bios post trouble shooting guide.pdf

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3 Troubleshooting Guide for BIOS POST on Dell 13thGeneration of PowerEdge Servers

Table of contentsRevisions ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 2

Executive summary .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4

1.

BIOS Splash Screen Display........................................................................................................................................... 4

2.

POST Error and Warning Messages ............................................................................................................................. 6

3. Post Code in iDRAC Web GUI....................................................................................................................................... 9

4. Driver Health Status Report ......................................................................................................................................... 10

5. Dell Diagnostics (ePSA) ................................................................................................................................................ 12

6. Red Screen of Death (RSOD) ...................................................................................................................................... 14

7. Yellow Screen of Death (YSOD) ................................................................................................................................. 16


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Executive summary

The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a set of industry-standard firmware interfaces that is

designed to replace the legacy BIOS to support modern operating systems and hardware architectures.

Dell has been shipping UEFI support in the BIOS since the 11thgeneration of PowerEdge servers through a

UEFI-over-Legacy model, where it is the legacy BIOS that initializes the whole system and loads the UEFIlayer at the end of Power-On Self-Test (POST) if needed. The Dell Lifecycle Controller technology is built

upon UEFI as well.

The BIOS on the 13thgeneration of Dell PowerEdge servers is now a native UEFI implementation, with a

Compatibility Support Module (CSM) to provide legacy BIOS interfaces to support operating systems that

are not UEFI-aware. The look and feel of the boot process is dramatically different from the previous

generations.

This guide provides troubleshooting solution for possible issues that may arise during POST and pre-boot

environment on the 13thgeneration of PowerEdge servers.

1.BIOS Splash Screen DisplayAfter the system is powered on, the Dell server BIOS may get to video display almost instantly. Fig. 1 is a

sample snapshot of the POST splash screen. The text next to the progress bar on the bottom of the screen

indicates various phases of POST. The text can aid in troubleshooting issues that happen during the

system boot process.

The following table lists the currently supported progress texts in the BIOS:

Text Display Phase of the Boot ProcessInitializing Intel QuickPath Interconnect...

BIOS performs an early initialization of the chipset,

processors, and QPI interfaces.Configuring Memory BIOS initializes the system memory.

Loading BIOS Drivers BIOS starts the Driver Execution Environment (DXE)

phase, loads and executes DXE drivers to perform

additional chipset, processor and hardware initializations.Initializing iDRAC BIOS waits for iDRAC to become ready. This phase may

take more than a few seconds on the first AC power on of

the system.Initializing iDRAC Done

iDRAC initialization has completed.Initializing PCIe, USB and Video Start of PCI enumeration and detection of USB keyboard

devices.Initializing PCIe, USB and Video Done PCI and USB enumeration has completed.Legacy PCI option ROM initialization (BIOS

boot mode only)

Applies to the BIOS boot mode only. The onscreen

display varies, depending on the type of PCIe cards thatare installed in the system.

Testing Memory (X% Complete) Software-based memory test phase. A percent progress .

Note: The memory test is disabled in the BIOS setup by

default.


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Testing Memory Done [No Errors] Memory test completed without any issue.

Testing Memory Done [Errors Encountered] Memory test has found error(s).TestingMemory Aborted

Memory test was aborted by pressing or spacebar

.Loading Lifecycle Controller Drivers

BIOS loads the Lifecycle Controller drivers.Loading Lifecycle Controller Drivers Done

BIOS has finished loading the Lifecycle Controller drivers.

Initializing Firmware Interfaces

BIOS connects the UEFI drivers to the device handles. TheUEFI drivers from add-in PCIe cards are expected to be

installed in this phase.Running In-System Characterization...

In-System Characterization (ISC) is in progress.Connecting iSCSI device(s) the UEFI iSCSI device drivers are connected. This display

applies to UEFI boot mode only. It gets displayed when an

iSCSI boot device(s) has been configured.Enumerating Boot options

BIOS starts to enumerate Boot Options in the system.Enumerating Boot options Done

The enumeration of Boot Options has completed.Entering Lifecycle Controller

The system is booting into the Lifecycle Controller.Lifecycle Controller: Applying Updates or

Setting System Configuration

An Automated Task Application is being scheduled in the

Lifecycle Controller.Lifecycle Controller: Collecting System

Inventory

Lifecycle Controller is collecting system inventory for this

boot.Lifecycle Controller: Done

Lifecycle Controller has finished execution.Booting

BIOS has finished POST and is giving control to the

operating system.


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Fig. 2 An error message box in early POST

If the issue is detected at a later time in POST, corresponding error and warning messages aredisplay ed

on the screen with a UEFIxxxx prefix. An event entry is logged in the Lifecycle Controller log (LC log) as

well. Depending on the severity of the error/warning, the system may proceed with continuing boot, or

prompt with F1/F2/F10/F11 for user input, or reset, or halt. The message comprisesof two parts, the

error/warning message itself, and a recommended response action. You can follow the corresponding

recommended response action to address the issue. For a complete list of POST error and warning

messages, see theEvent and Error Message Reference Guide for 13 thGeneration Dell PowerEdge Servers.

