DELL Poweredge r900 POST question for interested experts

Question

My name is Roman, for about a year I have been building a PowerEdge r900. Right now it is assembled outside the chassis stone cold as it came in parts from the net.

The power led's light up, there is a interposer board and backpane. I am only using one power supply until next week, but otherwise everything seems to be in place.

Currently there is no VIDEO, no POST, and no BOOT. The fans attached to the SATA power on the motherboard are not spinning.

Please Tell me if you are interested in walking me through some details because I am not very rich and the machine have cost me over 2500 dollars. Or otherwise direct me to someone interested please : )

My first question is the proper pinout for the J7E2 jack... - could cleared NVRAM be the problem? There are two jumpers currently on it, but I am not sure what is the default position just to post

:::

(https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_poweredge/poweredge-r900_owner%27s%20manual_en-us.pdf) ::: < this is on page 153 of the PDF

Details:

There are four Xeon X7460 CPUS properly installed with heat sinks.

There is 256 GB RAM in proper containers ! : )

There is a 6GB RADEON FIREPRO video card installed on x8 PCIE through a x1 riser card

( A PNY 2GB Card is coming this week)

There are two Seagate 6TB 12 GB/s HDD's connected through 12GB SAS Controller card in PCIE.

The video is going through a HDMI cable on the RADEON, and I also have a HDMI Converter Cable for the VGA outputs on the motherboard and the back pane (which one?

* One DELL Poweredge R900 1570W Power supply is connected, and the other one is coming this week.

I also have a few PCIE cards, like a soundblaster, a wireless internet card, and two USB hubs which will connect a CDROM, keyboard, mouse, bluetooth and penpad.

The server will run Windows 10 and Linux (Maybe with Clover Bootloader) and I plan to use it for work study, professional art and recreational gaming. I hope to make it work and keep it for a long long time. What an awesome machine! Go DELL!

Please write to me if you or someone you know is interested in sharing their insight

Respectfully,

Roman

theflash1932 · Answer

Not rich but spent $2500 to build a 10 year old server? I hope you are successful, but I'm not sure you started this project with the right premise. Servers are not good gaming machines. A common misconception, but you should know (or should have known) that up front.

Take out all the non-server stuff - the graphics card, sound card - all the cards. Disconnect the drives and remove your "SAS controller" (what make/model of controller are you using?). Remove all but the minimum amount of RAM. You may also want to remove all but one CPU. Start with the most BASIC configuration required to boot, then troubleshoot and add from there.

CPU's must all match - exact same model AND the same stepping code (programming version)
Not every CPU is supported in a 4 CPU system or in this model of server - what model do you have?
There are many population rules for memory - types, amounts, supported slots, etc.

The NVRAM jumpers are not your problem at this point. In fact, it may be helpful to CLR it. But if in the CLR position, it will start up normally, it will just display a message that the jumpers are in the CLR position.

darkstarx70 · Answer

Thank you so much for your prompt and life saving answer. Everything including birthday and Christmas premiums went into this past year, so are Truly Appreciated ~~Like~~ .

> Not rich but spent $2500 to build a 10 year old server?

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+X7460+%40+2.66GHz&id=2656&cpuCount=4

^ scroll down to the comparisons.. Not much new for developers, but without an Apple ID or retina _procedures..

> Servers are not > good gaming machines. A common misconception

> Start with the most BASIC configuration required to boot, then troubleshoot and add from there.

Ah ok, just a sad mac crescendo..

This means We would have to go through all damaged components to replace them one by one anyway then wake again and detect both BIOS and firmware update(s) for the second time. The CPU's are O E M from eBay with grease already on and under the passive heat sinks.

Pin out Guidance reference seems incorrect here, All in it.

> CPU's must all match - exact same model AND the same stepping code (programming version)

I will try just one to boot up. I wrote to the seller asking specifically four CPU's from the same batch, but this is only defense I have for myself.

> Not every CPU is supported in a 4 CPU system or in this model of server - what model do you have?

https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/pe_R900_spec_sheet.pdf

Using 4 <7460> CPU's like it said in the guide.

https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln111201/dell-poweredge-troubleshooting-a-server-that-does-not-start-no-power-no-post-no-boot-and-no-video?lang=en

So I added another power supply and simpler video card like it said . Will also use just one power supply for now.

> There are many population rules for memory - types, amounts, supported slots, etc.

So, I did read about this~ what will happen with minimum, if it is filled in parallel like told...

> The NV RAM jumpers are not your problem at this point. In fact, it may be helpful to clear it. But if in the clear

> position, it will start up normally, it will just display a message that the jumpers are in the clear position.

np at all will replace into original position.... hope its still alive.

And this morning when i moved the NV RAM jumper a evil burning smell began to come on I had to turn it off. And that's with just one power supply.

Truly appreciate your help, please bear with me as i go through this.

Roman

darkstarx70 · Answer

Okay, 1 processor, 1 DIMM, no PCIE, 1 power supply. Doing this properly also requires DIMM blanks for the riser cards. I will update this thread when I have them.

Thanks again and please bear with me / \

Roman

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