Dell t5500 power up problem

Aivia

In short, everything is working but I am getting an issue

I have a dell t5500 motherboard with 4gb ec reg memory and an x5650.
I know that all of these work as the PC has started twice, it has been kinda random though.

Right now when I turn on the psu all the fans spin up, no error codes and no beeps. But that's it, I get no video signal, periferals light up for a second then go off and the PC just sits at idle.

I has only started a total of twice now leaving me completely stumped on what's wrong. Am I doing something obviously wrong or what really?
E
Bois version a11

Aivia

Anyone any troubleshooting ideas?

ZENER

Does it have an iDrac port ? Can you access the iDrac via the LOM ? IF you can then you can have a look at the virtual console to see if there's any life from the board.

Ken

EDIT - sorry, scratch that. I thought it was a server board you had.

Actually !! If you attach the boards Ethernet port to a router or modem with DHCP enabled does it get an IP address ? You should be able to check on the BB router for attached devices somewhere in the config. If it's getting that far then it might suggest where to go next. Try a USB boot disk, perhaps Mint or a Windows PE or Windows 7 USB stick ?

Aivia

I attached it to my router and got an ip address, but again thats all I can get out of it. I plugged in a win 8 usb but the computer just does nothing with it apart from spin up the fans (still no video out etc)

ZENER

I presume you've tried a different video card ?

Ken

Aivia

Yes ofcourse, both tested and working in another pc

Fysh

Do the number LEDs on the front flash on power-up, or does the power LED do anything unusual?

Aivia

I am using the front panel leds from a dell dimension e520, so I am not sure how right they are. But the power led stays solid green and light number 4 stays solid with light number 3 flickering.

Fysh

Aivia wrote: »

I am using the front panel leds from a dell dimension e520, so I am not sure how right they are. But the power led stays solid green and light number 4 stays solid with light number 3 flickering.

Hmm, I don't think that'll help - the normal T5500 chassis has number LEDs for 1-4 and should illuminate each in turn during POST, with specific blink codes for particular errors and all LEDs being off (except the power button) once POST completes successfully.

It sounds like you're getting as far as the boot sequence and stalling there. What bootable devices do you have attached to the system? If you hit F2 to go to BIOS configuration or F12 to access the boot device selection creen, do you get anything on the display?

I'm guessing you have, but just in case - have you tried different video cables and/or more than one monitor attached to this machine?

Aivia

Sorry, I did not see the notification so im afew days late.
I just started the pc up about 10mins ago and it gave a video signal, told me a load of errors as I had nothing dell related plugged in and told me to press f1 to continue (did nothing as i had no hdd) and f2 to enter setup (which was my only option)
I get into the bios, everything is fine really except I cant change any values due to it being one of those stupid mouse bios things that never work ( for old dells anyway)
I really had no option but to just exit the bios in which just left me back to the start (monitor went into power saving "no signal" mode, keyboard leds went off and fans slowed down to a more idle speed)

Very surprisingly it started again when I left it for about 3mins and re plugged all the cables, that time I had a hdd plugged in with windows and everything but the dell didnt seem to detect it atall (it was plugged into the primary blue port of the motherboard)
Again I went into the bois and found it was starting in RAID on mode., so I proceed to mash every key on the keyboard until something happens (which it does)
The bios greys out and freezes, asks me if I want to change some boot settings which I agreed to and so its now on RAID or AHCI mode which I guess is better considering it was only accepting RAID the first time.
But now its stuck again to the idle mode with no vid out or anything.

*Update*
While writing this I tried to start the motherboard again and was successful, the only way I know if it works is if the backlit keys on the keyboard stay lit (if they go off in the first few seconds it just stuck in idle)
Strange thing is for the first times I was testing this I was using some old yusmart screen that only takes vga, so when I was testing it right now I used a generic dell monitor using dvi.
The strange thing is that this third time now its after starting it did not give video out to the dell monitor but the keyboard was lit so I switched monitors back to the yusmart vga and I was in the bios, I look around another bit and change some other boot priories, get stuck on one screen and exit saving changes.
Now im left with the pc starting to the "idle" mode again