Having some troubles with our HP DL580 that I was hoping I could get some suggestions for;

When we build our ESXi servers, we set the BIOS settings and Legacy BIOS mode via the profile templates in HP OneView.

We have just finished configuring a HP DL580 Gen9 with our standard build scripts and SPP but were asked to provide an additional, dedicated connection to provide a direct network path for patching.

Generally the server is built with 2 x CNE1200 NICs and 2 x LPe12000 HBA. To accommodate the client’s request, we added an additional CNE1200 NIC to the server, ran the SPP again to apply drivers and restarted the server (new total 3 x CNE1200 NICs on DL580 Gen9)

When the server comes back online after installing the NIC, we are issued the following error message:

1706-The Extended BIOS Data Area in Server Memory has been Overwritten – Smart Array Interrupt 13h BIOS Cannot Continue – System Halted

During some troubleshooting, I noticed that if I revert the server BIOS setting to UEFI mode, it will circumvent this error and it appears that ESXi 5.5U3 loads up properly and I am able to interact with the server in vCenter no problem. We are able to configure and utilize the server properly at this stage but if I try to revert the BIOS settings to Legacy Mode, it will present the 1706-error message again.

I was poking around based on some articles I saw online regarding similar errors others have dealt with; and I noticed that the Smart Array Storage Administrator fails to load as well – the screen gets stuck on the ‘loading drivers’ portion of the built-in application.

Is there a reason to be using Legacy BIOS in ESXi 5.5U3 if I am able to boot to the OS?

I read that swapping between the 2 was not supported after installation but I have been able to do so without any obvious adverse behaviour in the system

Is there a recommended process/steps I can follow for adding hardware such as NICs to an already running server configuration?

Would a full re-imaging of the server be recommended to have this new hardware function properly?

I can try to provide any additional, relevant information in determining the underlying cause should it be required

Thanks for any help you guys can offer