I have reported on the out-of-box experiences (OOBEs) that I’ve had with Dell machines in the past: here, here, and here, for example. The last three have not gone smoothly at all. Yesterday I unboxed a PowerEdge 640E running Windows Server 2016, intending to replace an older domain controller running Server 2008R2.
The machine arrived nicely packaged, but with no bezel. Turns out it doesn’t come with a bezel unless you order it that way. My bad. That’s OK, though, I don’t expect anyone to try to mess with the machine without my permission.
The boot-up seemed to take forever — it was actually about 10 minutes. I wasn’t watching the screen the whole time, but it was spending a long time initializing the iDRAC controller, which is a Dell remote management device.
But at the end of all that, Windows Server booted, and a set about configuring the machine. I set a fixed IP address, and the machine did that without a boot. I joined the domain, and there was reboot required. It took just as long as the first one. This time a saw an error message about the iDRAC controller flash up on the screen. I installed updates, and there was yet another interminable reboot, and I saw that the error messages said the POST couldn’t find the iDRAC controller. Since I had to set the iDRAC IP address anyway, booted again, hit F2, and waited, and waited, and finally got into the setup screens. I hit the button for the iDRAC, and it said:
I powered down the server, pulled the power cord for a minute or so, and tried again. No joy.
It was beginning to sound like something was broken. I set up a chat session with Dell support. The tech wanted me to download a Cisco WebEx client so he could poke around, and he and I spent about 20 minutes trying to get around Internet Explorer’s security settings so that we could complete the download. It wouldn’t even let me download Chrome. then the tech decided we didn’t really need that, and asked me to press and hold the “I” button on the machine. I couldn’t find it. After a while, he went off and looked at some docs, and told me that it was on the back of the server. That wasn’t that easy to get to, but I found it, pressed and held it for 15 seconds, and tried again.
Same old same old.
The tech decided that the machine needed a new motherboard, and made an appointment for someone to come out and install one.
It looks like Dell sent me yet one more machine that could never have worked had they run a system test after they built it.
To be continued.
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