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Poweredge 840 won't let me access the bios (Black Screen)
Hey guys!
I picked up an old Poweredge 840 couple months ago from a friend and wanted to tinker with it.
I had it working with windows server 2008 R2 and played around with it. I then took out the raid card since it kept breaking and reinstalled the OS and it worked fine.
I unplugged it and left for a month or so and now when I boots up and posts then it says it needs to enter set-up mode. So I click F2 and it just goes to a black screen. So now I cant boot into windows or get into the bios.
I've tried removing the CMOS battery and checking the sticks of ram and its still does it. I have no clue why its doing this, it was working fine.
Any help would be great! Thanks guys!
theflash1932
7 Technologist
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16.3K Posts
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July 22nd, 2014 11:00
Absolutely remove the video card as part of your test.
Twofour20
7 Posts
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July 22nd, 2014 14:00
Well sir you were on the money! Took it out and I can see everything again!
Why is that I can't use the GPU? Is there a way I could make it work? I had it working at one point.
THANKS AGAIN!
Twofour20
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July 22nd, 2014 05:00
*update*
So I tried a few things like moving the jumpers around to clear the NVRAM and I also tried to remove stuff like the HDD and RAM still no luck.
Also its not just the BIOS its pretty much everything at this point. The only thing that works fine is the post. It gets past the Dell splash screen but if I try to hit CTRL E or I to enter the config for other stuff the same thing happens. Just a black screen like it gets frozen after trying to do anything.
I getting really frustrated with this thing lol Someone must have some info!!!!!
Thanks
theflash1932
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July 22nd, 2014 10:00
Could be a video issue - cutting out anytime it tries to display certain resolutions. Hard to test this since add-in video is not supported and "just any" card you might have to try may not work ... if you let it boot (even with a dark screen), are you able to ping the system? If you remove all system memory, do you get a 1-3-2 beep code? Make sure ALL expansion cards, drives, memory, and external devices are disconnected (try removing mouse/keyboard too).
Twofour20
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July 22nd, 2014 11:00
No it was a mistake.
I accidentally clicked your post as the answer....DOPE!
Nvidia 8400gt I think was the card
Twofour20
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July 22nd, 2014 11:00
hmm you just made me think of something
A little while after I got the computer I threw in a PCI card because at 1920x1080 it was really choppy and laggy. It worked fine in windows but I wonder if its messing with the bios resolution..hmmm
Definitely going to test this when I get home. I will also try to ping the machine to see if it gets up!
theflash1932
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July 22nd, 2014 11:00
What card did you put in? I'm not sure if your #DellSolves link was supposed to be a link to a product or advice you received :)
Twofour20
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July 22nd, 2014 11:00
Will do!
I never though resolution would be an issue for the BIOS. It does make sense now that you brought it up. I though maybe the board died on me.
I hope it solves it! Thanks
Ill update this a little later today
theflash1932
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July 22nd, 2014 16:00
Video is unnecessary in 99.9% of server use cases, so Dell (and many other mfg's) don't waste valuable resources supporting add-in video solutions, and assign those resources to more valuable items like server management, hardware redundancy, expandability, etc. Trial/error to find a card that will work is the only way. I'd suggest searching the forums first for someone who has possibly found one that works.
Twofour20
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July 22nd, 2014 17:00
Yeah its for anything fancy. The on board only has 16mb so it's very choppy when i set the res to 1920x1080
I did some research and discovered only a few cards wprk with this machine. Specifically x1 cards so I'll try to find one!
Thanks for your help!
arhannan
20 Posts
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March 9th, 2022 13:00
I just ran into this with my PE 840. I was running fine with an AMD HD 5450 x1 card and decided to upgrade to a newer nVidia card (tried PCI and PCIe x1 cards). I got the exact same symptoms. I believe the issue is that the onboard video is AMD. Adding a nVidia card in the x1 slot is confusing it beyond displaying the initial post information. I guess I'll try and find a faster AMD x1 card to test the theory.