Hello everyone I have a Dell PowerEdge 2850 server which has 2 Xeon CPU with 8 Gb of RAM and all the latest firmware updates. I am trying to install Windows 2008R2 on it for test purposes. As soon as the BIOS checks are finished and it starts to read the installation DVD, the server reboots. I don't get to see anything, no messages, no logs to see or anything like that. At first I thought it might be the DVD or the DVDROm, but the DVD works well on different machines and starts the installation. I even tried booting from a USB flash stick. Again, the same problem with Dell, but tested iton another machine, no problem. So it is not the installation media, it is not the CPU (I think). I tried installing Win2K3 64 bit and 32 bit and both work on this Dell, so I am confused and don't know what else to check. I haven't tried Windows 2008 original release (as opposed to R2), but apart from that, I cannot think of anything else to do. Any ideas? Regards Nima

Hmmm, if you download the evaluation ISO and try with different media, does the same reboot occur, http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx -- Mike Burr

Hi Nima, Please contact Dell support to check whether Dell PowerEdge 2850 server is compatible with Windows Server 2008 R2 OS. According to what I found, the supported Operating Systems of Dell PowerEdge 2850 do not include Windows Server 2008 R2. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe2850/en/ug/t1390c10.htm#wp1052837 Regards,Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hello Thank you for the comments. I tried eval version from MS site, but the same issue occured. I checked with Dell web site and Windows 2008 R2 is supported. They have all the drivers posted there too, both under PE2850 general section and uder my specific box with the service tag mentioned http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/osmatrix/index?c=uk&l=en&s=gen&~ck=anavml Once again I tried installing Win2K3R2 x64 and it installed flawlessly. The fact that it reboots without showing anything is strange. This happens the second it reads the OS off the DVD. I suppose the question is, what is the absolute first thing that Win2K8R2 installer checks that would force it to reboot? That might give a clue. If you have any other ideas, I would be grateful to hear them. Regards Nima

Hi PROBLEM SOLVED!! First of all, thank you for all your input. The problem was RAM. As I had said, it had to do with something that installer does first. Which is why it reboots without showing anything. I figured the first thing it may be doing is loading files into memory and it made me think of RAM. The server had 6GB of RAM, but I added an extra 2 GB of the exact same type of RAM, which the server didn't mind, Windows 2003 x86 didn't mind, and Windows 2003 x64 didn't mind, but his highness Windows 2008 minded. As soon as I removed that extra 2Gb, I could start the Windows installation. Strange problem. But at least we know what happened. Anyway, once again thank you for all the help you all provided. Regards Nima

For those of you searching the web for more information about Hardware compatibility with server operating systems please see this blog post: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jeffloucks/archive/2011/10/15/windows-server-os-support-by-product-number-hp-and-dell.aspx