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I've had an R320 running happily for the past 9 months as a backup server. I decided it was time to make some changes which called for a fresh install of Windows, so I shut the server down plugged in a USB with Windows Server loaded on it. After powering the server back on I tried to boot from the USB drive which caused the server to freeze. I gave it 30 minutes to make sure it wasn't showing any signs of life, then pressed the power button to try again.

Suddenly my server was replaced by a small jet engine. All the fans were spinning at 150% and not showing any signs of slowing. I am now getting a bunch of errors about iDRAC initialization and cannot enter the lifecycle controller. I haven't done any firmware updates in around 9 months and the server has been perfectly stable during that time.

Is there anything I can do to fix this or at least some way of getting more information about what's going wrong?

user2248702
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  • If this is iDRAC 7 or later you can try a soft reset using the methods at the link. If a soft reset doesn't resolve the issue then the resolution is to replace the iDRAC module or motherboard, depending on whether the iDRAC module is integrated or add-on. - https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln305793/how-to-reset-the-internal-dell-remote-access-controller-idrac-on-a-poweredge-server?lang=en#1 – joeqwerty Jul 12 '20 at 15:47
  • @joeqwerty I've tried to reset it, update drivers, connect to it over serial etc. and it doesn't respond to anything. The front display has no backlight and is not showing anything so that's no help either. It seems to be a software issue as nothing has happened to the hardware, and I really can't afford to buy a new motherboard to fix it. – user2248702 Jul 13 '20 at 14:35
  • If the iDRAC is borked the only fix is to replace the motherboard or iDRAC module... regardless if it's a software issue with the iDRAC or not. I've had to do this on 4 Dell servers. – joeqwerty Jul 13 '20 at 15:51
  • @joeqwerty As someone who buys their servers second hand without warranty that isn't exactly confidence inspiring. I tried connecting to the BMC UART port but just got a bunch of what looked like U-Boot stuff. – user2248702 Jul 16 '20 at 04:27

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