Adding a cpu to a Dell Poweredge 2950

[sifuhall]

I found a decent buy on a Dell PowerEdge 2950 for my home use.

It came with a single, quad-core processor and has an empty socket and I want to add another cpu.

The CPU it came with is a Xeon quad core X5365 running at 3ghz.

To add to my 2950 I recently just purchased a Xeon quad core X5365 also running at 3ghz.

I assumed it should work.

I installed it and added a poweredge 2950 heat sink.

When I boot up I get past the bios load, then it just dies.

If I try to go into the bios it dies as well.

Obviously I'm doing something wrong, but what?

Should this cpu work with my 2950?

 

[denis280]

I would take a look at the PSU since it came with 1 quad. adding the 2 quad is pulling alot from the psu

 

[Motorheader]

So it runs fine with a single cpu but when you add the second one it hangs?

 

[dbcooper1]

See if it will run with only the new one.

 

[sifuhall]

I've had the server for a few weeks and it has always ran fine with a single quad core cpu.

Just when adding the second does it power down.

Maybe I need a voltage regulator to go with the new cpu? Could that be the issue?

 

[imagoon]

2950 Kits are just the CPU and the heat sink. Make sure the 2 removable CPU fans are present however. Normally those are there because they do dual duty of cooling the SAS/SATA bays.

Did you put the CPU pad on the heat sink (or use some other heat sink compound?)

 

[sifuhall]

2950 Kits are just the CPU and the heat sink. Make sure the 2 removable CPU fans are present however. Normally those are there because they do dual duty of cooling the SAS/SATA bays.

Did you put the CPU pad on the heat sink (or use some other heat sink compound?)

I used thermal gel to secure the heatsink.

 

[imagoon]

I used thermal gel to secure the heatsink.

Ok. Does the machine say 2950 II < note the II?

If so, remove the second proc, boot the machine and update the BIOS and the BMC firmwares. 5300 series CPUs needed a firmware patch to fully support them in dual proc modes.

--edit--
Specific note I am talking about is here:

I also added the hardware manual that shows the upgrade sequence for the CPU.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe2950/multlang/proc_update/PN605A02.pdf

Hardware manual:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe2950/en/hom/pdf/hom.pdf

 

[sifuhall]

No, it's the original 2950.

But the bios and firmware have already been updated (that's the first thing I did).

 

[imagoon]

That may be the issue then. The 5300 series processors are technically only supported on the 2950II and 2950III. 2950 only shows 5000 (dual core) series processors.

Check the second socket for bent pins but you may not get this to work properly.

 

[gmaster456]

Is it seated correctly?

 

[compcons]

Try playing musical porcessors. That is, ensure it boots with the old processor. Swap the new one in for the old one. Then put the old one into the second socket and check for booting. Finally, pu the new processor into the second socket.

You could have a bad processor or a bad socket. Youknow socket 0 and the old processor work. "Easy" process of elimintaion. I had to do this with an Opteron setup I had to determine that I had a dead socket.

EH