ML310 booting hangs at Ethernet Boot Agent

[Sarah McMurray]

Having reluctantly decided to re-build our WinServer2003, we successfully installed a bare-bones WinServer03 environment (no Server Roles created) and booted OK. We then used Add/Remove Programs to add Application Services - IIS, simply by ticking the IIS box and accepting the default components. We then tested that COM+ was working by using the COM+ snap-in (this had been the original problem we were trying to fix). All looked great, so without rebooting, we installed the key application dependent on COM+ that started all the fuss (WinScribe Server Components), then rebooted.
We now boot just fine past the Redundant ROM Detected, and the IDE RAID information, but hang completely at "Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Boot Agent v2.2.7 copyright 2000-2002 Broadcom Corporation All Rights Reserved". This occurs with or without network cable plugged in. Have not yet tried removing the network card.

This message precedes the opportunity to press F9 to change the boot order.

So the server sits doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING: please HELP!!!

[Marino Meloni_1]

I'm not exactly sure about the message upi get last (lan boot agent), but usualy when the boot from floppy, cdrom and hdd fails, the last try is the lan boot agent, the server try to boot form the lan. If this is your case (just put a bootable floppy inside to be sure), you may have a problem with your raid controller or with your logical disk.
If the problem is different and you get the message related to the lan when the server is checking the netxtreme Ethernet card, then you are true, try to remove the card and see if server boot. if yes, try a cmos reset to free up resources that may be reserved in the bios tables

[Sarah McMurray]

Thanks to Marino for your reply - but it turns out that I knew the solution all along, and it is pretty weird in its own right. The CMOS boot order is to boot from hard drive first. We sometimes attach a non-bootable (data only) USB hard drive to this server - if you boot the server while the USB hard drive is connected, the boot hangs.

This behaviour does not arise when the USB drive is attached to WinXP or Win2K workstations.

If anyone can explain this I will be interested purely out of curiousity, but of course we are preventing the problem from now on, simply by NOT attaching this device directly to the server.