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System Overview

Dell™ PowerEdge™ 1650 Systems Service Manual

	Overview		Other Documents You May Need
	System Features		Obtaining Technical Assistance
	Power Protection Devices		Technical Specifications

Overview

Your system is a rack-dense, highly available, feature-rich server that offers significant service and upgrade features. This system includes the following service features to make repair easy and effective:

• Embedded server management hardware, which monitors temperatures and voltage levels throughout the system and notifies you if the system overheats, if a system cooling fan malfunctions, or if a power supply fails
  
  
• A comprehensive system diagnostics program, which checks for hardware problems (if the system can boot)
  
  

You can run the system diagnostics from either the utility partition on your hard drive or from a set of diskettes you create from the Dell OpenManage Server Assistant CD (see the Installation and Troubleshooting Guide for complete instructions on using the system diagnostics software).

This section describes the major hardware and software features of the system. It also describes hardware features that simplify servicing.

System Features

The system offers the following features:

• One or two Intel^® Pentium^® III microprocessors with an internal operating frequency of at least 1.13 GHz, a level 2 cache of 512 KB, and a front-side bus speed of 133 MHz.
  
  
• Support for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), which is available on systems with two Pentium III microprocessors. SMP greatly improves overall system performance by dividing microprocessor operations between independent microprocessors.  To take advantage of this feature, you must use an operating system that supports SMP.
  
  

• A minimum of 256 MB SDRAM, upgradable to a maximum of 4 GB by installing combinations of SDRAM DIMMs in the four DIMM sockets on the system board.
  
  
• Support for up to three 1-inch, internal Ultra3 SCSI hard drives (with hot-plug capacity when using the optional ROMB card) or up to two IDE hard drives.
  
  
• A single, 1.44-MB, 3.5-inch diskette drive.
  
  
• An IDE CD or DVD drive.
  
  
• One or two 275-W AC power supplies or, if the system is powered by –48 VDC, one or two –48 VDC input power supplies (if two power supplies are installed, they are hot-pluggable in a 1+1 redundant configuration).
  
  
• Five hot-pluggable system cooling fans, with a sixth fan provided if an optional second hot-pluggable power supply is installed.
  
  
• An intrusion switch that signals the appropriate systems management software if the top cover is opened.
  
  

The system board includes the following features:

• Two PCI slots located on the riser card (one full-length and one half-length 64-bit, 66-MHz slots, or optionally, one half-length 64-bit, 66-MHz slot and one full-length 32-bit, 33-MHz slot, on separate buses).
  
  
• An integrated VGA-compatible video subsystem with an ATI RAGE XL video controller. This video subsystem contains 8 MB of SDRAM video memory (nonupgradable). Maximum resolution is 1024 x 768 with 256 colors. 16.7 million colors are available for true-color graphics in the following resolutions: 640 x 480, 800 x 600, and 1024 x 768.
  
  
• An integrated, dual-channel Ultra3 SCSI host adapter. The internal channel supports up to three SCSI hard drives on the SCSI backplane. The SCSI backplane automatically configures SCSI ID numbers and SCSI termination on individual hard drives, greatly simplifying drive installation. The second SCSI channel (an external SCSI channel) is available at the back of the system.
  
  
• Optional ROMB through a separate RAID card that incorporates 128 MB of cache memory and a RAID battery (integrated RAID key).
  
  
• An optional embedded remote access (ERA) card that allows you to perform remote server management on your network server.
  
  
• An optional dual-channel RAID controller card for connection to external storage that supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50.
  
  
• Two integrated 10/100/1000 NICs, which provide an Ethernet interface.
  
  
• Optional DRAC III card that provides remote management capabilities for your system. The DRAC III card allows you to manage and monitor your system through a modem or network connection, even when the system itself is down.
  
  
• Embedded systems management circuitry that monitors operation of the system fans as well as critical system voltages and temperatures. The server management circuitry works in conjunction with your systems management software.
  
  
• Back-panel ports include mouse, keyboard, serial, video, two USB, external SCSI, server management, and two NIC ports.
  
  
• Front-panel ports include video, keyboard, mouse, and USB ports.
  
