scsi bios NOT installed, system hangs on bootup

Question

Greetings,

I have a Dell PowerEdge 2300 with two pentium2 350mhz processors and 512MB RAM.
It is currently hanging on bootup. Here is the output of the boot process:

=======================================
phoenix rom bios plus version 1.10 a15
dell copyright info here...

dell system poweredge 2300/350 (440bx)

second processor detected
2 350mhz processors processor bus: 100mhz l2 cache: 512k

press ctrl-alt-enter for system setup
press ctrl-alt-f10 for utility mode

poweredge 2300/350
embedded server management firmware revision 5.21
system backplane firmware revision 4.1
firmware is out of date please update

scsi id: 0 seagate st34573lc ultra2-lvd - hard disk 0
scsi id: 1 seagate st34573lc ultra2-lvd - hard disk 1
scsi id: 2 seagate st34573lc ultra2-lvd - hard disk 2
scsi id: 3 seagate st318404lc ultra2-lvd - hard disk 3
scsi id: 6 dell 1x6 u2w scsi bp ultra2-lvd

scsi bios installed successfully!

adaptec aic-7860 scsi bios v2.01 dell 001
(c) 1998 adaptec, inc. all right reserved

press ctrl-a for scsi select utility

scsi id: 5 nec cd-rom drive: 465

scsi bios NOT installed!

strike f1 to retry boot, f2 for setup utility

==========================

I ran some diagnostic tests on the system and here is the output of those tests:

==========================
diagnostics build: 1021

test errors:

embedded server mgmt - esm2 system board sensor check : fail
status: fail
status code: dos ddg-d esm2 030 036
device: embedded_server_mgmt
test: esm2_system_board_sensor_check
release: 1021 modeule(s): esm2
msg: an important event was detected in the esm log. critical error on entry 7
of 8. smb event was reported for intrusion detection sensor with a value of
0001h.

"" 5 of 8

"" 2 of 8

=========================

the double quotes represent that the information is the same as the error message above it with the exception of the entry number changing.

I was running SuSE 9.1 Personal on this system. However i am unable to boot into the O.S. now because of this error. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your time,

*Nick*

[end]

cjtompsett · Answer

The last portion of the 2300 post shows the Adaptec 7860 detecting the cd-rom drive detected by it. The message ' scsi bios NOT installed' is normal because it only detected a cd-rom on that controller. This is all normal.   The next message is the ' strike f1 to retry boot, f2 for setup utility'. The system has hard drives on the Adaptec 7890 but has found no boot partition. It sounds like the Suse install has been corrupted or deleted. You might want to try a repair of the OS.   Lastly the error messages from the diagnostics are to inform you that the chasis has been opened. There is a switch that detects when the server chasis is opened. These messages can be ignored if you opened the system.   -cjtompsett

Ray Jeff · Answer

' @cjtompsett wrote: The last portion of the 2300 post shows the Adaptec 7860 detecting the cd-rom drive detected by it. The message ' scsi bios NOT installed' is normal because it only detected a cd-rom on that controller. This is all normal.   The next message is the ' strike f1 to retry boot, f2 for setup utility'. The system has hard drives on the Adaptec 7890 but has found no boot partition. It sounds like the Suse install has been corrupted or deleted. You might want to try a repair of the OS.' I'm getting the same message. When I use either my Windows 2000 or Windows XP cds they do not boot. I've upgraded the firmware & bios. So, my options as in possible problems are SCSI cable gone bad or SCSI CD-Rom drive gone bad. I haven't tried jumper clearing yet. I do have Redhat Linux Enterprise Workstation; maybe I should try it to see if it works. But, with that being said, the possible problems are bad cable or bad CD-Rom.

speedstep · Answer

The CTRL A menu has an option as to whether or not the CD will boot.
You may need to change that.

Also the 2300 SCSI cdrom drives are 4x or 8x max sometimes so
NON REAL CDs recorded at 16x or faster dont read or boot properly.

A BAD CDROM DRIVE is also a possibility.

Try making a 4x recorded copy of the cd and see if that boots.

Ray Jeff · Answer

I tried clearing the jumper, I disconnected, inspected the cable and reconnected it; Inspected the pins. Everything is fine. Even changed the power connectors. I even reinstalled the updates to everything. One thing that did work this time was the backplane firmware update. I thought when I first updated it it actually updated it. But it didn't and when I reinstalled it it updated. Everything is now updated.

But I'm still getting the "SCSI BIOS not found" error. Now, this time when I put a cd in, either my regular Win XP cd or the 4x copy of the Win XP cd, when it gets to the the cd rom recognition part, it acts as if it will boot to the cd (it hangs for about a minute or so) and then it continues on to the error message. I'm at a loss

Ray Jeff · Answer

Just wanted to let everyone know about my progress. I don't know how or why, but the gods must've had mercy on my pet project. Last night I went back to working on the server after almost 2 months. It worked. It went therough its messages and all. Whene I tried my Windows 2K Pro cd, it booted to it. I tried it again with using my Windows boot floppy to run Windows 98; that worked too.

So, now I have the problem of the iosubsys issues and I just searched through the forums and found the answer for it. So, hopefully when I go home tonight, I can have fun with my big server to play with. *smiling*

PowerEdge Hardware General

scsi bios NOT installed, system hangs on bootup

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