R210 POST reboots after BMC BIOS message

1. I disconnected everything I could. I didn't see a specific power

connection for the BMC. Removed one of the DIMMs and left one in slot
1.No change in behavior. Tried the other DIMM with the same results. 

So I tried disconnecting the internal USB connector to the front panel. This
time it didn't even get past the first screen with the progress thermometer.
Plugged that back in and tried it with only the keyboard plugged into one of
the USB ports.

And when I pressed F2 to go into the System Settings, it did! I was able to
reconfigure the BIOS to put the SATA controller in RAID mode, tweak a few
other settings (turn off PXE boot, set the boot order). On restart it got past the
BMC Ctrl-E prompt and complained of no operating system. Powered down,
reconnected HDs and DVD drives, inserted the other DIMM, restarted again
and it booted into Windows.

I had not connected the mouse, so I did that and it seemed everything was
fully functional. Made some other changes that required a restart and when it
restarted it went into the same POST reboot loop but now I had a clue as to
how to get out of it. Power down, disconnect the USB connector, power up,
POST failed, power down, reconnect the USB connector, DISCONNECT THE
MOUSE, restart, Windows comes up as before. And as long as I don't have
the mouse connected when it POSTs, it restarts with no problems.

Since it will be racked with no KVM, it seems like whatever the USB problem
is will not be an issue. Certainly seems strange that having the mouse
plugged at POST causes it to fail but it functions without and issues if I plug
the mouse in after Windows loads.
 2. At this point, Windows cannot blue screen because the disc controller is
not properly configured. Since I cleared NVRAM, BIOS is back to
defaults so the disc controller is in AHCI mode instead of RAID mode,
so the RAID1 array is not available for boot.

But even if it was configured properly, POST doesn't get to the point that it can
process the F2 key press to enter the BIOS System Settings, which it would
do before attempting to boot from disc.

However, in the interests of eliminating that scenario, I disconnected the HDs

and restarted. The results were the same except that now the HDs don't show
up as present in the POST messages.

3. I see where the Flash is going with this. On the R210 , the very last
POST process is to initialize the Remote Access Controller and the very
last message you will see on POST is to "Press Control-E ...". If a
Server has no OS, or the OS is having a issue it will hang at the very
point where you Server is hanging and go no further. Typically in this
scenario it simply means that POST has completed and is waiting to
hand-off to the OS. You can prove is disprove this theory of POST by
simply attempting a boot from another device such as a bootable OS
CD/DVD.

However, there is another clue here, your Server is not hanging here, it is
rebooting and will not process the F2 command before rebooting. This leads
me believe that the issue at hand is hardware, the Server is not completing
POST and the first step in troubleshooting is to take it down to minimum to
POST. Remove all PCI cards including the storage card if there is one.
Remove all external devices including USB keys or other peripherals. Remove
all Dimms except a Dimm in the first slot. Disconnect power to the backplane
and leave all drives disconnected. Attempt to POST, including striking the F2
key in an attempt to enter the Bios.

If the issue continues, it is likely a issue with the motherboard. If the issue
clears, start connecting devices that were removed one at a time and test
POST after each device is reconnected in an attempt to narrow down the
issue.

4. I disconnected everything I could. I didn't see a specific power

connection for the BMC. Removed one of the DIMMs and left one in slot
1. No change in behavior. Tried the other DIMM with the same results. 

So I tried disconnecting the internal USB connector to the front panel. This
time it didn't even get past the first screen with the progress thermometer.
Plugged that back in and tried it with only the keyboard plugged into one of
the USB ports.

And when I pressed F2 to go into the System Settings, it did! I was able to
reconfigure the BIOS to put the SATA controller in RAID mode, tweak a few
other settings (turn off PXE boot, set the boot order). On restart it got past the
BMC Ctrl-E prompt and complained of no operating system. Powered down,
reconnected HDs and DVD drives, inserted the other DIMM, restarted again
and it booted into Windows.

I had not connected the mouse, so I did that and it seemed everything was
fully functional. Made some other changes that required a restart and when it
restarted it went into the same POST reboot loop but now I had a clue as to
how to get out of it. Power down, disconnect the USB connector, power up,
POST failed, power down, reconnect the USB connector, DISCONNECT THE
MOUSE, restart, Windows comes up as before. And as long as I don't have
the mouse connected when it POSTs, it restarts with no problems.

Since it will be racked with no KVM, it seems like whatever the USB problem
is will not be an issue. Certainly seems strange that having the mouse
plugged at POST causes it to fail but it functions without and issues if I plug
the mouse in after Windows loads.