Trouble shooting two Dell Precision T3600 servers

[Cheifwhat]

Hi all

 

My first post this, so please bear with me.

 

I recently got hold of two of the above servers, the Dell Precision T3600, I already have one that works perfectly and I used parts from that to test there new two.

 

I put in these components that I know work;

a 1050ti {low power, from pcie only)

Ram (4x2gb)

425watt psu.

1tb hdd

 

They both turn on, there are fans whirring and the LED's at the front flash, and, if you just look at the box, all looks good. trouble is there is nothing at all displayed, no bios, much less windows. Noting at all. screen remains dark as if there were nothing happening. 

 

To set it up, I unplugged the cables from the working system and plugged the new pair in then plugged the working one back in again and it all booted up fine. So the cables and monitor etc are all fine too.

 

Please help. Is it the mobo? Dead cmos battery? What else can I do?

 

Many thanks

 

Richard

[Shreyas1]

Is your cable plugged into the motherboard or graphics card? Also try swapping out cables. 

[Cheifwhat]

good call, but the fans all spin, including the cpu fan so there is power coming in. But I'll try it thanks.

[Shreyas1]

3 hours ago, Cheifwhat said:

good call, but the fans all spin, including the cpu fan so there is power coming in. But I'll try it thanks.

Sorry, I meant the display cable. Is it plugged into the motherboards integrated graphics or the graphics card?

[jake9000]

Does the power LED flash in any particular sequence? 

https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln295099/a-reference-guide-to-the-precision-workstation-diagnostic-indicators?lang=en#2017_to_Present 

Toms Hardware also has a 'no video' checklist that you might want to run through. it's a bit older, but it still holds up. 

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/perform-these-steps-before-posting-about-post-boot-no-video-problems.1285536/ 

 

You might also check the warranty status. The T3600 isn't that old and if it has prosupport on it you should try to use it. 

[spyderbite9001]

There are 4 things that would keep a Dell server from posting once power is applied (as evidenced by fans spinning)

#1 bad CPU

#2 bad RAM

#3 bad motherboard

#4 monitor output disabled (its posting but you cant tell)

 

Looks like you tried #2 so its either 1 or 3. Try a cpu swap to see if thats the issue, if not then try below.

 

Dell servers can also disable monitor output so it may be configured that way. If it is, you'll need to clear the cmos settings. Try the directions on this site.

https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln284985/how-to-perform-a-bios-or-cmos-reset-and-or-clear-the-nvram-on-your-dell-system?lang=en

[Lefteh]

hey i own a t3600 and there a clear cmos pins right next to the 24 pin power connector idk know if that will work but try that and if you didnt already know that dell uses a proprietary 24 pin for the board so normal powersupplys dont work unless you rewire the psu or have a adapter. When i first got the t3600 to launch it took like 3 minutes i think so keep that in mind.

[Cheifwhat]

Thanks all. I'll look into the suggestions and report back 

[Cheifwhat]

Ok. I've got a picture out of both of them by putting the graphics card in a different slot. 

 

One works fine. It is in bios version a15. The other refuses to recognise a boot drive with windows 10 and crashes if I try to install it on a hard drive. It is on bios a09. I wonder if that is an issue? Do I need to install Windows 7?

 

Also. I have tried to update the bios but it won't see if off the USB drive, there's no option for it in the bios itself that I can see and I can't do it from windows itself as it doesn't let me install it. 

 

So I'm definately getting closer. Help and advice still welcome thanks