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Flashing Rocket 640L gives "No Adaptor Found"

DanielCoffey

DanielCoffey

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 15, 2010
1,208
30
Edinburgh, UK
I am attempting to flash the firmware on my Highpoint Rocket 640L and am encountering "No Adaptor Found!!" messages from the mvf_mag.exe flashing tool. I need to update the Broadcom BIOS to get past the "KP on Wake from Sleep" issue.

I am aware that the tool is a 16-bit DOS application so cannot be used from Win7-64 Home. I first tried Win7-32 Home and got "No Adaptor Found!!" when running the go.bat file from the Highpoint website.

Next I tried the OSX version of DOSBOX and got exactly the same message. I tried the Win7-64 version of DOSBOX and got the same.

The card is certainly working - when I attach SATA3 drives to it I get full SATA3 speeds. I can see the device in the PCI cards system information so I was wondering...

Do I need to have a drive attached to the card before I can flash it or is the Mac Pro BIOS somehow protecting the card from being flashed and therefore needs a loaner PC with PCI-E to flash it in?

I am speculating that it either comes down to Mac security preventing the flash or something that I am doing wrong.

I don't own a PC but the two folks I have approached in my building and a local PC shop have had "older" PCs with the larger PCI slots but no spare PCI-E slots.

I don't want to take it in to a shop only to hear the "Sorry sir, we got told No Adaptor Found. Here's your card back and the bill".
 
I would contact Highpoint and ask them what exact environment is acceptable for flashing on a Mac Pro.

I suspect you need to actually boot into a DOS environment even though I haven't seen that requirement in a long time for a flashing utility. If so, look into FreeDOS and make a bootable USB stick or CD that includes the flashing files on it.
 
ActionableMango said:
I
I suspect you need to actually boot into a DOS environment even though I haven't seen that requirement in a long time for a flashing utility. If so, look into FreeDOS and make a bootable USB stick or CD that includes the flashing files on it.
Click to expand...

Second that. But forget FreeDOS. Use WinMe boot disk - could be obtained in .iso from allbootdisks.com. Put flasher on a FAT formatted pendrive and run it from there.
 
Is that going to work on the Mac Pro though? I have a FAT formatted USB with a DOS image on it and it is not recognised as bootable on the MP.
 
Burn .iso on a CD and boot off of it and put flasher on FAT formatted USB stick. For some weird reason MPs don't like booting from USB DOS drives.
 
I have a WinME .iso giving me a bootable disk now but I can't seem to find the USB stick from the limited commands that the WinME iso gives me access to.

Selecting option 2, launch with cd support hangs. Option 3 gives me a drive C ramdisk but no apparent access to the USB drive.

I assume the ISO is just a bootable stub from which you would install a retail copy of the actual OS so I don't know how to make the USB stick visible.
 
Last edited:
That's weird. It must be MP firmware problem then. It alway worked on various PCs I've used to flash graphics cards in the past. In my MP I use small FAT formatted HDD connected to onboard SATA port and it's perfectly accessible when booted from WinMe boot disk. Try this instead USB if you have spare HDD.
 
That worked - I can see the drive as C: and can access the flashing tool from it.

I am now staring at the flashing tool wondering how long it takes... about 2 mins so far with a blinking cursor. Mvf_mag.exe I think it is.

Edit : I aborted it after 15 minutes since nothing was happening. No harm was done to the card as I suspect the MP is preventing the flashing from taking place. It looks like my next step is the PC shop after all.
 
Last edited:
Well I did tell you from the start that it HAS to be done from MSDOS in a PC...

It isn't like i tried to do it in my Mac Pro too.

By the way, these are the commands are to flash it:

go.bat -e -y
go.bat -y

Takes 10 minutes, and that is including building the USB stick to boot from!!
 
I know... but until someone tells you *why* it has to be done on a PC, the natural inclination when you don't have access to one is to have another go and explore alternative avenues. Optimism over experience, you know.

I have taken the card to three local computer shops now including the up-market one which absorbed our local Apple Certified repair centre without luck. The first two cheapo ones wandered around the shop with the card in their bare hands rummaging to find a working computer which was modern enough to have a PCI-E card slot free and the third shop were much more professional but admitted that while the business says "We Repair Everything" there was an invisible rider "except anything that requires a firmware update because of the risk of turning it into a doorstop".

The card works beautifully, giving me single SSD speeds of 468MB/s write, 503MB/s read... until I forget and put the machine to sleep, curse and have to wake it up, wade through the KP and then shut it down again.
 
Well the answers are:

The card is already initialised once booted into an OS, so you can't then flash it.
The newer Mac Pro won't boot to MSDOS (from a USB stick atleast), for whatever reason, nothing we can do about that.

You could always send it back? The newest cards should have the updated firmware already.
 
Having bought it direct from Amazon UK I would have expected it to be recent stock.

I see the following BIOS versions when looking at it in the Windows tools provided by Highpoint...

BIOS 1.0.0.1008
FW 2.3.0.1028
Bootloader 1.0.1.0002

I think I should be at 1.0.0.1013, 2.3.0.1046 and 2.1.0.1004 (or newer) respectively.