  

The following software is included in the system:

• A System Setup program for quickly viewing and changing system configuration information. For more information on this program, see "Using the System Setup Program."
  
  
• Enhanced security features, including a system password and a setup password, available through the System Setup program.
  
  
• System diagnostics for evaluating system components and devices. For information on using the system diagnostics, see "Running the System Diagnostics" in your Installation and Troubleshooting Guide.
  
  
• Video drivers for displaying many popular application programs in high-resolution modes.
  
  
• SCSI device drivers that allow the operating system to communicate with devices attached to the integrated SCSI subsystem. For more information on these drivers, see "Installing and Configuring SCSI Drivers" in the User's Guide.
  
  
• Systems management software and documentation CDs.
  
  
• Optional solutions software for the purposes of web hosting, caching, or load balancing. See your solutions software documentation for more information.
  
  

The system chassis simplifies removing and replacing system components. You can replace microprocessors or DIMMs without removing the system board. The SCSI backplane board and hard-drive carriers eliminate the extensive cabling and drive configuration usually required for a SCSI subsystem.

Power Protection Devices

A number of devices are available to protect your system from the effects of power problems such as power surges, transients, and power failures. The following subsections describe some of these devices.

Surge Protectors

Surge protectors are available in a variety of types and usually provide a level of protection commensurate with the cost of the device. Surge protectors prevent over voltage spikes, such as those that may occur during an electrical storm, from entering the system through the electrical outlet. Surge protectors do not offer protection against brownouts, which occur when the voltage drops more than 20 percent below the normal AC line voltage level.

Line Conditioners

Line conditioners go beyond the over voltage protection of surge protectors. Line conditioners keep a system's AC power source voltage at a fairly constant level and provide protection from brownouts of short duration. Because of this added protection, line conditioners cost more than surge protectors—up to several hundred dollars. However, these devices cannot protect against a complete loss of power.

Uninterruptible Power Supplies

UPS systems offer the most complete protection against variations in power because they use battery power to keep the system running when AC power is unavailable or unusable. The battery is charged by the AC power while it is available so that once AC power is lost, the battery can provide power to the system for a limited amount of time—from 15 minutes to an hour or so—depending on the UPS system.

UPS systems range in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, with the more expensive units allowing you to run larger systems for a longer period of time when AC power is lost. UPS systems that provide only 5 minutes of battery power let you conduct an orderly shutdown of the system but are not intended to provide continued operation. Surge protectors should be used with all UPS systems, and the UPS system should be UL safety approved.

Other Documents You May Need

You should be familiar with the following documentation, which is included with the system:

• The Setting Up Your System sheet provides general instructions for setting up your system.
  
  
• The User's Guide describes system features and technical specifications, video and SCSI device drivers, the System Setup program, and software support utilities.
  
  
• The Installation and Troubleshooting Guide describes how to install, troubleshoot, and upgrade your system.
  
  
• The systems management software documentation describes the features, requirements, installation, and basic operation of the systems management software. Refer to the software's online help for information about the alert messages issued by the software.
  
  
• The Rack Installation Guide describes how install your system in a rack.

The System Information Guide provides important safety and regulatory information. Warranty information might be included within this document or as a separate document.

• Operating system documentation may be included with the system. This documentation describes how to install (if necessary), configure, and use the operating system software.
  
  
• Documentation is included with any options you purchased separately from the system and provides information you need to configure and install these options in your system.
  
  
• Documentation is included with any optional solutions software such as web-hosting, caching, or load-balancing software.
  
  

You may also have the following documents.

NOTE: Documentation updates are sometimes included with the system to describe changes to the system or software. Always read these updates before consulting any other documentation because the updates often contain information that supersedes the information in the other documents.

• Technical information files—sometimes called "readme" files—may be installed on the hard drive to provide last-minute updates about technical changes to the system or advanced technical reference material intended for experienced users or technicians.
  
  

Obtaining Technical Assistance

If at any time you do not understand a procedure described in this guide or if your system does not perform as expected, a number of tools are provided to assist you. For more information on these help tools, see "Getting Help" in your Installation and Troubleshooting Guide.

Technical Specifications

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