Finally got that stubborn server to reboot after a power surge yesterday

Had a Dell PowerEdge R730 in a closet in Phoenix that just flashed amber at me for two hours before I realized the CMOS battery was dead and it was holding the boot sequence hostage, has anyone else had a server act like a brick over a three dollar battery?

2 comments

2 Comments

henderson.vera2d ago

That bit about a three dollar battery holding things hostage really hits home... I heard from a buddy who works at a colo facility that they've had racks full of older gear sit there black and dead because nobody thought to swap the little coin cell. He said it's way more common than people think, especially on those R730s and older HP servers that just blink at you with no real error code. It's wild how a tiny part can make a whole machine look like a paperweight.

dylanmurray2d ago

Actually it's usually a CR2032 that costs closer to a buck or two if you buy them in bulk from a place like Digikey or Mouser. The R730s are especially notorious for this because the iDRAC won't even let the system POST without a working battery in some firmware versions. I've seen whole server rooms where techs just keep a box of Energizer CR2032s taped to the rack because they know it's gonna happen eventually.