Troubleshooting, General problems – Dell PERC 4/DC User Manual
Page 82
Back to Contents Page
Troubleshooting
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC and 4/DC User's Guide
SCSI Cable and Connector Problems
General Problems
describes general problems you might encounter, along with suggested solutions.
Table 6-1. General Problems
Problem
Suggested Solution
Some operating systems do not load in a system with a RAID
controller.
l
Check the system basic input/output system (BIOS) configuration for PCI interrupt
assignments. Make sure a unique interrupt is assigned for the RAID controller.
Initialize the logical drive before installing the operating system.
One of the hard drives in the array fails often.
l
Check the SCSI cables.
l
Check the drive error counts.
l
Clear the data on the drive.
l
Rebuild the drive.
l
If the drive continues to fail, replace the drive with another drive of the same
capacity.
If the drives are not the same size, the array uses the size of the smallest drive and the
same amount of space on the other drives to construct the arrays. The larger hard drives
are truncated.
After pressing <Ctrl><M> during bootup and trying to make a
new configuration, the system hangs when scanning devices.
l
Check the drives IDs on each channel to make sure each device has a different ID.
l
Check to make sure an internal connection and external connection are not occupying
the same channel.
l
Check the termination. The device at the end of the channel must be terminated.
l
Check to make sure that the RAID controller is seated properly in the slot.
l
Replace the drive cable.
Multiple drives connected to the RAID controller using the
same power supply. There is a problem spinning the drives all
at once.
l
Set the drives to spin on command. This allows the RAID controller to spin two
devices simultaneously.
Pressing <Ctrl><M> does not display a menu.
l
These utilities require a color monitor.
At system power-up with the RAID controller installed, the
BIOS banner display is garbled or does not appear at all.
l
The RAID controller cache memory may be defective or missing.
Cannot flash or update the EEPROM.
l
Contact Dell™ support for assistance.
CAUTION:
Do not perform a firmware flash update while a check consistency or
background initialization process is ongoing or failure could result.
Firmware Initializing...
appears and remains on the screen.
l
Make sure that TERMPWR is being properly provided to each peripheral device
populated channel.
l
Make sure that each end of the SCSI channel chain is properly terminated using the
recommended terminator type for the peripheral device. The channel is automatically
terminated at the RAID controller if only one cable is connected to a channel.
l
Make sure that the RAID controller is properly seated in the PCI slot.
The BIOS Configuration Utility does not detect a replaced
physical drive in a RAID 1 array and offer the option to start a
Perform the following steps to solve this problem: