TC4100 Crashes

[Phil Tyler]

I have a TC4100 Server - until recently it was running SBS2000 OK. I bought it and wiped the disks and tried installing the following O/S's. All O/S's produced the same crashes! Windows Server 2003 Small Business Server Premium Edition, Windows Server 2003 Standard, Windows XP Pro and SUSE Linux 10.0.

The server crashes as if the reset button was pressed, then just starts to reboot. Sometimes happens during the installation of Windows but always within a few minutes of using the server once it's installed and running. No BSOD. Nothing in EventLog. I've taken all add-on cards out except the RAID controller and still no good.

I've flashed all the latest BIOS's & firmware.

I've run the Advanced diagnostics (took 2 days) and NO ERRORS found.

Spec as follows.

TC4100
1) 2x 1.4Ghz PIII CPUs
2) 2x 512Mb + 1x256Mb genuine HP RAM
3) Samsung CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo IDE drive set to Cable-Select. Only IDE device installed.
4) HP SureStore DAT40i (C5683A) on SCSI ID 2 on on-board SCSI channel A.
5) NetRaid-1M Card (tried PCI slots 5 & 6)
6) 3x18Gb 10k SCSI disks. Tried Raid-0 and Raid-5.
7) Intel PRO/1000XT Server Adapter (since removed and used on-board 100Mbit LAN; still crashes)
8) PS/2 Mouse & Keyboard. No USB devices plugged in.

Tried with onboard USB enabled AND disabled.
Tried with onboard NIC enabled AND disabled.

Anyone got ANY ideas? I'm going to start trying it with each RAM DIMM in turn to see if there is a memory fault dispite what the Diags say but no time now as I'm going on holiday. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Phil Tyler

[kris rombauts]

Hi Phil,

with no errors in the event log you mean the H/W event log (SEL) right ?

Check the settings of the management subsystem of this system by logging into the build in RMC (remote control card) if not configured, then configure it with an IP via F3 at boot up.

Check for the SEL contents, environment and shutdown settings (critical temp, power etc etc)


Kris

[Phil Tyler]

There is NO Remote control card in this model. (Not even a built-in one)
When I did get Windows Server 2003 running the Instant Top Tools 5.5 showed NO hardware error events.

[Phil Tyler]

Well moving the memory around seems (but not for certain) to have cured it. I left just one 512Mb DIMM in slot 0 and re-installed Win2003 Server Std and it worked OK with no crashes during build or once running. Added the 2nd 512Mb DIMM to slot 3 and still no issues. Finally added the 256Mb DIMM to slot 2. No issues again. So now I'm back to putting a production version of SBS2003 on. Hope it stays stable. It's installed the base O/S without a crash so hopefully it's DIMM slot 1 that's faulty. Can't see why though. Guess it could be dirt - the inside of the server was pretty dusty when I bought it.
Will close this thread in a few days if it keeps on running.

[Phil Tyler]

I thought I'd found the answer but the TC4100 still keeps rebooting!

I've run the diagnostics until I'm blue in the face and it NEVER finds anything. Yet it still just unexpectedly resets as if the reset button has been pressed randomly.

Anyone got any ideas of what to look for?

[Phil Tyler]

In the end I bought a second hand TC4100 on eBay from Germany and took the systemboard out of it!