Hi ppl, kinda a newb here but this is what i've tried. I installed with the slp key and put the dell cert in and still no activation (30 days left). I think i need a bios install, but i'm worried i might not have the right one... if i install this bios everything should start to work? I'm unsure of the motherboards model number as its not marked but i know the bios is Phoenix ROM Bios Plus Version 1.10 X18. Any help would be greatly appreciated, i did find a modded bios on the forum listed with Power Edge 840 and want to give it a shot. PE840_BIOS_WIN_MOD is the filename but i'm not sure if all power edge 840's have same motherboard. Thx. I've now installed the bios.. and still no go on Windows 7, is this bios possibly slic 2.0? Can i not run windows 7, would windows vista work?
did you install the modded bios, did you run Asset PASS 12/31 afterwards (with the server it is required after upgrading to SLIC 2.1 from 2.0), can you get a SLIC report from RW http://forums.mydigitallife.net/announcement.php?f=25 or this tool http://forums.mydigitallife.net/posts/82883 PS, I did reply to your pms...
This is a rather old server, probably released before Vista, so may not even have SLIC 2.0. You need to run RW Everything on it, and look in the ACPI table to see if there is even a SLIC table. If there is no tab under ACPI in RWE that says "SLIC", then the BIOS does not have any form of SLIC table. If there is a SLIC tab, then most assuredly your BIOS is SLIC 2.0, since it did not activate Win 7 (and due to the age of the machine too) Also, read through the release notes for each BIOS update on the Dell website, and see what they changed - for example, the latest PowerEdge 1950 III BIOS includes in the change-log "Added compatibility for Windows Server 2008 R2", which is generally a Dell euphemism for updating the SLIC table, although they sometimes use the exact same phrase when they actually fix a compatibility issue. If your PE840 does have a SLIC 2.0 table, then you may be able to follow the somewhat complicated procedure to update a Dell SLIC table in this thread: http://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/7441
Ooooops... I was thinking of the PE850 - an older 1U rackmount that has not had an updated BIOS in ages. The 840's last BIOS was dated June 30, 2009, so it's got to be at least SLIC 2.0 Dell still has not updated all their still being sold / still shipping machines to a BIOS that is SLIC 2.1, so if RW Everything shows that your SLIC is 2.0, chances are they will release a 2.1 SLIC BIOS before Oct 22. Also, if you bought your 840 without OS, or with Linux, then the SLIC may be hidden, and you need to use the asset tag utility to reset the BIOS and reveal the SLIC to the OS.
>>>>>update to the latest bios, then seen here that link is to the asset changer- what about the actual bio mod- or am i missing something?- thanks for the help Tito!
The A08 BIOS of Dell Poweredge 840 includes only a SLIC 2.0 If you want to activate Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 you will need to mod the bios file and replace the SLIC with a 2.1 version.
There was a BIOS modded by shakeyplace on sendspace back in 2009, but that link is expired or dead. Does anybody have the PE840_BIOS_WIN_MOD file that they can share?
As ScottAM requested, anyone got a copy of the modded Poweredge 840 bios with SLIC 2.1 as the original link is dead?
Has anyone sucessfully got Vista to activate on one of the Poweredge 840s? I have updated to lastest Bios A08 ran the asset pass:12/34 tool and slic tool kit now reports that there is a valid SLIC 2.0 table (pe_sc3) i installed Vista from a Dell restore DVD but its telling me that its not activated. I even downloaded another dell certifcate that came with a dumped Pe_sc3.bin file and used slmgr.vbs to install that but still not activated after reboots. Do you need a different cert than the standard one for these to activate Vista since with it being a server it was never shipped with Vista orginally?