System x3550 M2 stuck on system initializing after firmware upgrades

I have been having this major issue for the last few hours now. I have a system x 3550M2 server and I ran the UEFI and IMM firmware upgrades within Windows Server 2008 R2 x64.

All upgrades went fine and I was told to reboot. I performed the reboot cleanly using the OS restart option. Upon restarting it showed the system initializing screen and it stayed there for a good hour. After that hour I figured it froze and so I powered down and powered up again.

Now I can not boot back up to even see the IBM splash screen or the OS... I have tried switching the Jumpers to go to the backup UEFI and backup IMM and no luck. I have also reset the CMOS power and I have pressed the reset button 3 times on the light path and no luck. There are no lights light on the light path to indicate anything is broken. The only thing I see on the light path is the number 0.5. Any ideas? I am quite stumped with this problem.

Solution 1:

don't forget unplugging from power - this is not a joke. unplug the machine from the outlets for at least 30s.