HP ProLiant ML350 G6 won't power on

[MichaelR91]

I have two HP ProLiant ML350 G6 servers and recently had to shut one down for maintenance. After the maintenance was completed, it was rebooted. Result = Nada, nothing, no lights, no fans, no sounds, no flickers, absolutely nothing.

Suspecting the PSU's, I swaped them out from the active-running server (one at a time to ensure the good server remained up. All PSU's work and are operable in the good server. When the PSU's were removed from the servers and connected to a power cord, the fans on all of them would spin for a few seconds, but no lights would blind on.

Next, I completely disassembled the problem server to inspect the different hardware components. Nothing was visibly wrong, damaged, or appeared to have failed. No outward signs of failure were observed.

Next, I started to re-assemble the failed unit, and only connected the minimum components needed to see if there were a failed part. All fans were left disconnected, the hard drives not connected (SAS and SATA), the CD disk was not connected, only one stick of memory for each of the two cpu's were inserted. I tried different power supplies via different trial methods to insert/power them up.

Result = again nada. no sounds, no lights, no nothing.

I suspect the power supply backplane may be fault but want to confirm this others. The only other possibility in my opinion would be a complete MOBO failure, but I've never encounterd such a situation.

There have been no known power spikes, no lightening strikes. The systems are housed in the basement that is kept at room temperature with adequate air flow.

Anyone have ideas, suggestions, or other insight as to what my problem could be?

Thanks in advance, any help would be appreciated.

[Torsten. · Accepted solution]

Very often the power supply backplane is the problem.