20 Most Recent Dell PowerEdge 2500 Server Questions & Answers

If the BIOS password, some dell's have a jumper to reset that.
A piece of software ERD commander may enable you to reset a windows account password.

are the hdd hot swapable?

you should start by re-seating the RAM first as this is a common problem. if that does not work re-seat the processor. If all that fails remove all add on cards and memory only leaving the processor and see if the beep codes change. Replace the components one-by-one to find the problem piece of hardware. HERE is a guide from Dell to tell you what the beep codes mean and also some troubleshooting tips.

Remove the cmos battery or look for where there is reset button and press to have it removed.

have you installed properly the wireless pci adapter in your dell. you could check from device manager first and make sure it is listed under network adapters and has no yellow exclamation mark. also check the range of you wireless network router. If you don't manage the access point or network, contact the network administrator to Make sure the router or access point is turned on and that the wireless signal light is illuminated. post back for follow up.

Call Dell with your Service Tag.
Lifetime support is included on all Dell servers.
Last time I called them I dialed (800) 945-3355
They can sell you the hardware you need and guarantee it will work with your server. They might even be able to help explain the process of installing the drives.

I recommend that you use Acronis' Imaging software (www.acronis.com) so that you can make an exact copy of your data and apply it to the replacement volumes. If you are using a RAID1 array make sure the new array is completely built before applying your image. Builds can take a long time. I created a RAID1 array with 2-320GB disks and it took 3.5 hours to build the RAID1 array.

I hope this helps.

Please vote for my solution if it helps.

yes u need the key in order to power on the server

Hello,

Make sure the hardware is compatiable with Server 2000. Most of the time you will run into a stale if hardware is not compatiable or windows does not have a compatiable driver for those devieces. If you have the drivers for your hardware, install those at the begining of the server install. (You will see at the bottom of the screen press F3 to install 3rd party drives. After the drivers are installed, you should be able to proced.

Good Luck,
C2Solutions

You can download it from a website and transfer from one drive to another. As long as all your cables are plugged in.. Set new drive as the slave drive to transfer

Open the case of the server, and look on the side panel that you removed. It should have all of the server options detailed right on the inside of the case for you.

Replacing the drive does not remove the container on the RAID controller. If the drive has failed, and you had a RAID 5, simply replace the drive. If you had a RAID 0, your data is lost. Replace the drive, and start over.

Sounds like the RAID controller has failed. I would replace this first as RAID controllers are less expensive than replacing the system board, or the server as a whole.

Suggested: PERC 5i (RAID 0/1/5) or PERC 5iR (RAID 1 or 0 only)

There isn't a power button as such on the motherboard. There will be a pin header that should say something like PWR SW beside it. The power button just shorts these two terminals out for a second to tell the PSU to switch on. You can do the same if you are careful. But as always: BE CAREFUL.

That "in-op" COM port is in fact, probably defective. Had many cases where 1 works/1 doesn't. Buy a cheap, PCI COM port board, install the software, and plug away!

Cheers,
gurutim

Cable out ?

You can use Norton Ghost to copy your current hard drive to the new one. And when you boot the new drive, the only difference you will see is more hard drive space.

As for interfacing, since you say the drive in there already is a 30 GB, it is most likely an IDE connection. This can be identified by a ribbon cable about two inches wide running to the drive.

In this situation I would start by testing the hard drive then the RAM.
For the hard drive find out the manufacturers name and download their test program.
For the RAM test I have used a free program call memtest86 with very good results.
If the problem is the hard drive, you may be able to install a hard drive of the same size and using an imaging program copy the old drive to the new drive. Re-run the recovery program. My suspicions are that the old drive has developed bad clusters near the beginning where the operating system is and some of the files have become corrupt.
If the RAM fails the test replace the RAM and try again.