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Troubleshooting
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/Di User’s Guide
General Troubleshooting Information
For information about qualified SCSI cables and connectors, visit Dell’s web site at or contact your Dell representative for information.
General Troubleshooting Information
Table 7-1 describes general problems that you might encounter when using the RAID controller, and suggested solutions.
Table 7-1. General Problems
| Problem | Suggested Solution(s) |
| Some operating systems do not load in a computer with PERC 4/Di. | Check the system basic input/output system (BIOS) configuration for PCI interrupt assignments. Make sure a unique interrupt is assigned for PERC 4/Di. Initialize the logical drive before installing the operating system. |
| One of the hard drives in the array fails often. | Check the drive error counts. Format the drive. Rebuild the drive. If the drive continues to fail, replace the drive with another drive with the same capacity. Check the SCSI cables. |
| Pressed <Ctrl> <M> and tried to make a new configuration. The system hangs when scanning devices. | Check the drives IDs on each channel to make sure each device has a different ID.Check the termination. The device at the end of the channel must be terminated.Replace the drive cable. |
| Multiple drives connected using the same power supply. There is a problem spinning the drives all at once. | Set the drives to spin on command. This will allow two devices to spin two devices simultaneously. |
| Pressing <Ctrl> <M> does not display a menu. | These utilities require a color monitor. |
| At system power-up the PERC 4/Di BIOS banner display is garbled or does not appear at all. | The cache memory may be defective or missing. Replace the cache memory. |
| Cannot flash or update the EEPROM. | Contact Dell support. |
| Firmware Initializing…appears and remains on the screen. | Make sure that TERMPWR is being properly provided to each peripheral device populated channel.Make sure that each end of the SCSI channel chain is properly terminated using the recommended terminator type for the peripheral device. |
| Why does a failed logical array still get a drive assignment? | To maintain the DOS Path statement integrity. |
BIOS Boot Error Messages
Table 7-2 displays the BIOS boot error messages, and suggested solutions.
Table 7-2. BIOS Boot Error Messages
| Message | Problem | Suggested Solution |
| BIOS Disabled. No Logical Drives Handled by BIOS | The BIOS is disabled. Sometimes the BIOS is disabled to prevent booting from the BIOS. | Enable the BIOS by pressing <Ctrl><M> at the boot prompt to run the RAID BIOS Configuration utility or enter Dell Manager if running Novell® NetWare® or Red Hat Linux. |
| Configuration of NVRAM and drives mismatch. Run View/Add Configuration option of BIOS Configuration Utility.Press any key to run the Configuration Utility. | The configuration stored in PERC 4/Di does not match the configuration stored in the drives. | Press <Ctrl><M> to run the RAID BIOS Configuration Utility. Select Configure—> View/Add Configuration to examine both the configuration in non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), and the configuration stored on the hard drives. Resolve the problem by selecting one of the configurations. |
| Unresolved configuration mismatch between disks and NVRAM on the adapter after creating a new configuration | Some legacy configurations in the drives cannot be cleared. | Clear the configuration.Low level format the related drives and re-create the configuration. |
| 1 Logical Drive Failed | A logical drive failed to sign on. | Make sure all physical drives are properly connected and are powered on. Run the RAID BIOS Configuration Utility or enter Dell Manager if running Novell® NetWare® or Red Hat Linux to find out if any physical drives are not responding. Reconnect, replace, or rebuild any drive that is not responding. |
| X Logical Drives Degraded | x number of logical drives signed on in a degraded state. | Make sure all physical drives are properly connected and are powered on. Run the RAID BIOS Configuration Utility to find if any physical drives are not responding. Reconnect, replace, or rebuild a drive that is not responding. |
| 1 Logical Drive Degraded | A logical drive signed on in a degraded state. | Make sure all physical drives are properly connected and are powered on. Run the RAID BIOS Configuration Utility to find out if any physical drives are not responding. Reconnect, replace, or rebuild any drive that is not responding. |
| Insufficient memory to run BIOS. Press any key to continue… | Not enough memory to run BIOS. | Make sure cache memory has been properly installed. |
| The following SCSI IDs are not responding:Channel x:a.b.c | The physical drives with SCSI IDs a, b, and c are not responding on SCSI channel x. | Make sure the physical drives are properly connected and are powered on. |
| Battery life is low | There is a high number of battery cycles. | Reset the battery counter cycle to zero in the RAID BIOS Configuration Utility. |
| Following SCSI disk not found and no empty slot available for mapping it | The physical disk roaming feature did not find the physical disk with the displayed SCSI ID. No slot is available to map the physical drive. PERC 4/Di cannot resolve the physical drives into the current configuration. | Reconfigure the array. |
| Following SCSI IDs have the same data y, z Channel x: a, b, c |
The physical drive roaming feature found the same data on 2 or more physical drives on channel x with SCSI IDs a, b, and c. PERC 4/Di cannot determine which drive has the duplicate information. | Remove the drive or drives that should not be used. |
| Unresolved configuration mismatch between disks and NVRAM on the adapter | The PERC 4/Di is unable to determine the proper configuration after reading both NVRAM and configuration on disk. | Press <Ctrl><M> to run the RAID BIOS Configuration Utility, then. select Configure—> New Configuration to create a new configuration. Press <Ctrl><H> to run the WebBIOS Configuration Utility, then use the NVRAM/DISK Configuration screen to resolve the mismatch.Note that this deletes any configuration that existed. |
Potential Problems
Table 7-3 contains information about other possible problems.
Table 7-3. Potential Problems
| Topic | Information |
| Physical drive errors | You can display the Media Error and Other Error options in the RAID BIOS Configuration Utility. Access the Objects—> Physical Drive menu, select a physical drive, then press <F2> to display the options. A Media Error is an error that occurred while actually transferring data. An Other Error is an error that occurs at the hardware level because of a device failure, poor cabling, bad termination, signal loss, etc. |
| Online volume extension | Online volume extension allows the controller to determine the drive capacity. You can use the drive space of a hard drive that was just added to an existing drive array without rebooting the operating system.This option must be enabled to increase the size of a logical drive or add a physical drive to an existing logical drive. Run the RAID BIOS Configuration Utility to enable online volume extension (which is known as Virtual Sizing in the utility). |
| PERC 4/Di power requirements | The maximum power requirements are 15 watts at 5 V and 3 amps. |
| Windows NT does not detect the PERC 4/Di. | Refer to the Operating System Driver Installation Guide for the chapter about Windows NT driver installation. |
Please read all restrictions and disclaimers.
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If I do this:
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Press to run the RAID BIOS Configuration Utility, then. select Configure—> New Configuration to create a new configuration. Press to run the WebBIOS Configuration Utility, then use the NVRAM/DISK Configuration screen to resolve the mismatch.Note that this deletes any configuration that existed.
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Will it delete my data? If it does Can my data be retrieved.
Than you
Hi Anthony,
It says: Note that this deletes any configuration that existed.
So yes it deletes all data. Make sure you have a good backup of your data.