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PowerEdge 2850 - two beeps, then "press F1 to retry boot..."
I'm trying to set up a second-hand 2850 with a wiped 4-disc array. The machine starts up with an amber LED display showing scrambled pixels and the system status indicator on the rear flashes red. I have normal start-up messages showing on screen. The ATA controller reports floppy drive number 0 as VIRTUALFLOPPY and number 1 as VIRTUALCDROM. The SCSI controller reports 1 logical disk, 0 physical disks.
I can enter setup, and have enabled memory testing on startup. 4096 MB is reported in setup. I have set boot order to Embedded VIRTUALCDROM, IDE CD-ROM, VIRTUALFLOPPY, Hard Drive C:
I power-up the system with a Windows Server CD-ROM in the drive but after the last of the startup messages I get two beeps and the message "Press F1 to retry boot or F2 to enter setup". Pressing F1 results in an immediate two beeps and repeat of the message. Neither the the floppy or CDrom drives light up at any stage.
Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong? As the discs were wiped by the previous owner there is no utilty partition.
theflash1932
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April 5th, 2013 17:00
"Windows Server CD-ROM "
Which version of Windows are you attempting to install? Where did you get the media?
Sounds like your CD drive might be bad. Make sure it is enabled in the BIOS (integrated devices), and make sure it is not only LISTED in the boot sequence, but that it is also check-marked (to be active). Virtual floppy/CDROM is not the CDROM drive.
MarkLondon
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April 6th, 2013 09:00
Thanks for replying, Theflash1932. You led me to the solution. I was trying to load Windows Server 2008 R2 evaluation version from a DVD written on my home PC. The 2850's optical drive is a TEAC CD drive, not DVD! Trying an ancient Windows Sever 2000 CD worked (not that I want to run such an old system). So I'll have to try and replace the slim-line CD drive with a DVD drive if I can source one that's not SATA.
theflash1932
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April 6th, 2013 10:00
That's exactly why I asked about the version of OS you were installing :)
You can install via USB on this system:
jesscoburn.com/.../installing-windows-2008-via-usb-thumbdrive