Dell PE4400 problems, need knowledgable people

[44hundred]

I bought a 4400 recently from a government surplus auction. I am planning on using it for RAID storage for my music studio. I'm trying to set it up and instal FreeBSD 6.2 on it. I can't get past the BIOS. It starts out with:

Dell Remote Asst. 2.0
BIOS A09

then Keyboard Failure

blinks awhile

backplane firmware 5.34
then OUT OF DAT WARNING
then peripheral bay firmware 5.32
then OUT OF DATE WARNING

then goes through SCSI ok

Gets down to the " A bootable CD-Rom was detected"

0. Default entry

give options for BIOS setup

then

Bat. module present
1 logical drive found on host adapt.
1 logical drive handled by bios
configuration of nvram and drives mismatch (legacy array found)

then options for Config. Utility or Webbios


I can't select anything because of the initial keyboard failure. It is a Dell USB keyboard that works fine with other systems. I tried putting a usb to PS2 adapter on and using the PS2 slot. No luck. I tried using my Mac G5 keyboard (usb), No luck.

I need to get the OS on this thing. Need help setting it up. I plan on getting an Adaptec SAS/SATA adapter card and put SATA 750 drives in this thing; if I can ever get the OS working. Working with all the backplanes and remote software is not something I am used to.

Any thoughts...

-4400

 

[smah]

They keyboard failure needs to be resolved first. The USB must be an add-on card, because this model did not have USB capabilities built-in. Consequently, a USB keyboard will not work until after the OS has started. Now, your PS2-USB adapter should have worked. Can you even temporarily borrow a PS2 keyboard to test with?

backplane firmware 5.34
then OUT OF DAT WARNING
then peripheral bay firmware 5.32
then OUT OF DATE WARNING

Is not uncommon for systems of this age that have been disconnected from power for very long. The CMOS battery is likely dead, but it's not a big deal once you have the machine plugged in, it will be fine. You will need to udate the ESM firmware (download from Dell's website) to update the firmware & get rid of that message.

Bat. module present
1 logical drive found on host adapt.
1 logical drive handled by bios
configuration of nvram and drives mismatch (legacy array found)

The SCSI controller (probably a PERC II) is telling you that the raid setup for which it has been configured, no longer matches the physical drives that are in the machine to use as the 1 logical drive. You'll have to enter the SCSI controller configuration (CTRL+M I think) to figure out or change what's going on here. - Again, you'll need the PS2 keyboard working.

 

[AndrewTait]

Another thing to check, is that by the sounds of it, it has a remote control card in it

Dell Remote Asst. 2.0
BIOS A09

I have had problems with these, if they are not connected to a network. Might be worth removing this card if you are not going to use it (which I suspect you are not) as it will look for a network connection and a remote keyboard here.

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