In the following example, the UEFI driver for the Integrated Network card is not signed. The user has just

turned on Secure Boot in BIOS setup utility. In the next boot, a few error messages are displayed on the

screen during POST.

- The first error message (UEFI0072) displays that the UEFI driver from the Integrated NIC 1 Port 1

Partition 1 was not loaded because it failed the Secure Boot authentication. You may address this issue

by updating the NIC firmware to a version that supports the UEFI driver signing.
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-

The second error message (UEFI0071) displays that the previously configured UEFI network boot

interface is no longer available. This is a result of the corresponding UEFI driver not being loaded.

- The third warning message (UEFI0074) displays that the Secure Boot policy has been modified since

the last time the system was booted. In this particular example, the user enabled Secure Boot on

purpose, so no action needs to be taken.

Fig. 3 An example of POST error messages

Corresponding logs for the error and warning messages will be recorded in the Lifecycle Log (Fig. 4).


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Fig. 4 Screen shot of the Lifecycle Log

3.

Post Code in iDRAC Web GUIIn case you cannot get to the screen display, the Post Codefeature available in the iDRAC web GUI may

come handy. This page displays the last system POST code with a descriptive text. POST code helps to

detect pre-video hangs, report fatal errors, and analyze system failures during POST.


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Fig. 5 An example of the Post Code in the iDRAC Web GUI

4.

Driver Health Status ReportThe UEFI specification defines a Driver Health Protocol (DHP). The DHP provides services allowing a UEFI

driver to express health status of a controller, return status messages associated with the health status,

perform repair operations if necessary and request configuration changes to place the controller back in a

usable state.

Dell server BIOS checks the driver health status of each UEFI driver in the system, and displays the status

messages . The BIOS may invoke the repair and configuration utility if a repair or reconfiguration operation

is required. In most cases, you can follow the instructions on the screen to proceed.

Fig. 6 is an example display where the BIOS halts on some errors returned from DHP. In this particular

example, the iDRAC DHP detected that the backplane 2 power cable has been disconnected; The LSI SAS

controller requires configuration changes, possibly due to a catastrophic issue.


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Fig. 6 Example of errors detected by UEFI Driver Health Protocol

The following (Fig. 7) is a snapshot of the Driver Health Manager in the case when a driver requires

configuration change. The Driver Health Manager lists all the device instances that require reconfiguration.

You can select each one of them and follow the instructions on the screen to configure the devices.


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Fig. 7 Driver Health Manager

5.

Dell Diagnostics (ePSA)Dell Enhanced Pre-Boot System Diagnostics (ePSA) are diagnostics tests that are embedded in the system

(Fig. 8). These tests allow you to check the hardware health status outside the operating system

environment. The findings of this diagnostics can assist you in troubleshooting the fault and working

toward a resolution to the issue.

The ePSA can be launched from the Boot Manager-> System Utilities-> Launch Diagnostics(Fig. 9).


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Fig. 8 Sample screen shot of ePSA


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Fig. 9 Launching diagnostics from Boot Manager

6.

Red Screen of Death (RSOD)The Dell server BIOS implements an enhanced CPU exception handler (RSOD) which aids the user and

tech support to analyze the software exception when the system crashes in the pre-boot UEFI

environment. The debug information is displayed on the screen and additional information and stack

traces can be retrieved through the serial port (if available). You can save the dump and use it for

debugging offline.


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A sample RSOD display is depicted in Fig. 10.

Fig. 10 An example of the RSOD screen shot

When an exception is raised by the processor the BIOS displays the RSOD screen with the following

information related to the exception.

The exception type, such as Page Fault, General Protection Fault, Divide by Zero,

Breakpoint, and so on.

A Dell-defined error value, pre-fixed with UEFIxxxx.Note a corresponding error will be

logged to the LC log as well.

Partial register set (x86 64bit).

Last-Branch records and associated module names if available.

Current RIP and Faulting driver module name

Stack trace back from faulted module.

Additional information is available from the serial port dump. To retrieve the serial dump, you can connect

the server to a client system with a null modem cable and use any terminal program (for example, Putty or

HyperTerminal) with the baud rate set to 115200 bps, then press . The serial dump can be

retrieved from Serial over LAN (SOL) method as well.


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Note: The RSOD serial dump can be obtained at the point of failure. The serial session does not have to

be started prior to the RSOD.

RSOD are usually caused by software issues, and may be resolved by updating the BIOS, Lifecycle

Controller, or the UEFI firmware for PCIe cards. You may send the screen shot and serial dump to Dell

support for further analysis, should you encounter a RSOD even after all the firmware updates.

7.

Yellow Screen of Death (YSOD)When a hardware error occurs during UEFI pre-boot environment (excluding CSM phase in BIOS boot

mode), the Dell server BIOS may display a Yellow Screen of Death (YSOD) with some of the software

contexts at the time when the issue is detected.

The hardware errors include Nonmaskable Interrupt (NMI) and Machine Check Errors (MCE). You should

check the System Event Log (SEL) to identify the source and type of the error. Update the corresponding

device firmware if the error is originated from a PCIe device.

Note: The stack trace displayed on the YSOD screen only provides some context information before the

failure, and not the source of the problem.

A sample YSOD is depicted in Fig. 11.


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Fig. 11 An example of the YSOD screen shot

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