Poweredge 2650 Boot Issues

I am having the exact same issue with 2 2650 servers.  I've tried all the tricks I know.  Anyone else have a new trick up their sleeve?

I just received a PE 2650 and i am having the same issues.

my symptoms:

1. Fans spin up really quick for about 10 seconds and then idle at about half speed.
2. I am getting a flashing green power button.
3. I am getting a flashing blue heartbeat.

Further investigation led me to find that when the machine supposedly "boots" the little green fan led lights go green with exception to the two behing the processor heat sinks. After a while all of the fan status lights turn off and blink "amber". after reading the dell manual online i found that its pointing to a malfunctioning fan issue.

Well the fans are a bit old and prolly have seen better days but they still spin and i have never seen a machine that wont post due to fan failures. I get no beeping or any on screen activity saying there is a problem at all. It never goes through a boot cycle either because it wont spin up my hdd or the cd-rom drive.

This machine is not in a production environment and i have troubleshot, the configuation and have also rest the bios and the nvram.

any ideas? i am just as lost as you guys and would like to get this box up an running because it has a lot of potential.

-Jon /San Antonio,Tx

I was able to correct this problem by completely dissasembling and reassembling the machine. 

I cleaned all of the fans and removed all of the blue fan holders that make them a little noisy. 

The only reason i could think of for all of this calamity would be due to poor handling on UPS's part and also my self for not checking everything throurghly before i ran the machine. 

Save yourself the time. Disassemble your box and re-assemble it again making sure all of the connections (all what seems like 5 of them) are good.

This worked for me and it may wor for you as well.

After i did this all of the fan lights hold a solid green light and the box posted, and proceeded to boot.

-Jon

Thanks for the replies JabuXm3, I'll give it a shot tomorrow. How far did you go with the dissassembly?

After looking though the forums, lots of other users that have the same error are told to update their BIOS and ERA/ESM. The problem is my server doesn't boot so how can I update the firmwares? Is there a way to do this via the management interface or serial port??

OK I removed all the fans, and the VRM's and then put it all back together. Same issue as before but after I left it on for a while I got the following error show up on the LCD:

E0780: Missing CPU 1, Missing CPU 2

Does that mean the CPUs are both knackered?

I have had similar problems with a couple of regular pcs, I completely disassembled them, removed processors, ram and all cards.  Even removed cmos batteries.  On Dell servers if you remove the battery you will wipe the service tag out of the bios.  Had this happen to me on two of mine.  There is a program called asset.exe I think that will allow you to program the service tag back in.  I have not tried it yet.

I too, have a 2650 server that is doing the same thing.  No video, no POST, no beeps, nothing.

The fans sping up like jet engines upon powering up the server.  In about 10 seconds or so, they slow down to normal idle.  The power switch button on the front is blinking green, and the LCD display on the front/blue LED at the rear, also blink.  Just on and off, with no discernable pattern.

No error codes are displayed on the front panel LCD, just the standard DELL PE2650.

Anyone find a solution to this problem?

[Edit: 6/9/09]

I did solve my problem.  Like neuromancer101, I completely disassembled the entire box down to the steel shell.

After removing the motherboard, which is quite easy due to an ingenious design (kudos to Dell), I began to closely inspect the motherboard for any signs of burnt traces, blown caps, overheated components, etc.  What I found was that a case screw had somehow come loose from one of the CPU cooling fans, and lodged in between one of those vertical heat sinks, and the circuit board to which it was affixed.  There are about four or five of these vertical "daughter cards" rising up off the motherboard, with a heat sink attached.  There is just enough space between the heat sink and the daughter card to get a screw stuck in there.

The screw was definitely shorting out something.  After a careful extraction with a pair of tweezers, I reassembled the box, and it works good as new.

Good luck!

I did resolve my issue in the end. I removed RAM, HDDs, RAID Key, RAID RAM, PSUs, CPUs. When I removed the heatsinks, the CPU was attached to it meaning the CPU wasn't sitting in the socket properly. After removing and replacing the CPUs I got my server to POST sucessfully.

I have a Dell Poweredge 2650 Server that does not boot. It did work ok for awhile then just started not booting. I keep getting alot of "Post No Memory" error messages but once in a while it will boot fine then when I reboot it doesen't come back. I have disassembled it several times and I cannot get it to boot back up at all. I turn it on all the fans run fast at first then level out to a low roar. The two amber lighs by the 2 processors in front stay amber most of the time but sometimes go green as well. I always get the beeps 1 3 2 -- which in the dell book says a memory problem. I personally think its more than that. I have some more memory coming in a few days and will try that out and see but i'm not optimistic about this server. Any similar issues anyone has had would like to hear about them. I'll post again in a few days once i get the new memory installed. It currently has 256M x 6 and i'm replacing them with 512M x 6. thoughts ? Ideas? This is driving me nuts. thanks.

I received my new memory today for the 2650 server. Put it in and same thing -- post no memory. I am at a loss of what to do now. Guess it could be the motherboard but could also be other things i suppose. any ideas?

Have you tried booting with only one memory module installed?

May be a dumb question, but are you certain your new memory is ECC Registered?

I had this problem and found that it related to the Riser/drac card, Either the wrong type or is faulty.

Try replacing with anther one. Remember that the 2650 has 400Mhz bus and 533Mhz bus.