I think I may have to talk to Amazon about returning it but there is no guarantee that I can get newer stock from them. Everyone in this building with a computer is a Mac user, I don't work in an office so can't ask the other computer users, I have exhausted the local shops. I am getting to the point of asking UK readers in this forum with a suitable PC if I can ship it return postage paid to them for flashing.
 
Hello,

I just purchased a Rocket 640L controller and it is properly recognized in Win7, but not in OS-X 10.8.5. So I thought I'd update the BIOS and downloaded that BIOS.rar from official site which doesn't tell any version-number... :mad:
Had versions
BIOS 1.0.0.1008
FW 2.3.0.1028
before AND AFTER a succesful Flashing procedure from a DOS-stick.
So that seems pointless. DanielCoffey, where do you got those newer version numbers from?

Also, you should check your mainbord BIOS, an update there might help. What are your issues with the card?

For now, I ruined my OS-X install by updating my GA Z77-DS3H BIOS from F9 to F10f.
Can only access it with boot: -x. - Any idea what I could do?
 
The "No Adapter Found" message was shown to me when I was trying to flash the 640L in my Mac Pro. It needs to be flashed in a PC while booting from MSDOS (or the WinME boot image after selecting Option 4 - Minimal Config").

The reason for this is that on a Mac Pro, by the time the PCI bus is polled and the card found, its firmware is protected. You MUST boot from a real PC with something as far back as MSDOS.

Once you have done that, you should be able to flash the card properly.

The firmware I used was given to me by Concorde Rules who got it from Highpoint after reporting the Wake from Sleep fault to them. It is not updated to their main page yet. I will PM you with a link to the new firmware.

I can't update my mainboard BIOS as I am using a Mac Pro, not a Hack.

EDIT : I see you have access to a bootable USB stick - you should be good to go with the new firmware I just told you about via PM.

The issue I had was that it would work perfectly in my 2010 MP but would KP on Wake from Sleep every time.
 
ahh, KP on Wake was the problem for you.
I'd be glad if that damn sucker even would show up at all.

Thanks for the pm and the link. Since that seems not nescessary for the moment, I'll probably try it later, once I can make the controller work in OS-X. I just don't get why it doesn't now.
 
DanielCoffey said:
The "No Adapter Found" message was shown to me when I was trying to flash the 640L in my Mac Pro. It needs to be flashed in a PC while booting from MSDOS (or the WinME boot image after selecting Option 4 - Minimal Config").

The reason for this is that on a Mac Pro, by the time the PCI bus is polled and the card found, its firmware is protected. You MUST boot from a real PC with something as far back as MSDOS.

Once you have done that, you should be able to flash the card properly.

The firmware I used was given to me by Concorde Rules who got it from Highpoint after reporting the Wake from Sleep fault to them. It is not updated to their main page yet. I will PM you with a link to the new firmware.

I can't update my mainboard BIOS as I am using a Mac Pro, not a Hack.

EDIT : I see you have access to a bootable USB stick - you should be good to go with the new firmware I just told you about via PM.

The issue I had was that it would work perfectly in my 2010 MP but would KP on Wake from Sleep every time.
Click to expand...

Hey Daniel,

can you give me the link to the Firmware over PM? Thanks a lot.
 
Hi Daniel,
as i'm suffering from the issue too, i've asked Highpoint 2 times to sent me the
necessary files, but i didn't get a response until now ?

Can you please send me the link too ?

Thanks Bernd
 
bko - you have disabled "Allow other members to send you emails" so I can't send you a PM with the link. Can you temporarily change that setting and I'll PM you the details to get the firmware.

Thanks.
 
DanielCoffey said:
bko - you have disabled "Allow other members to send you emails" so I can't send you a PM with the link. Can you temporarily change that setting and I'll PM you the details to get the firmware.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi Daniel,
this should be fixed now ...

Ciao Bernd
 
Hello,

Just purchased the Rocket 640L (June 2014) and it still has the BIOS (1.0.0.1008) and firmware (2.3.0.1028) discussed above and there is currently no updated firmware available on the Highpoint website. My R640L is recognised by my old Windows 7 PC (regular old BIOS, 5 year old ASUS MB) but not by my new Debian NAS build (brand new ASRock MB with new fangled EUFI). The intention is to run the R640L in the NAS so I'd really like to get it working there. Seems to be the same problem as discussed above wrt Mac Pro. If anyone is able to send me the link to the newer firmware mentioned by DanielCoffey above and Concorde Rules in other posts, I would be very grateful.

Cheers guys.
 
DanielCoffey said:
I have no idea if this version is still currently the most up to date as I don't have the card (or the MP any more - I sold it) but here is the file I used...

http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/macrumors/640L_Firmware_MSDOS.dmg (19Mb)
Click to expand...

Thanks Daniel. I found a more recent firmware at www.highpoint-tech.com/BIOS_Driver/R640L/firmware/ and flashed successfully from a DOS flash drive as you described. Unfortunately it hasn't fixed my problem with the R640L. I think it has some other issue with my MB.
 
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