I have (3) SHG2 motherboard-based rack server systems, all of which have run well under Windows 2000. Converting the first one over to Windows 2003 was a challenge though, and I'll go through my steps to get it working correctly. Please note that I am using the SC5200 controller unit with the motherboard.

1. Make sure you are running the latest BIOS, BMC, FRU/SDR, and HSC updates. They are available for download from the Intel web site. The HSC is only required if you have the SC5200 unit.

2. I had to run the FRU/SDR update TWICE to get it to work correctly and not kick all the system fans to 100% all the time.

3. Each server also uses the Intel RAID controller SRCMRU. It is critical to update the firmware on this unit to at least 2.34.09-R05C. Again, D/L from the Intel site.

4. I was doing a fresh install of Windows 2003, and not an upgrade from Windows 2000. I have a RAID-1 system disk setup, plus a RAID-5 data array. When installing Windows 2003, if you have the SRCMRU, make sure to use the RAID driver version 3.13 from floppy disk by pressing F6 during the install and loading the driver.

5. I was able to get through the initial Windows 2003 copying routines just fine, but upon reboot, received a BSOD, error code level 0x0000007E. From what I could dig up online, this was some kind of driver error message. I then also determined by looking at one of my other servers, that I had the SC5200 controller unit, which I had not updated on this system yet. After updating the firmware on the SC5200, I reloaded Windows 2003 (another fresh install), and this time is started up fine.

6. Things have been running well for a week now, although I continue to occassionally get BSOD messages at soft reboot. These messages are too fast to read, cause another soft reboot, and are not recorded in the event logs. A hard power down reboot has always worked to get the server to boot correctly again.

7. Both the Intel Server Management tools, and the Intel RAID tools work well with Windows 2003, allowing monitoring of the system and devices. Again, these can be downloaded from the Intel site (5.5.7 for the SM, 3.04 for the SC).

Personally, I would just replace these systems with newer/faster/better/less power consuming Dell servers, but I work for a non-profit, and that kind of money just isn't in the cards for us. I hope these notes help somebody else out there in the same situation.

I have been getting the STOP 0x0000007E error after applying SP2 update on Windows 2003.
The server works fine for Reboot without shutdown but the STOP 0x0000007E error appears after a shutdown and restart.
I have been trying to apply the latest firmware and BIOS update without the Server Resource CD as I lost the CD.
The ISO for the Server Resource CD is not available to download anywhere.
This is a very poor design on Intel's part.