Poweredg 1950 Auto Reboot

Question

Hi,

I have a poweredge 1950 III which has 10GB of RAM. I've bought it 2nd hand and it is automatically rebooting. At the peak, it reboots once every 3 minutes.

The OS I'm running is Vmware 5 Esxi from Dell. The Vmware error gives the pink screen of death as below:

http://i46.tinypic.com/23h7x1f.jpg

Has anyone seen this before and what would you recommend? I'm going to try removing 1 stick of memory at a time to begin with and go from there (bios memory checks came back fine).

I had a look on Dell's website, but am not sure which diagnostic utility to choose. I want an OS independent bootable CD to check the hardware.

I could take a guess and start upgrading the bios, firmware and drivers, but would rather use a more cautious approach.

Any advice is appreciated

Thanks

tommo666 · Answer

I think this will do the job, a diags utility. download and run on a desktop, you can create a bootable cd/usb or other media.

Pur the media in the server, power on and press F11 to enter the boot menu. Select the boot device and boot from the media created, the menu has a couple of options. GUI diags and Mpmemory tests. GUI tests the system and disks, Mpmemeory, well it tests the memory.

www.dell.com/.../DriverDetails

Let us know the results..

aetius80 · Answer

Hey tommo,

I ran the full memory diagnostics and other tests from the bootable CD on your link. Everything passed. I performed the test with the cover off and the system ran very noisily during the test (fans going mad), but the system stayed on.

During the test, the system ran fine. However since, it still auto powers off. It does this even in the bios screen (after a short random interval, such as 3-5 minutes). I've swapped the memory, but still the system auto reboots.

I've got a 2950 which runs esxi from a usb stick. I've booted the 1950 with the same usb stick and it still auto powers off.

Possibly the server could be over heating, it's running in a room that has a temperature of around 23C.

Would you know how I can measure/log the CPU temp in a Dell Poweredge? I also found it odd that there wasn't an option to load bios defaults.

What else would you suggest? Bios/firmware update.

Thx

tommo666 · Answer

I would install server administrator/open manage, it will allow you to view all the hardware logs and system temps.

en.community.dell.com/.../1977.openmanage-support-for-vmware-esxi-5-0.aspx

The fans will run fast when the lid is off because a micro switch registers an open cover and the fans speed up to compensate for the air flow. The operating ranfe listed for this box is 10-35C so you're in the range.

aetius80 · Answer

cheers tomo, I've decided to install 2008 R2 x64 on the server, boot from that and then install the windows diagnostics, will come back with my findings..

aetius80 · Answer

Profanity word removed as per TOU> , installing Windows Server 2008 isn't an option, the server reboots before the OS can be installed. I've download super micro's IPMI monitoring Tool and the fans look OK (nothing in the red from the monitoring tool). I tried downloading and installintg the latest bios for the poweredge 1950, however I ran into an issue. The download tool is an .exe, which asks for a floppy disk to boot to (who on earth uses a floppy drive on today's servers?). There is an option for USB drive, but Dell's Windows BIOS tool displays an error stating that the drive and image sizes don't match. Is it possible to upgrade the BIOS on a Dell Poweredge wthout loading a Windows OS on the server? I don't have a floppy drive and know very little about Linux, so would rather not go download the Linux route.

PowerEdge Hardware General

Poweredg 1950 Auto Reboot

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