AMD Phenom 9500 + ASUS motherboard works with 3.5 Update2, but not with anything else

[rwestCHA]

I started with ESXi4.0, but I got the dreaded Purple Screen of Death (PSoD) stating "no supported microcode levels for this stepping of AMD family 10h B2 processor" for my AMD 9500 Phenom X4 processor. I googled, found a few threads here and there, and basically gleamed from those posts that it is likely to be a motherboard BIOS issue.

So, I emailed support over at ASUS (M2N68-VM) since I was definitely running with the latest BIOS. They wrote back to me (thinking I had asked about an AMD 9550 and not an AMD9500):

Unfortunately, we do not offer
support for ESX for your motherboard, and cannot assist in
troubleshooting any issues that may arise as a result of using it. It
sounds like the software is trying to read it as a 9500 Phenom (which
IS B2 stepping) and not a 9550 (which contains the TLB fix and is B3
stepping)

On a whim, I tested with an AMD X2 4000+, and ESXi 4.0 happily installed.

I then broke down and installed ESXi 3.5 Update 2, and it installed with the AMD 9500 processor and didn't complain. Unfortunately, it no longer recognizes my NIC.

Argh. I manage a bunch of ESX servers at the office, and figured it would be helpful to have a home-based test environment, too. I didn't think it would be this difficult.. I was under the impression that most issues would occur with the NIC and storage controller, so I made sure that this motherboard would be in the clear. I never thought that the processor would be incompatible with ESX.

Am I missing obvious here? If ESX 3.5 Update2 properly recognizes the processor, why is it that the later updates don't?

[mikelane]

I posted a comment in a thread a while back wondering outloud whether my whitebox would upgrade OK to vSphere and it was mentioned that the HCL for vSphere would not be exactly the same as for ESX 3.x installations.

I googled a couple of cpuz screenshots of the two processors and there are some differences between them that can be gleaned from that other than that the Athlon 64 x2 4000+ is a AM2 packaged processor and the Phenom X4 is an AM2+ packaged processor.

Both CPUs have the same instructions: MMX(+), 3DNOW!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, and x86-64 except that the Phenom has SSE4A which the Athlon does not.

I highly doubt that consumer manufacturers will ever support ESX - we are just lucky if our consumer grade products actually run ESX ...

You are definately not the first to post with this issue though, there are plenty of threads here which may have information that will help you: http://communities.vmware.com/people/eku1;jsessionid=C5E1BD05848E2A86A25302FA2C85438A?view=discussio...

[mikelane]

There is also this thread: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/213993?tstart=15

[wessie]

If you're just looking for basic at-home testing then mayby running in workstation or player will do just fine.

http://xtravirt.com/node/177

[rwestCHA]

There is also this thread:

LOL.. That posting was from me.. about 30 minutes after posting this one.

[rwestCHA]

Found my answer over here -> http://communities.vmware.com/thread/212655

Turns out that the AMD Phenom X4 9500 has a bug in it that breaks virtualization. I'm returning mine for the 9550and figure I will give that a try.