9300-16i 16-Port 12Gb/s SAS Controller HBA Card with P16 IT Mode for ZFS TrueNAS unRAID

Excelente producto, viene listo para usarse, solo hay que conectar los cables y listo, el software que trae pre-cargado funciona perfectamente en modo IT justo como lo menciona el vendedor. Como es bien sabido, esta tarjeta puede calentarse bastante entonces es una muy buena idea comprar un ventilador pequeño y un bracket para sujetarlo justo debajo de la tarjeta, así se mantiene a buena temperatura todo el tiempo. La he usado casi un año y ha funcionado sin ningún problema con 16 discos de entre 8TB y 24TB.

Bought to use in my TrueNAS setup and it worked right away. No setup, no drivers, nothing extra required software wise to make this work. It was an instant drop in adapter to let my SAS drives to their thing.

Card is not recognized by the motherbord.

Using with Windows Server 2022 It doesnt seem to be on the lastest P16 firmware, but that is easily rectified by using IBM Megaraid to update from Windows using the files from FreeNAS/TrueNAS (Google it). This is an important thing to do as I had continual disconnections of SATA-based devices until I installed it. It runs a bit hot, but I screwed an 80mm fan into the heatsing and it runs nice and cool. A good value.

Board was not properly re-flashed from OEM state during refurb or something. The NVDATA is mismatched and there's nothing I can do to fix that as a consumer except return the card and try again...with another vendor. ⚠️ The NVDATA is mismatched Default NVDATA: 0e.01.00.03 Persistent NVDATA: 0e.01.00.07 output from sas3flash below shows the mismatch: Avago Technologies SAS3 Flash Utility Version 17.00.00.00 (2018.04.02) Copyright 2008-2018 Avago Technologies. All rights reserved. Adapter Selected is a Avago SAS: SAS3008(C0) Controller Number : 0 Controller : SAS3008(C0) PCI Address : 00:08:00:00 SAS Address : 500062b-2-013f-5500 NVDATA Version (Default) : 0e.01.00.03 NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 0e.01.00.07 Firmware Product ID : 0x2221 (IT) Firmware Version : 16.00.12.00 NVDATA Vendor : LSI NVDATA Product ID : SAS9300-16i BIOS Version : 08.37.00.00 UEFI BSD Version : 18.00.00.00 FCODE Version : N/A Board Name : SAS9300-16i Board Assembly : 03-25600-01B Board Tracer Number : SP53918490 Finished Processing Commands Successfully. Exiting SAS3Flash. 🔍 What the sas3flash -list Output Confirms ✅ 1. The card is in IT mode, so this is not a RAID-mode issue. Firmware Product ID : 0x2221 (IT) ⚠️ 2. The NVDATA is mismatched Default NVDATA: 0e.01.00.03 Persistent NVDATA: 0e.01.00.07 These must match on a healthy card. A mismatch like this is the classic signature of: a partially flashed white‑label card corrupted NVDATA a board that was cross‑flashed incorrectly before you received it or a counterfeit SAS3008 board with invalid NVDATA partitions This mismatch is exactly what causes drives to be visible, SMART readable, capacity readable, but all writes fail with I/O errors. This matches the behavior of the drives on my system. Additionally: ⚠️ 3. The SAS address format is unusual. Real LSI SAS addresses follow a strict pattern. This looks like it was autogenerated by a refurbisher. 500062b-2-013f-5500 ⭐ Bottom Line: The NVDATA region is corrupted — and that cannot be fixed with normal flashing. -e 6 didn’t fix it flashing firmware didn’t fix it flashing the ROM didn’t fix it Windows still throws I/O errors all disks fail identically This is the exact behavior of a SAS3008 card with bad NVDATA or a defective write path. 🔥 Can this be repaired? There is a deeper recovery method, but it only works if the hardware is genuine: The “full NVDATA rewrite” procedure involves: forcing an erase of NVDATA partitions manually injecting a clean NVDATA image rewriting the SAS address reflashing firmware again However: This requires a matching NVDATA image for your board White‑label cards often reject the rewrite Clone cards often brick when forced into this procedure If the write path is physically damaged, no firmware fix will help Given your symptoms and the mismatch, the odds are high that the card is either defective or a clone with invalid NVDATA. Chat GPT also said: 🧠 My honest recommendation Based on the NVDATA mismatch, the unusual SAS address, the fact that -e 6 didn’t fix it, the universal write failures, and the white‑label refurb origin: You are dealing with a bad card, not a configuration issue. No driver, no Windows setting, and no normal flash procedure will fix a corrupted NVDATA region on a clone or defective SAS3008 board. Return it. Replace it with a genuine LSI/Broadcom card. May the odds be ever in your favor. They weren't in mine.