PowerEdge 2850 Circa 2005 Stuck on Boot Screen of Press CTRL-M to run configuration utility

In CTRL-M, view the configuration in Configure, View/Add.  If you are prompted between Disk and NVRAM views, choose Disk View and report the configuration there.

Hello Greg

What happens if you press CTL M? Are you able to enter the controller BIOS? Once you get into the controller BIOS are the hard disk drives detected? Are the RAID arrays present?

If you can get into the controller BIOS(CTL M) then let me know what the configuration is. Also, have you tried to boot to a CD/DVD or USB drive?

Thanks

Try reseating the riser. 

If that doesn't work, you might try clearing the NVRAM using the jumpers on the motherboard (this will set BIOS settings to default, so you need to re-enable RAID under Integrated Devices, accepting the change by ignoring the scary 'data loss' message that will follow).

You might also try another keyboard, in case the CTRL or M keys are bad.

If I press CTRL M  nothing happens.  The machine appears to be frozen.  If I press F2 to enter setup it goes to that screen and still sits there.  I can't move past that screen.

We have had a number of these servers do this on us. We contacted global services and they went round and round about how it was something we did. Well they finally did a warranty on one of the risers. This did fix the problem then it came back. This continued for a few times on different servers.

End of the day they told us to stop using hardware RAID to use it in scsi mode. Which BTW does work. Reset NVRAM turns off the controller. Go back and turn it on to RAID in any form or fasion and it comes right back. Again, something we are doing they say. Turn it on to scsi and it works. But what about the RAID. Hello ????? But sir in a busted broken accent you can do RAID from the OS................REALLY That is the solution. We did it now go fix it in your OS. Come on. If anyone knows anything more about this and has come up with a better option please let me know.

Until then we wont be spending anymore money with dell. See above and below.

Order a warranty drive for a Compellent SAN and they send us a DOA. Okay it happens. Send another one and it was DOA. Sent yet a third and sent it with the wrong customer name (going to a DC we rent Cabinets at, took site 2 hrs to find because of this). In the end three trips for the contractor we use for remote hands and wasted time all billed to us. Then Dell charged us for each drive. Two were returned and third was warranty (all actually). What a billing nightmare this was.

When we set up another compellent the Global services tech who came out used OM3 glass when we requested OM4. He also used 10 meter and left them everywhere in the back of the cabinet. Thus contractor replaced those and had to source them that day at full retail. Fine he used the 3 but you should have seen the mess he left. Very poor, a couple nice turns and a few pieces of hook and loop would have been nice.

Same compellent setup, sent us way more gbics than we requested or used. Enough to fill every unused port on the brocades. Sent us extra power supplies we didn't need, etc well you might need these they said. Round and round to return the stuff. T

Dell it is time to step it up, you are driving customers away. How about findning a solution to the problem this forum is listing here.

Again anyone else has a solution I would love to hear it. I would like to rrepair one of these 2850's and donate. Just trying to avoid buying another card out of my own pocket.

"But sir in a busted broken accent"

Are you sure you called the right number?  Server support is handled by state-side call centers (doesn't mean non-natural Americans can't man the phones too though).

I had over 150 of these servers and "think" I remember seeing the issue once ... definitely not a widespread issue with the model. Not saying you are doing something or that you didn't get some from a "bad batch" though.

The only thing I noticed about the RAID controller that was an actual "issue" was the "memory/battery" messages ... but the pattern and consistency became apparent pretty quickly and affected probably 15-20 servers over their lifetime.

I'm surprised they'd tell you to turn it off as their "solution".  I'd push back - politely - to have their escalations team look into it.  They often have access to more documents/fixes/issues than the front-line agents.