Dell Poweredge 2650 - My new toy is not working

Mmartin_47

Anything can go bad in these Dell Servers. Recently my SCSI backplane went bad. Luckily parts are cheap off eBay. I stocked up on VRM's, Backplanes, SCSI cables, power cables, CD-ROM drivers, Power plane card, basically anything to rebuild one.

jbaello

mattwh wrote:

I had the same problem. It was the VRM for the second processor was missing. Yank the processor out and all is well.

Do you mind explaining this more, I have not checked the server yet, VRM? is this the chip inserted right next to the processor? I believe I removed and put this back on, as far as removing the CPU I have not tried this yet.

Mmartin_47

jbaello wrote:

mattwh wrote:

I had the same problem. It was the VRM for the second processor was missing. Yank the processor out and all is well.

Do you mind explaining this more, I have not checked the server yet, VRM? is this the chip inserted right next to the processor? I believe I removed and put this back on, as far as removing the CPU I have not tried this yet.

Yeah the VRM is right next to the CPU. I believe each CPU must have one? I could be wrong. My dell server right now is not accessible, sorry

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-PowerEdge-2650-VRM-Voltage-Regulator-Module-8R158_W0QQitemZ280223336905QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

Theres a picture.

jbaello

Yeah I checked the motherboard layout/diagram, deinstall/reinstall the VRM and removed the CPU, flashed the CMOS/NVRAM it's still not working.

I might try to get a VRM for this thing and see if it works, I wonder if I transfer the CPU to the processor slot # 2 if it will still recognize it and work.

Too bad this server will be an awesome VMWare ESX server node...

My HP DL380 G3 server has been so stable compared to this Dell...

jbaello

Mmartin_47 wrote:

jbaello wrote:

mattwh wrote:

I had the same problem. It was the VRM for the second processor was missing. Yank the processor out and all is well.

Do you mind explaining this more, I have not checked the server yet, VRM? is this the chip inserted right next to the processor? I believe I removed and put this back on, as far as removing the CPU I have not tried this yet.

Yeah the VRM is right next to the CPU. I believe each CPU must have one? I could be wrong. My dell server right now is not accessible, sorry

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-PowerEdge-2650-VRM-Voltage-Regulator-Module-8R158_W0QQitemZ280223336905QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

Theres a picture.

What made you think it's the VRM? is there a prepost warning if this VRM is skrewed?

Mmartin_47

No warning. Just stating it happened in my position. These Dell servers have more components than a typical PC, making it harder to figure out a solution.

jbaello

Mmartin_47 wrote:

No warning. Just stating it happened in my position. These Dell servers have more components than a typical PC, making it harder to figure out a solution.

This is the symptom on my server, it looks like all the lights are green and by the sound and look it should be working and it doesn't I'll try this, thanks... if it doesn't work oh well...

ally_uk

Change the graphics card, Change the ram, Ensure there is a terminator in the second CPU slot, Pop the heatsink off and check the condition of the processor.

Check the fans spin up inside the machine, ensure the board is actually getting juice.

Worst case scenario faulty board or processor

jbaello

Video card is integrated into the mobo, I did popped the CPU and re-installed it, it still looks the same, I am not aware of a terminator for the CPU, CPU 2 is empty...

Mmartin_47

jbaello wrote:

Video card is integrated into the mobo, I did popped the CPU and re-installed it, it still looks the same, I am not aware of a terminator for the CPU, CPU 2 is empty...

Theres 1 terminator for each CPU. If you have 1 CPU you have 1 terminator.

sapo

Hi,

did you find where the problem was? I have same problem.

mamono

If the Dell server was pre-shipped as a 3rd Party Contract System Integration for specific Linux application, there is high likelihood that it is default to RS-232 console output. That would effectively shutoff the integrated video card, thus resulting in no output from the VGA port. All output would be via the RS-232 serial port for console access. Not sure if that's the case for this system, but just thought that I'd mention there is the possibility. To change that, there is a setting in the BIOS. I don't know if that's the case, but there are sometimes the possibility. Best of luck!

sapo

I tried to connect to serial port without any success. My PE2650 worked properly almost 6 years. Two days ago I needed to move it. I switched it off and moved to another place. Now I can not boot properly. VGA output didnt send signal to monitor. LCD status display and status indicator are blue and other indicators are green.

steve_f

In this situation, I usually pull out the RAM and processor (and graphics card but yours is onboard I see) and put them in again.

worked for me on a Dell dessktop just yesterday

steve77uk

Hello

I am having exactly the same problem with my 2650. It did work yesterday, powered it down and now there is no display. I have re-seated most things, including the CPU, not done the VRM. Shame really. I have ordered 2 more processors off ebay to try out..

Did anyone get this resolved? I would really like to know!

Mine is powering up, but no post, no output, no errors!

Help!

ToBeOrNotToBe

Dude, simple and easy, if everything is running and you still can't get a POST beep, just replace your RAM chip with another one that you know its working ... and thats it!!!

steve77uk

ToBeOrNotToBe wrote: »

Dude, simple and easy, if everything is running and you still can't get a POST beep, just replace your RAM chip with another one that you know its working ... and thats it!!!

Done that!

Wondered if it was the CPU, but there are no error messages... no beeps... no nothing...

steve77uk

Whilst I did change the memory, I must have picked up another duff pair (which did work in another computer mind...)

However took 2 x DIMMS out and it booted up fine! Hurrah! However only got 1GB now.. DAMN DDR memory is sooo expensive these days...

Thought it was the CPU last night so ordered 2 x 2.8GHZ XEONS, oh well, looks like I can have 2 x CPU and a spare now!

Thanks...

ToBeOrNotToBe

steve77uk wrote: »

Whilst I did change the memory, I must have picked up another duff pair (which did work in another computer mind...)

However took 2 x DIMMS out and it booted up fine! Hurrah! However only got 1GB now.. DAMN DDR memory is sooo expensive these days...

Thought it was the CPU last night so ordered 2 x 2.8GHZ XEONS, oh well, looks like I can have 2 x CPU and a spare now!

Thanks...

Glad that your dilemma has been resolved!!

Smokehouse

I had the exact same problem with a PE2650 and tried all the fixes recommended here to no avail. Complete disassembly and cleaning did nothing.
Then as a last resort we tried moving the keyboard, mouse and video to the front panel. To our amazement the damned thing finished post. We tried shutting down and moving the cables back to the back when we discovered that we had not moved the USB mouse, we had just unplugged it. As soon as we plugged the USB mouse back in it froze the computer at the same place in Post as before. We unplugged that mouse and tried another and it completed Post.
At that point after spending 4 hours beating our heads against the wall, I took the mouse out into the car park and ran over it with our van.
I only posted this so that some poor fool in the future who was searching google to find out why his PE2650 was frozen during Post with no error messages, might save themselves 4 hours of frustration.

Hyper-Me

/Yeah tue USB ports are finicky on the 2650.

Also, you will love the fun you have to go through if you plan to run Server 2008 on one with the LSI PERC 4.