LSI Mega 9240-8i may not be what it seems

[avalon60]

Back in May of this year, I bought LSI Mega 9240-8i SAS SATA LSI00200 8-port Server RAID Controller Card from an ebay seller in China. Tha card arrived fairly quickly, and I flashed it to IT mode once installed. It has been working as it should as I have 8 drives connected to it which do 600mbs transfers, according to the FreeNAS security run report.

Shortly after recieving it, I did wonder if it was a fake card after I read something about that. I contacted Avagotech, about it , and believe it or not, have just received a reply from them. After I sent them 2 pics of front and back of the card they informed me that one of the numbers on the card is not a valid one, as they tell me part number L3-25083-13 does not exist at all. So it could be fake, but Avagotech have not yet confirmed that.

 

[Spearfoot]

Back in May of this year, I bought LSI Mega 9240-8i SAS SATA LSI00200 8-port Server RAID Controller Card from an ebay seller in China. Tha card arrived fairly quickly, and I flashed it to IT mode once installed. It has been working as it should as I have 8 drives connected to it which do 600mbs transfers, according to the FreeNAS security run report.

Shortly after recieving it, I did wonder if it was a fake card after I read something about that. I contacted Avagotech, about it , and believe it or not, have just received a reply from them. After I sent them 2 pics of front and back of the card they informed me that one of the numbers on the card is not a valid one, as they tell me part number L3-25083-13 does not exist at all. So it could be fake, but Avagotech have not yet confirmed that.

Yikes! This is why I never buy anything from China-based eBay sellers.

 

[Ericloewe]

Ouch, that's not fun at all. Could you post those pictures? It would certainly be interesting to see the card and compare it to a real one.

 

[avalon60]

Yes ok, pics are attached

 

[jgreco]

Yeah, sorry, it's probably a "fake" which in some cases is just a manufacturing reject that's been scrapped and recycled into the grey market, where it may have been patched up or evaluated by some near-slave-labor in a Shenzhen back alley, patched up, and labeled up to make it look legit. Others have been found to be complete card-level knockoffs. Either way, Avago/Broadcom saying "no go" is probably a bad thing.

 

[Ericloewe]

And the people did rejoice, because the Grinch had returned from his absence!

On a more serious note...

Yeah, sorry, it's probably a "fake" which in some cases is just a manufacturing reject that's been scrapped and recycled into the grey market, where it may have been patched up or evaluated by some near-slave-labor in a Shenzhen back alley, patched up, and labeled up to make it look legit. Others have been found to be complete card-level knockoffs. Either way, Avago/Broadcom saying "no go" is probably a bad thing.

This one, if fake, is definitely along the lines of the former. Nothing sticks out as fake, but I'm on my phone and haven't compared it with the real deal.
I did notice the activity LEDs have a different silkscreen than a real 9211, but that may be a 9240 thing.

 

[avalon60]

Avago/Broadcom say this:
'According to the serial number, this controller should be a OLD 320 SCSI
Controller!'

The thing is tho' that it flashed to IT mode ok and seems to work as it should. But I suppose for £62 gbp or $80 USD I can't complain too much.

 

[Mirfster]

Yeah, sorry, it's probably a "fake"...

Well howdy there stranger... ;)