PE T610 with dead onboard video. Need help

If someone could provide the following info I might be able to do it blind.

1.  After pressing the power button how long do I wait to press F2

2.  What are the keyboard shortcuts for the bios

If you have iDRAC Enterprise card on the server you can open the server console from iDRAC only.

Can you also check whether local server video is disabled on iDRAC. You can check this by running following command after connecting to iDRAC using SSH

racadm getconfig -g cfgRacTuning -o cfgRacTuneLocalServerVideo

This server does not have Enterprise.   I connected to iDrac via ssh and ran the command from above and the result was '1'.  I assume this indicates that the onboard video is enabled.  Is there also a command to disable it?  That would be nice since the goal is to get the card I purchased to work since the onboard does not.

I have managed to turn off onboard video using the following command.

racadm config -g cfgRacTuning -o cfgRacTuneLocalServerVideo 0

Yet the card I added is still not sending anything to the monitor.  Any Thoughts?

AlsoI have read about power limitations between the PCI=E slots.  Which is slot 1?

Disabling LocalServerVideo will not disable onbaord video controller. IT will only display the VGA port on the server

What video controller are you putting on the server and what is the power consumption for that card? I believe T610 support 25W for PCIe slot and upto 2 card of 25W is supported on same config.  

T610 does not support GPU card hence we can not guarantee that GPU card will work on T610.

The card is a GT 710 PCI-E x1.  It is designed for servers.

Also the cards TDP is 19W

Hi, thanks for choosing Dell. I'm afraid the compatibility with the non Dell card hasn't been officially tested out by Dell hence we cannot help further. T610 already has a graphic card on-board. Sorry I couldn't be of help. Wish you a good one.

That's lovely.  However, if the onboard graphics were functional I would not be here, at all.  I am merely asking for assistance in disabling the NON-FUCTIONAL onboard graphics, so that I can use the machine I purchased.  It really is as simple as changing a single BIOS setting.  I have yet gotten a response regarding this.

Hi, there's nothing we could guide you with because there is no known/proven way, I'm afraid. Maybe we could wait around and see what others have to say. Have a good one. ^^

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@g0dl3ss wrote:

The card is a GT 710 PCI-E x1.  It is designed for servers.

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It's not. The Geforce GT710 x1 is an older entry level desktop card designed for cheap PCs that have no PCIe x16 (PEG) slot. Servers generally don't use Geforce GPUs. 

As to the problem, if I remember right (it's been a while since I worked on one) the 11G PowerEdge servers can take a regular low end card (i.e. <25W) and run it besides the integrated Matrox GPU, however as far as I remember the Matrox GPU must still be functional (i.e. it can work as a secondary GPU and even disabled in the OS, but iDRAC/Lifecycle Controller must be able to see/initialize it). IIRC the Matrox GPU is part of the BMC processor. 

So if the Matrox GPU is really dead (which suggests that the BMC processor is damaged) then you might need a new mainboard.

Did this get solved as i have the same problem, machine boots, but no display. Unfamiliar with Dell Servers completely. Would like to get it up and running. I haven't tried a pci-e card at all. Only thing i have done is swapped out the cmos battery for a new one. Still the same issue, no signal from the vga port :/. Tried different cables, 2 montior's, taking out the drives, to eliminate drive errors and same thing. 

Someone who can explain in plain and simple English would be great.

Sorry to jump on the original posters thread but i saw it as unsolved. 

Hi @Leepy71,

Can you if there is any error displayed on the front panel LCD? Page: 12 Label 7 in the user guide

You can try resetting the BIOS by jumper settings. Page 179. 

Reference user guide: https://dell.to/404SgzA

Unfortunately, T610 does not official support GPU installation, but users in the community has manage to install GPU as alternate video output to salvage mainboard replacement. But doing so, is at your own risk, as this is not recommended. Ref: https://dell.to/3FFVh1i

@DELL-Joey C 

I'll look at the manual and thank you It's completely over my head. Ive been told that the vga has possibly been disabled and i can access the machine through iDrac and haven't got a clue on how to access that either.

At the moment ive pulled out the 5 HDD's and kinda fluffed something up as it now has a orange flashing light on the back of the machine and it was blue. I can't remember which order the x5 320GB HDD's go in. There is no other GPU on the machine at all. Just the onboard VGA. Any help in plain and simple english would be great. Thank you   

Hello Leepy71,

Do you know the history of this server? Was it working and now it does not?

If it was working; What was done on the system when it stopped working?

Try shutting down, and clear the NVRAM and check results:

Clear NVRAM - there is a map under the lid to show the jumper location. Shut down,  Set jumper to the Clear position, power on and Post up to the jumper error, shut down and return jumper to original location.