Dell POWEREDGE 1900 User manual

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Dell™ PowerEdge™ 1900 Systems
Hardware Owner’s Manual

Notes, Notices, and Cautions
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer.
NOTICE: A NOTICE indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the
problem.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.
____________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2006 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.
Trademarksusedinthistext:Dell,theDELLlogo,Inspiron,DellPrecision,Dimension,OptiPlex,Latitude,PowerEdge,PowerVault,PowerApp,
PowerConnect, XPS, and Dell OpenManage are trademarks of Dell Inc.; Intel, Pentium,Xeon,and Celeron are registered trademarks of Intel
Corporation; Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; EMC is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products.
Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.
March 2006

Contents 3
Contents
1 About Your System
Other Information You May Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Accessing System Features During Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Front-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Back-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Connecting External Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
NIC Indicator Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
LCD Status Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Solving Problems Described by LCD Status Messages . . . . . . . . . . 22
Removing LCD Status Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
System Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Warning Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Diagnostics Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Alert Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2 Using the System Setup Program
Entering the System Setup Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Responding to Error Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Using the System Setup Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
System Setup Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Main Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
CPU Information Screens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Integrated Devices Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Serial Communication Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
System Security Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Exit Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4Contents
System and Setup Password Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Using the System Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Using the Setup Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Disabling a Forgotten Password. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Baseboard Management Controller Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Entering the BMC Setup Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
BMC Setup Module Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3 Installing System Components
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Opening and Closing the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Removing the Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Installing the Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Opening the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Closing the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Removing the Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Installing the Power Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Fans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Removing and Installing a Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Removing and Installing the Cooling Shroud Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Installing an Expansion Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Removing an Expansion Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Hard Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Removing a Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Installing a Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Internal Tape Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Removing an Internal SCSI Tape Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Installing an Internal SCSI Tape Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Removing an Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Installing an Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Contents 5
Diskette Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Removing the Diskette Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Installing the Diskette Drive Into the Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Installing the Diskette Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
System Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Replacing the System Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Cooling Shroud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Removing the Cooling Shroud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Installing the Cooling Shroud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Fan Brackets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Removing the Center Fan Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Replacing the Center Fan Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Removing the Back Fan Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Replacing the Back Fan Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
General Memory Module Installation Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Non-Optimal Memory Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Memory Sparing Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Memory Mirroring Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Installing Memory Modules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Removing Memory Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Installing a RAC Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Activating the Integrated NIC TOE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Microprocessor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Replacing a Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
SAS RAID Controller Daughter Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Replacing the SAS RAID Controller Daughter Card Battery . . . . . . . . 92
Removing the SAS RAID Controller Daughter Card . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Installing the SAS RAID Controller Daughter Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Configuring the Boot Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Control Panel Assembly (Service-Only Procedure) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Removing the Control Panel Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Installing the Control Panel Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

6Contents
System Board (Service-Only Procedure) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Removing the System Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Installing the System Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4 Troubleshooting Your System
Safety First—For You and Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Start-Up Routine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Checking the Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Troubleshooting IRQ Assignment Conflicts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Troubleshooting External Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Troubleshooting the Video Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Troubleshooting the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Troubleshooting the Mouse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Troubleshooting Basic I/O Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Troubleshooting a Serial I/O Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Troubleshooting a USB Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Troubleshooting a NIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Troubleshooting a Wet System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Troubleshooting a Damaged System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Troubleshooting the System Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Troubleshooting the Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Troubleshooting System Cooling Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Troubleshooting a Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Troubleshooting System Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Troubleshooting a Diskette Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Troubleshooting an Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Troubleshooting an External SCSI Tape Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Troubleshooting a Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Troubleshooting a SAS Controller Card or SAS RAID Controller
Daughter Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Contents 7
Troubleshooting Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Troubleshooting the Microprocessors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5 Running the System Diagnostics
Using Server Administrator Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
System Diagnostics Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
When to Use the System Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Running the System Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
System Diagnostics Testing Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Using the Custom Test Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Selecting Devices for Testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Selecting Diagnostics Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Viewing Information and Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6 Jumpers and Connectors
System Board Jumpers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
System Board Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Disabling a Forgotten Password. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
7 Getting Help
Technical Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Online Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
AutoTech Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Automated Order-Status Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Technical Support Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Dell Enterprise Training and Certification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Problems With Your Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Product Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Returning Items for Warranty Repair or Credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

8Contents
Before You Call. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Contacting Dell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

About Your System 9
About Your System
This section describes the physical, firmware, and software interface features that provide and ensure
the essential functioning of your system. The physical connectors on your system’s front and back
panels provide convenient connectivity and system expansion capability. The system firmware,
applications, and operating systems monitor the system and component status and alert you when a
problem arises. System conditions can be reported by any of the following:
• Front or back panel indicators
• System messages
• Warning messages
• Diagnostics messages
• Alert messages
This section describes each type of message, lists the possible causes, and provides steps to resolve
any problems indicated by a message. The system indicators and features are illustrated in this
section.
Other Information You May Need
CAUTION: The Product Information Guide provides important safety and regulatory information. Warranty
information may be included within this document or as a separate document.
• The Getting Started Guide provides an overview of system features, setting up your system, and
technical specifications.
• CDs included with your system provide documentation and tools for configuring and managing
your system.
• Systems management software documentation describes the features, requirements, installation,
and basic operation of the software.
• Operating system documentation describes how to install (if necessary), configure, and use the
operating system software.
• Documentation for any components you purchased separately provides information to configure
and install these options.
• Updates are sometimes included with the system to describe changes to the system, software,
and/or documentation.
NOTE: Always check for updates on support.dell.com and read the updates first because they often
supersede information in other documents.

10 About Your System
• Release notes or readme files may be included to provide last-minute updates to the system or
documentation or advanced technical reference material intended for experienced users or
technicians.
Accessing System Features During Startup
Table 1-1 describes keystrokes that may be entered during startup to access system features. If your
operating system begins to load before you enter the keystroke, allow the system to finish booting, and
then restart your system and try again.
Table 1-1. Keystrokes for Accessing System Features
Keystroke Description
<F2> Enters the System Setup program. See "Using the System Setup Program" on page 33.
<F10> Opens the utility partition, allowing you to run the system diagnostics. See "Running the System
Diagnostics" on page 122.
<F11> Enters the boot menu selection screen, allowing you to choose a boot device.
<F12> Initiates PXE boot.
<Ctrl+E> Enters the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) Management Utility, which allows access to
the system event log (SEL). See the BMC documentation for more information on setup and use of
BMC.
<Ctrl+C> Enters the SAS Configuration Utility. See your optional SAS controller user’s guide for more
information. Also configures 0 and 1 hardware RAID levels.
<Ctrl+R> Enters the RAID configuration utility, which allows you to configure an optional SAS RAID
controller daughter card. For more information, see the documentation for your RAID card. Also
configures RAID hardware levels 0, 1, 5, and 10.
<Ctrl+S> Option is displayed only if you have PXE support enabled through the System Setup Program (see
"Integrated Devices Screen" on page 38). This keystroke allows you to configure NIC settings for
PXE boot. For more information, see the documentation for your integrated NIC.
<Ctrl+D> If you have the optional Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC), this keystroke allows access to
selected DRAC configuration settings. See the DRAC user’s guide for more information on setup
and use of DRAC.