Hardware hacks – Dell PowerEdge 750 / PowerVault 745N
I picked up a board labeled “PowerEdge 750″ for 99 cents because the seller “couldn’t get it to recognize any peripherals”. It turns out that it was the motherboard from a PowerVault 745N, which uses the same hardware, but a different BIOS that disables the floppy, CD-ROM, and onboard SATA ports.
I poked around in the BIOS flash utility and discovered it has a large number of undocumented command-line switches, one of which is /BRANDNAME, which brings up a menu where you can select whether the motherboard is for a PE750 or a PV745N.
After that, it was just a matter of finding a way to get the flash utility to run on that motherboard, which is difficult when none of the peripherals are enabled. I wound up installing an Adaptec 39160 SCSI card with an old 2GB drive on it, and copying the flash utility to that drive. The board is happy in its new life as a PE750.
Also, Dell’s “asset.com” utility has a number of additional functions which are not described in the online help. Here’s the complete list of what’s available:
ASSET — Version 2.09 (C) Copyright 1993-2004 Dell Inc.
Usage:
ASSET new_asset_tag Specify new asset tag
ASSET /d Delete asset tag
ASSET /o new_owner_tag Specify new owner tag (if applicable)
ASSET /o /d Delete owner tag (if applicable)
ASSET /? This help screen
ASSET /s new_service_tag Specify new service tag
ASSET /s /d Delete service tag
ASSET /b Specify new system board tag
system board tag must be “ssssssssssssssssssss-vvv-”, where
s..s is the 20 digit system board Part number string,
vvv is the 3 digit system board rev,
– is a don’t care character, but must be present
ASSET /b /d Delete system board tag
ASSET /k Fix 2000:0000 memory issue
ASSET /f [other_options] Force Affirmative response
ASSET /x [other options] eXtended display – displays all tags
Everything past the “This help screen” is undocumented.
November 10th, 2008 00:08
I was wondering if you would elaborate on which executable uses the /BRANDNAME switch. Thanks, Great site.
November 11th, 2008 05:27
It is in the standard Dell firmware update utility for the PE750. I believe the latest version is PE750-BIOSA06.exe, available from Dell’s site at: ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/PE750-BIOSA06.exe
November 26th, 2008 11:16
Terry,
Do you know what the SATA drive size limitation is for the PowerEdge 745N? Dell says it is 250 GB, however I saw one for sale on eBay with 4 x 500 GB drives. I have upgraded ours to A06 in the BIOS and was going to upgrade the CERC drivers also. I was going to try 500 GB or 1 TB drive, and just wondered if you or someone here has any experience breaking the 250 GB limit Dell claims.
January 28th, 2009 16:11
Terry,
Great info but I must be doing something wrong. I haev a poweredge 2950 with a custom BIOS that I’m trying to rid of. on a command prompt, I tried running PE2950-020500CBIOS.exe /BRANDNAME, which created the disk with no additional menus. It failed with I tried to boot with the disk.
I also tried the BIOS you used with the switch but saw nothing different than without. I’m a bit confused so I wonder if you can kindly walk through the steps and commands you used?
I appreciate great for any help you can offer.
January 28th, 2009 16:15
Never mind. Running the executable on the floppy with the switch /BRANDNAME
February 24th, 2009 16:38
I just wanted to say thanks for the help, i was initially trying to use the BIOS flash utility for the PV745n, not the flash utility for the PE750. It worked perfectly; it is nice to have access to all of the onboard facilities.
thanks again
z
February 12th, 2010 10:14
I spoke with Terry in the process of doing this (Thanks Terry, I appreciate your help). Here is what I figured out:
This box will boot from USB on the front port, using a windows 2k3 server CD for example will BSOD however. I got the PE750 BIOS, and a MS-DOS boot disk. I opened the image with an ISO tool, added the PE750 BIOS, booted the disk. Ran the executable without the switch at first and was able to upgrade the 745N BIOS to A06 from A04. I re-read this thread and tried with the switch, it flashed to a PE750. This server is now happy with a new RAID 10 array @ 4 x 500gb. A normal OS on this thing is much better even with a P4. This thread helped me get here and I would recommend this route due to the fact the USB is easier to work with; the image can probably be put on a bootable USB flash drive, which will work as well.
Dell effectively locked everything out but the USB port(s) and the PCI slots on the PV745n BIOS.
Much better as a PE750, much better.
The BIOS is mentioned above, you need a CD burner, a CD, this image (from http://www.bay-wolf.com/bootcd-bios.htm, please note this image leaves enough space for the BIOS to be added before the burn, some other MS-DOS bootable CD’s do not have the space to add the BIOS), something like PowerISO (download.com, to insert the PE750 BIOS) and a USB CD-rom.
September 4th, 2010 18:11
I spoke with Terry in the process of doing this (Thanks Terry, I appreciate your help). Here is what I figured out:
This box will boot from USB on the front port, using a windows 2k3 server CD for example will BSOD however. I got the PE750 BIOS, and a MS-DOS boot disk. I opened the image with an ISO tool, added the PE750 BIOS, booted the disk. Ran the executable without the switch at first and was able to upgrade the 745N BIOS to A06 from A04. I re-read this thread and tried with the switch, it flashed to a PE750. This server is now happy with a new RAID 10 array @ 4 x 500gb. A normal OS on this thing is much better even with a P4. This thread helped me get here and I would recommend this route due to the fact the USB is easier to work with; the image can probably be put on a bootable USB flash drive, which will work as well.
Dell effectively locked everything out but the USB port(s) and the PCI slots on the PV745n BIOS.
Much better as a PE750, much better.
The BIOS is mentioned above, you need a CD burner, a CD, this image (from http://www.bay-wolf.com/bootcd-bios.htm, please note this image leaves enough space for the BIOS to be added before the burn, some other MS-DOS bootable CD’s do not have the space to add the BIOS), something like PowerISO (download.com, to insert the PE750 BIOS) and a USB CD-rom.