Very Strange: PowerEdge SC1420 crashes without reason?!?

Question

Hi there,

I set up a PowerEdge SC1420 under Windows Server 2003. All the newest drivers are correctly installed, no additional component is plugged in, just Mainboard, CPU, RAM, VGA, 1 SATA HDD, CD-Rom and floppy drive.

The problem now is, that the system crashes at random: sometimes while booting, sometimes after several hours idling and nearly everytime another computer tries to connect to it by Ethernet.

I have run a dozen of hardware diagnostic programms, such as Dell's 32bit-Diagnostic, PowerEdgeDiagnostics, DSET, SANDRA, and many others: each of them without any finding or error. So most probably not a hardware failure.

Dell support had no idea neither and proposed me to exchange mainboard, CPU and RAM for nearly 4 times the price the server cost new.

What I now found out is, when displaying the hidden devices in the device manager, there is an entry "PS/2-compatible mouse" with a yellow exclamation mark: regardless wether there is a PS/2 mouse and/or keyboard, a USB mouse or keyboard or nothing at all connected. When I uninstall it, after rebooting it reappears.

The strange thing is, that this server run well before the new setup. The only thing that is different is that I have upgraded the System BIOS from A03 to A04 and (as I assumed this could be the cause) back to A03.

Any help would be very appreciated.

Thanx,

Hanni

Phaserboy · Answer

Define 'crashes' please. You mean rebooting? You mean Freezing with a screen? You should try to reseat all your Mobo components, disable unneeded components, make a NVRAM clear (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe1420SC/en/it/t2799aa0.htm#1045528). 'while booting' - did the server also 'crash' during POST or was POST completed? You see any IRQ conflicts in the DSET? Did you see any events in the ESM log in DSET? Temperature inbetween normal values? Did you update the ESM FW as well? When did this whole 'crashing' start?

Hannibal1949 · Answer

Hi Phaserboy,   with 'crashes' I mean that the the server freezes, monitor is black, diagnostic LEDs are [green, orange, orange, orange] = 'no memory modules detected' or [green, green, orange, orange] = failure with extension card' (difficult to say whether the second LED is green or orange). To switch the computer off the power button must be hold about 5 seconds.   NVRAM has allrady been cleared, once by jumper-setting and once by shortcut within BIOS.   Never crashed during POST. When crashing during boot then always shortly before login screen appears. But actually it crashes mostly after booting.   This is DSET IRQ log:   IRQ      Device  IRQ 0  Systemzeitgeber IRQ 1  Standardtastatur (101/102 Tasten) oder Microsoft Natural Keyboard (PS/2) IRQ 10  RAID-Controller IRQ 10  Intel(R) 82801EB SMBus Controller - 24D3 IRQ 12  PS/2-kompatible Maus IRQ 13  Numerischer Coprozessor IRQ 15  Sekundärer IDE-Kanal IRQ 16  Intel(R) E7525/E7520/E7320 PCI Express Root Port A0 - 3595 IRQ 16  Intel(R) E7525/E7520/E7320 PCI Express Root Port A1 - 3596 IRQ 16  Intel(R) E7525/E7520 PCI Express Root Port B0 - 3597 IRQ 16  Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D2 IRQ 16  Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24DE IRQ 18  Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D7 IRQ 18  Adaptec Embedded Serial ATA HostRAID Controller IRQ 19  Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D4 IRQ 23  Intel(R) 82801EB USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 24DD IRQ 26  RAGE XL PCI Family (Microsoft Corporation) IRQ 3  Kommunikationsanschluss (COM2) IRQ 4  Kommunikationsanschluss (COM1) IRQ 48  Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection IRQ 6  Standard-Diskettenlaufwerkcontroller IRQ 8  System CMOS/Echtzeituhr IRQ 9  Microsoft ACPI-konformes System     and this the IRQ conflicts log:     IRQ       Device    E/A-Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7  PCI-Bus E/A-Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7  DMA-Controller E/A-Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF  Intel(R) E7525/E7520/E7320 PCI Express Root Port A0 - 3595 E/A-Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF  Intel(R) 6700PXH PCI Express-to-PCI Bridge A - 0329 E/A-Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF  RAGE XL PCI Family (Microsoft Corporation) IRQ 10      RAID-Controller IRQ 10     Intel(R) 82801EB SMBus Controller - 24D3 IRQ 16      Intel(R) E7525/E7520/E7320 PCI Express Root Port A0 - 3595 IRQ 16      Intel(R) E7525/E7520/E7320 PCI Express Root Port A1 - 3596 IRQ 16      Intel(R) E7525/E7520 PCI Express Root Port B0 - 3597 IRQ 16      Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D2 IRQ 16      Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24DE   What is ESM?   Also I have not found any possibility to get the temperatures. Any ideas?   The server first ran well during nearly one year under Windows 2003 Small Business Server. We wanted to replace the installed HDDs to 2x 500GB HDDs. I updated the BIOS to A04 and setup the OS on the new HDDS. Since then the computer crashes. But i have no idea whether this has anything to do with the new installation or not. After having set up Windows 2003 for about 5 times without success I tried Windows XP. But there the server crashes too.   Many thanx for your efforts,   Hanni

Hannibal1949 · Answer

Just noticed that right beside the power connector on the mother board there is a not documented orange lighting LED. Is this just to indicate that the board is under tension or is the fact that it is lighting orange a sign of a malfunction?!?

Phaserboy · Answer

Sorry, my bad - the 1420 has no ESM (Embedded Server Management).

Anyway - please reseat the Memory DIMMS (if you have more than 2 inside strip them down to 2 as well) and the CPU and disable ports you dont need in the BIOS.

JTOLBERT12 · Answer

Did you resolve this issue?  I am having the same thing happen...

majiktripp · Answer

I am having the exact same issue with our Dell SC1420 Server, Green A Light while B,C,D all yellow. We only have the two sticks of ram that came with the machine to test so is there a possiblilty it may be the ram. I have emailed Dell technical support but no reply yet, as the machine is still under warranty.

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Very Strange: PowerEdge SC1420 crashes without reason?!?

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