DW Blackjack Boot Device Troubleshooting

DW Blackjack® Boot Device Troubleshooting

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Affected Roles:  Administrator, Owner

Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps:  DW Spectrum® IPVMS

Complexity:  Medium

Last Edit:  March 19, 2021

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Boot Order Issues

When powering on a DW Blackjack® unit, users may encounter an error message stating that the system BIOS may not be able to recognize the Boot Drive or there may be corrupted OS files present, which may prevent the operating system (OS) from running.  There are some things that can be done to resolve this issue.

This article will outline some troubleshooting steps that can be performed to resolve an OS boot error.

Supported/Affected Devices:

• DW Blackjack® Server Series

Boot Device Troubleshooting

When encountering a boot device issue, the problem might be caused by:

• Incorrect Boot order in BIOS
• Incorrect Boot mode selected
• Corrupted OS files
• Hard disk failure

Step 1:  Check the Boot Mode

To use a different Boot mode of the BIOS:

1. Access the BIOS menu of the computer.  To do so, restart the computer.

While the unit is booting, tap the Delete key on the keyboard.  When you are prompted to enter the password, use “admin”.

2. Once you have logged-in to the BIOS menu, select the Boot tab.

Next, select the Boot Mode Select setting.  By default, the mode is set to UEFI.  To have the OS load using ROM’s (Read Only Memory), select Legacy for the Boot mode.

3. After selecting the Boot mode, select Boot Option #1.

Set the Hard Disk as the first priority for Option #1.

4. Press the F4 key to save and exit the BIOS.

The system will restart.  If the OS still does not boot, proceed to the next troubleshooting method.

Step 2:  Reset the BIOS to Default

To reset the BIOS settings:

1. Access the BIOS menu of the computer again.

While the unit is booting, tap the Delete key on the keyboard.  When you are prompted to enter the password, use “admin”.

2. After you have logged-in to the BIOS menu, select the Boot tab.

Select Load Optimized Default Settings or press the F3 key (hotkey) to reset the default Boot settings.

3. After returning the Boot menu back to the default settings, Boot Option #1 should be listed as “Hard Disk: Windows Boot Manager” and the Boot mode will be set to UEFI again.

Press the F4 key to save and exit the BIOS.  The system will restart and attempt to load the OS.

Step 3:  Check the BIOS for Boot Drive

The next thing that you can check if the OS fails to start is whether or not the system recognizes the Boot Drive. 

To check the Boot Drive:

1. Access the BIOS menu of the computer again.

While the unit is booting, tap the Delete key on the keyboard.  When you are prompted to enter the password, use “admin”.

2. After you have logged-in to the BIOS menu, select the Advanced tab.

Next, select SATA Configuration.

3. If the system recognizes the SATA-connected hard drive, the HDD or SSD model will display.

Step 4:  Modify the Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities

To check the BIOS Boot Specification:

1. Access the BIOS menu of the computer again.

While the unit is booting, tap the Delete key on the keyboard.  When you are prompted to enter the password, use “admin”.

2. After you have logged-in to the BIOS menu, select the Boot tab.

Select UEFI Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities.

3. Make sure that Boot Option #1 is set to use the Windows Boot Manager.

4. Press the F4 key to save and exit the BIOS menu.  If the above recommended troubleshooting did not resolve the issue and the computer’s operating system still fails to load, you may need to re-mage the OS by using a system recovery.

**NOTE:  All DW Blackjack® Servers are shipped with a recovery USB.