This post is more than 5 years old
3 Posts
0
16390
PowerEdge R510 Bios update FAIL
I have 2 PowerEdge R510 Servers that were previously a server from a Medical Company but have now been repurposed on my network for other functions. Both need BIOS updates. The problem is, they both are currently at Version 1.1.4. When I try to run the BIOS update from within windows, It reports success and says it needs to reboot windows in order to apply the update. After reboot, it does not update the bios and just reloads windows as normal. I've also tried to boot from a flash drive and run the update from the executable thru DOS. This fails reporting that the BIOS is not a DELL R510 bios and that it reports itself as " - ". Obviously it is an original DELL Motherboard/BIOS. I need to perform this update because I would like to upgrade the processors to the Xeon 5650 chipset. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
DELL-Chris H
Moderator
Moderator
•
8.4K Posts
1
March 12th, 2015 06:00
If /forceit failed, you can also try /f , or /forcetype.
Let me know.
DELL-Chris H
Moderator
Moderator
•
8.4K Posts
0
March 10th, 2015 14:00
Kingwingy,
What it sounds like is that the servers you received don't have Dell BIOS's. It looks like the servers may actually have custom BIOS's that are specific to the Medical Company you referred to. If you would, could you PRIVATE MESSAGE me the Svc Tags of a couple of the systems, and I will confirm this for you.
If this is the case we can possibly force the BIOS back over to a Dell BIOS. Just so you are aware, if anything in the OS is tied to that BIOS, and we push it back to a Dell BIOS, then the OS may not work anymore.
Let me know
DELL-Chris H
Moderator
Moderator
•
8.4K Posts
1
March 11th, 2015 08:00
After reviewing the svc tag you sent, the server does indeed have a custom BIOS for the medical group that owned the servers prior to you. Now as I stated before, we can take it back to a Dell BIOS, but if anything software based relies on that BIOS it will become unrecoverable. Also there is no way to get it back to the custom either. So be prepared to possible reinstall the OS, etc. Also I would make sure to update the server completely after completing the BIOS update.
Now the easiest way to do this will be with a bootable image to get to a command prompt. What we can use is the 32bit Diagnostic, located here <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>. Download and run that, it will be used to create the bootable media. Once that is created then download the BIOS file here.
After downloading and creating then save the BIOS file to the media you created.
Boot to the media, at the Menu select Exit. That will bring you to the command prompt.
At the prompt type PER510-010900C.exe /forceit
This will initiate the BIOS update. After updating to that BIOS, update the server to current. That will also involve the BIOS as well, as I didn't want to jump it to current, so I provided a BIOS a couple updates back.
Let me know how it goes.
kingwingy
3 Posts
0
March 11th, 2015 12:00
I'm afraid this didn't accomplish anything different than I saw before. I still got the same message that it wasn't the right BIOS. Any other ideas? apparently the /forceit command did nothing. Please advise.
kingwingy
3 Posts
0
March 16th, 2015 16:00
/forcetype WORKED!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
SquelchPlop
1 Message
0
June 23rd, 2017 12:00
Fantastic - this worked great Chris!
For anyone else who stumbles upon this, use the 32bit Diagnostic tool to create an ISO. Before creating the ISO though, you can put the .exe file directly in the C:\Dell\Drivers\4Y5N5\DIAGS\ folder, such that it will be integrated into the image.
Kbronson
2 Posts
0
September 9th, 2021 09:00
This worked for me using /forcetype. Thank you!
Kbronson
2 Posts
0
September 9th, 2021 09:00
I too have a similar problem with updating the Bios, lifecycle controller, etc. on my PowerEdge R510. I believe it came with a custom bios too. However, when I tried to update it manually to version 1.1.4 using the method "PER510-011400C.exe /forceit" it fails with unrecognized system. When it boots, I get the Dell Logo but no version of the bios is shown. When going into the bios it doesn't show the version either. This has been extremely frustrating. Any help on this would be appreciated.