1 Rookie
•
3 Posts
0
1911
August 20th, 2020 14:00
Dell R815 not booting nor entering BIOS setup
Hello,
I'm new here so I apologize if I'm not following some rules of which I'm not aware.
My name is Manlio, I own a Dell Poweredge R815 and I'm experiencing a number of issues. At present my server is equipped with four 6376 AMD Opteron CPUs, 256GB of RAM and an H700 Raid controller. I'm testing VMware ESXi with a single 1TB SSD drive.
The server has been working for some time than stopped working (no POST). I purchases a bare-bone R815 for the spares and replaced the motherboard (I mean the board with the NICs, not the one with the CPU). Now the server does the POST but stops after displaying the iDRAC Configuration Utilily IPv6 and IPv4 settings. The last message I can see on the screen is "Press for Remote Access Setup within 5 sec......".
Even if I press (at proper time) F2, F10 or F11 to enter BIOS settings, services or Boot configurations nothing happens. It stays there forever. I can only see is that the keyboard is being cyclically reinitialized.
Anyone can help me to make it work again?
Thank you in advance,
Manlio
Manlio1970
1 Rookie
•
3 Posts
0
August 21st, 2020 17:00
Hello Dylan and Erman,
I tried clearing the NVRAM but without any success, so I decided to replace the system board. After replacing the system board the R815 was boot looping with no POST messages at all. So I moved the system board applying some force, pushing it toward the I/O board, in order to better settle the connection between the two boards. After such attempt the R815 started booting correctly but two banks of memory (A3 and A7) were returning errors (even switching the installed memory units). So I removed processor one, cleaned its contact and mounted it back again. After such change the R815 started working correctly. Now it completes the POST and enter the BIOS setup if I press F2 or boot VMware ESXi if I don't press any key.
I think that probably the errors with the other system board were due to a bad connection between the system board and the I/O board or otherwise there was a processor not properly installed.
The lesson I learned is that it's necessary to be very careful when installing the CPUs or installing a new board to ensure that all the contacts are clean and aligned sot that a perfect electrical connection is established between the components we are installing. If something does't work a possible solution is to remove and reinstall the changed components after cleaning their contacts.
In any case I wish to thank Erman and Dylan that helped me greatly to focus toward the final solution.
Thanks again,
Manlio
DELL-Erman O
Moderator
•
2.8K Posts
0
August 21st, 2020 00:00
Hello Manlio,
Static electricity may be causing a problem after interfering with the server. Firstly as a simple step, can you try to power drain static
1. Power the server down.
2. Disconnect server from all power cables, Network cables.
3. Hold down the power button continuously for at least 10 seconds.
4. Insert power cables and network cables back to the system.
5. Wait about 2 minutes before powering on server to give the iDRAC time to initialize.
6. Power the system on.
If other non-Dell approved parts are installed, these parts may be causing the problem. Or there may be defective ones among the original parts. I would get minimum to POST configuration and check if there is any change in behavior. If you do, you can add one component at a time to help you identify the fault. If there is no change, the problem will most likely be caused by one of the components required for POST.
The minimum components to allow the PowerEdge R815 to complete POST are:
System board
I / O board
Risers
Processor (CPU1) with Heatsink
Power Supply
Power Distribution Board
At least 2 DIMMs in sockets A1, A2 (lock-step pair) to POST
Control or I / O Panel board
Control Panel w / cable
Dell-DylanJ
4 Operator
•
2.9K Posts
0
August 21st, 2020 13:00
Hello Manilo,
I don't believe the different firmware revisions would be tied to the issue. I'm basing this on the observation that if an IO board were to fail, it would need to be replaced and the replacement is unlikely to have been tied to a matching BIOS. I'd look at trying an NVRAM clear using the jumper on the board (page 176 of the manual below).
https://dell.to/2CT9omI
Manlio1970
1 Rookie
•
3 Posts
0
August 21st, 2020 13:00
Hi Erman,
thank you very much for your prompt reply. I tried the procedure you suggested applying the min2post configuration and in addition I also followed the procedure to reset the NVRAM but still the POST does not complete and the boot process hangs up at the same point.
Please note that I'm using the I/O board from the R815 I bought for spares (with BIOS v 3.2.2) with the old system board from my R815 machine (with BIOS v 3.4.1). Is it possible that this misbehavior is caused by different firmware/bios versions loaded on the two boards?
I also entered the iDrac configuration by pressing CTRL-E and enabled the IPv6. as a result the following string was displayed on the screen after exiting saving the settings:
"Some of the settings could not be applied"
Thank you,
Manlio