Welcome, lost soul. Did you get here via Google? Did none of the tutorials out there work for you? Well then, buckle up because these Dell cards, like everything else they make, are pure pain to work with. Here's a few tips for any lost adventurers.

Use a Dell machine. I don't care what you think about them. Use a Dell. The firmware on these HBAs is pure garbage and has major issues on non-Dell boards.

Don't have any Dells because you don't hoard garbage? Me neither. Use an Asus desktop motherboard. Gigabyte boards WILL fail to detect the card. Get an Asus for your next build - they're more expensive for a reason.

If your board fails to POST then tape up pins 5 and 6 on the component side. Start counting from the bracket side. It's an SMBus issue related to Dell's incompetence. The most typical symptom of this happening is the board failing to detect some or all of your memory. If it's beeping out that the RAM's bad/missing or it doesn't detect some of your modules, grab some electrical tape and get to work.

Don't use any exotic setups like plugging the card into your ThinkPad™ T601's Advanced Dock™'s PCIe slot because you're too lazy to use your desktop. It won't work.

After all this CBT (without the cock and balls) you should finally have a fully operational LSI 9211-8i HBA.

If this didn't help you then I'm truly sorry. Nobody deserves to suffer your fate.