LH6000 boots, but no POST or video at all

[kevin mcdermott_2]

Had some recent power fluctuation issue, mainly with losing power to circuits rather than spikes or surges, but now one of my LH6000 servers won't boot properly.

Powers on, drives appear to spin up, CD ROM will eject, LEDs on front Panel light up (top 2 dark, bottom one green), but no POST on screen, nor any other video for that matter.

Have checked all KVM connections and replaced with known good. NIC does not reply to ping at any point, although LEDs on back appear normal (both power supplys, all NICs).

???

[kevin mcdermott_2]

PS...

Removed CMOS battery from System Board -- wait 15 minutes
Replace battery
Reset CMOS by swithcing dipswitch 5 to ON
Replace System board & power on server.

No Change

Remove system board, reset switch5 to OFF, replace board.

Removed all PCI Cards
Removed and replaced all Power Supply "lobes" with known good from Node2

Same Results

No Beep Codes, no LEDs blinking... NOTHING.

Front Panel Error Log denotes FULL, but all documentation on how to clear log is predicated on being able to successfully boot (DOS Diskette, Navigator CD, or TopControl App in Windows). Is there a key combination or something that will clear the log?

[Sean T. Craig · Accepted solution]

Kevin,

Try this; with the power on, disconnect the front panel controller. There is a narrow ribbon cable running from it to the CPU side of the Power Management board. It could be that your reset switch is failed closed.

Another thing you can try is removing all the RAM to make sure you get a beep code. If so, try a single stick, single processor, etc. If none of this helps, your Processor Board may be faulty.

If you still don't get a beep code with the RAM removed, (and reset is disconnected) it sounds more like a CPU issue.

Give that a try and let us know how it works out.

Good Luck,

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

[kevin mcdermott_2]

Sean...

thanks so much for the reply and for the advice.

turns out that it was a bad stick of RAM that was holding things up.

detached the ribbon cable you specified - no change.

removed all RAM - got the beep code, and an amber LED on the front

Replaced stick 1 - no beep code, but no startup.

Removed stick 1 and replaced stick 2 - no beep code, full boot, but still with Amber LED blinking on front.

Once again, thanks for your assistance.

[Sean T. Craig]

Hi Kevin,

The amber status LED you're getting on the front of the server indicates that there is a warning event in the hardware event log. It may or may not have been corrected already. It may just be there because of the RAM. You can view/clear the hardware event log using Instant TopTools on Microsoft O/S's and it can be downloaded here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=50440&prodNameId=19774&swEnvOID=226&swLang=13&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=ns-11142-1

If you are not running Microsoft O/S, you can create the Hardware Event Log Display Utility Diskette found here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=50440&prodNameId=19774&swEnvOID=54&swLang=13&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=ns-11635-1

Sometimes the status LED's still show errors even after they've been corrected. The LED's are simply an indication that you need to review the log as there was an event written to it.

Best of luck,

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

[kevin mcdermott_2]

updated the system settigns to reflect the new RAM total, and all's well.

thanks again Sean.