIOS, firmware and FRUSDR

software, upgrades must occur in a certain order to ensure a valid system stack. .

Root Cause

Quad core detection and management requires SMBIOS Table 2.5 and more complex FRUSDRs. An update to BIOS

66 is required to obtain this Table. Tools which update FRUSDRs prior to BIOS update or update both at the same time

will still require BIOS 66 be on the server prior to FRUSDR updates.

Corrective Action / Resolution

All Intel® 5000 Series Chipset Server Boards must be updated to BIOS 66 before attempting to update to FRUSDR

packages supporting the Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5300 series.

There are multiple tools and update packs provided to accomplish this task.

1. Use any of the following tools and packages to update from BIOS versions prior to BIOS 66.

- the tools and software updates provided in the DOS Update Package containing BIOS 66

- Intel® Deployment Assistant 1.0 or 1.1 on the Intel® Resource Toolkit 2 CD and the OFU/Intel® Deployment

Assistant software update package containing BIOS 66

- Intel® One-boot Flash Update (OFU) found on the Intel® System Management Software CD and the OFU/Intel®

Deployment Assistant software update package containing BIOS 66.

2. After updating to BIOS 66, use the appropriate DOS FRUSDR package dated after October 15, 2006 to update to

the FRUSDRs that incluthat include support for the

Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5300 series.

3. For future updates, you will be able to use any of :

- Tools and software updates provided in the DOS Update Package

- Intel® Deployment Assistant 1.2 (to be posted to http://support.intel.com by the end of November 2006)

- OFU version located on http://support.intel.com dated after October 15, 2006.

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This Technical Advisory describes an issue which may or may not affect the customer’s product Intel Technical Advisory TA-0845-1 5200 NE Elam Young Parkway Hillsboro, OR 97124 October 23, 2006 System Software Updates Require Special Attention on Intel® 5000 Series Chipsets Server Boards Information in this document is provided in connection with Intel products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document.
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Additional Information Intel® One-boot Flash Update allows updating of the BIOS/BMC/and FRUSDRs from within Microsoft* Windows* Server 2003 or Red Hat* Enterprise Linux* 4.0. Version 9.6.1 or later should be used and will be available from http://downloadfinder.intel.com (search for OFU or look under your Server Board). Intel® Deployment Assistant v1.0 or 1.1 is available by booting to the Intel® Server Resource CD 2 included in your boxed Server Board or from http://downloadfinder.intel.