Got this server a few months ago but can’t seem to get it to even turn on. Getting this voltage/PSU error in the front.
Power cable is plugged into both PSUs and getting a green light on both of them, so they are getting power. Any ideas? Thanks.
Are you plugging it into 120v? A lot of server power supplies tend to be 240v only so that could be the issue.
The status light seems to indicate either a psu failure or out of range voltage.
I’m based in Ireland, standard voltage here is 230 volt AC (frequency 50Hz).
Would that not be enough? But I do have an idea I could try, thanks.
I’m pretty sure Dell server power supplies can go from 100-240v and handle 50-60Hz…
Do the power supplies light up when you plug them in? Green or amber? Blinking or no?
Yes, both power supplies light up constantly green.
No blinking other than the error light blinking amber from the Dell server front panel (under the “i”), see image above.
Pull power from both power supplies, wait 30 seconds, remove power supply 2, plug in power supply 1
Verify the amber PSU fault light no longer is present. If it still is, swap the power supplies and try again.
Never used one of them, but do you get any lihht s from Ethernet cables plugged in?
Thinking you might be able to access the BMC/ILO/iDRAC/whatever, even if the board won’t power up?
Also, you did test the power cable, and used just one supply, then just the other supply?
(Just throwing pasta at the wall in case something sticks)
Thanks for that, will give that a try and report back. 
It could be a problem with the power supply back plane, both PSUs connect to single unit that takes care of switching between them when power is lost or unstable.
Try powering it on with only one PSU, and try all combos - one PSU in slot 0, then slot 1, then repeat with the other one.
See if there is an LCD on the server, any error that are not silenced will be displayed there.
Dell will source power supplies from different manufacturers, typically Delta Electronics, Chicony or Flextronics. Flextronics historically have most firmware and fan issues and PSU will detect fault even if fan is jammed.
You could try and connect to iDRAC, it should either have it’s own NIC or be set to use one of the integrated ones. It will show you any issues as it is not dependent on server hardware to run.
Pull any add-in cards, NICs, RAID controllers to try and isolate the issue as much as possible.
Check documentation for your specific server, i button will blink a specific pattern that you can lookup.
Tried this as a few of you suggested but still no luck.
I have a R440 that seems to be running fine using the same cables so I’ll go back to where I bought the server from and see what they say, thanks for all your help! Still appreciate it!
Probably for the best. If you were able to get into the iDRAC you could see what it’s complaining about but without knowing the configuration for the iDRAC like username and password as well as if it was configured to have a static IP, it could be pretty much down to luck whether you could access it or not.
Power supplies stayed physically the same between generations of Dell servers, but they aren’t fully interoperable… If you put an R730 PSU in an R740 it might work, though after firmware updates it might stop working too. Gotta check the model numbers on your PSUs and make sure they’re compatible.
There are several other problems you might be having as well. Finding problems soon after purchase is the best-case scenario.
Form factor yes but I know for a fact there are cases where Dell locks out power supplies to model. My experience was on 13th gen but I’d imagine same for 14th gen too. Trying to bring a server online with incompatible power supplies will result in unexpected shutdown shortly after initial post. Going into iDRAC status page will indicate the problem.
Ah yes, that must be painful when compared to non “XD” variants you don’t get a screen that spits out the exact error right away.
Your best bet would be effectively iDrac.
If you see an error relating to core voltage (which is kinda common), try reseating the CPU(s) (or exchanging them if you have 2), and if doesn’t do anything, try disconnecting backplane power instead and let the capacitors drain for a bit before reconnecting it. If the issue repeats itself, try running mono PSU instead of redundant.
If that doesn’t fix the crashes but make them just more rare, know that you might be experiencing the same thing I did: the slow death of either you motherboard or backplane.
Try to remove the BIOS battery and the power cables for 30 seconds and boot again
