PowerEdge R310 Keyboard Failure

Question

The R310 worked fine with no issues up until yesterday. It was powered down last week before it was boxed up to be moved to a new location. The server is now at the new location and boots up fine but it immediately shows "Testing Memory. Please Wait." and then within a second or two it shows "Keyboard Failure" a few lines down.

The USB ports are registering between 5.05 and 5.08 volts on my USB port voltmeter. I've tried 3 different keyboards that all work fine on other servers.

I read that a possible solution was to clear the NVRAM so I changed the CMOS battery, and moved the jumper on the system board from the default location to the NVRAM reset position. After about 10 seconds, I moved the jumper back to the default position. This worked in clearing the NVRAM but did not have any effect on the keyboard failure error.

Now instead of booting into the OS, or booting to a live CD, I'm stuck at the "Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the system setup program." Earlier, I had disabled the warning about having no keyboard attached since this is an ESXi hypervisor host and didn't always have a keyboard attached but after clearing the NVRAM, I'm stuck at the error message.

Has anyone seen something similar?

Thanks,

George

DELL-Young E · Answer

Hi, if you are using a KVM, disconnect the dongle, connect the monitor only to the server, reboot and connect the keyboards, if that doesn't work, go to iDRAC and try using keyboards through the virtual console to see if it works or not. Let us know. Wish you a good week ahead

gcgoodwin · Answer

Hello. Thanks for the quick reply. I'm not using a KVM on this server. This model has the BMC (Baseboard Management Controller) and that was configured years ago with an IP address but this model doesn't have the additional board for iDRAC. The slot on the back of the server where the NIC would be next to the wrench icon just has a black piece of plastic instead of a NIC. I opened this post hoping there might be a way to use BMC to pass keystrokes to the server. I can remote into everything I need with ESXi once the server loads the OS but since I reset the NVRAM (was hoping to fix the keyboard failure error by clearing the NVRAM) now I'm dead in the water and can't even get the OS (hypervisor) to load since I'm stuck at the "Press F1 to continue" message.

Thanks,

George

DELL-Erman O · Answer

Hi,That situation seems very annoying and tough. Also, you don't have iDRAC. I can't be sure you can reach the F2 system setup but if you can reach it some steps you can try as below. If you don't access F2 too, then maybe try to min2post system and check keyboard function is run or not. Also before starting any troubleshooting steps please do basically power drain system and check it. If it is not working then try to other options.  Power drain   1. Power the server down. 2. Disconnect server from all power cables, Network cables. 3. Hold down the power button continuously for at least 10 seconds. 4. Insert power cables and network cables back to the system. 5. Wait about 2 minutes before powering on server to give the iDRAC time to initialize. 6. Power the system on.   Min2Post for R310 System board Processor with heatsink for prevention of over-heating Power supply unit (PSU) (and for redundant PSU also the PDB) Riser installed Front panel (to power system ON) Single DIMM configuration with DIMM in socket A1. Please try to access BMC: Press when prompted after POST. You may try to reset to default.    F1 resume error is usually caused by whether a device is added to the server or if a port or device is enabled or not. This is not as if it were, because it was done for you in a systematic way.If you are getting an error before F1 command prompt, please share with us.F1/F2 appears when 'one kind' is an incorrect configuration. This will check for faulty hardware (fan, etc.) Although it indicates, it is usually accompanied by a message about it. However, it is simply something that doesn't have anything connected to MOST of them. Look in the BIOS for anything that lists it as 'Unknown.' Check your embedded SATA ports in the BIOS Setup (F2) Can you power off the server and reseat expansion cards and all SATA cables? If this does not resolve, try disabling the SATA controller in the BIOS. Somehow you can reach F2 system setup you can close F1 prompt error via this link https://dell.to/3jSv6aq   Other than these, I can't think of anything either. I hope one of these steps works for you.

gcgoodwin · Answer

The power drain was the first step I took. Then tried 3 different keyboards that work fine on other servers (1 of these 3 worked fine on this server until 2 days ago).

Because the keyboard doesn't register as being present, I'm unable to get into BIOS, I can't press F1 to continue booting, and can't press F2 to make any system changes.

I left the 2 risers on the board. I removed 3 of the 4 sticks of RAM and only left a stick in the slot marked "1". I unplugged and reconnected the cables that connect the USB ports on the front board to the motherboard. I then reconnected the power and tried to boot. The system shows the amount of memory has changed but continues on as normal after a few seconds. After it goes through it's regular list, such as "Press Ctrl-S to enter Configuration Menu, "Press Ctrl-E for Remote Access Setup within 5 sec....."

Next line is "Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the system setup program."

Is there any way to run diagnostics using BMC remotely if the system can't be controlled with a physical keyboard? This server doesn't have the iDRAC board so I'm limited only to what can be done with BMC.

I'm not familiar with 'min2post'. After a full 2 or 3 screens of information being presented, the only error I see is the "Keyboard Failure" I see after it checks memory.

Thanks,

George

DELL-Young E · Answer

Hi, it looks like you will need to change your mainboard I'm afraid hope this helps and let us know should you have any further questions.

PowerEdge Hardware General

PowerEdge R310 Keyboard Failure

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