Proliant DL380 G2 Server Will Not Reboot

[Jason Hindson]

Hello,

I have two DL380 G2 servers running Windows 2000 Server. One of the servers will not reboot. The server requires a complete power cycle, in order to 'reboot' the system.

The System ROM is current, 2004.05.01. The other server will reboot correctly without a problem. Any ideas? This is quite annoying for remote support situations, plus iLoe is not being used either.

[Terry Hutchings]

What does the machine do instead of rebooting? Just sit there or sits at a black screen or is it something else?

[Jason Hindson]

When rebooting from Windows the system will go through the normal reboot process of saving windows settings, shutting down windows, then it will go to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner. After the black screen, nothing else appears on the screen, and the system does not reboot.

[Oleg Koroz]

something got corrupted at boot Process: MBR, table, boot or file system

[Jason Hindson]

Is there anything we can do to resolve this issue? It sounds like the only fix is going to be deleting the partitions and rebuilding the server from scratch.

[Oleg Koroz]

from HW side try to run
http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/22722.html Firmware CD

[Terry Hutchings]

I would say this likely has nothing to do with the MBR or corrupt files and has more to do with Windows not unloading something correctly. A blinking cursor on a black screen during bootup can be caused by these things, but is unlikely on restart or shutdown.

I would recommend taking a look at this MS KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q266169/

The first thing I would try is to see if the same thing happens when you restart or shutdown from Safe Mode.

[Troy Blewitt]

Has this problem always existed, or is it new? If new, what changes have been made recently?

The Adaptec CD Burning plugin (part of Media Player 7.1) has been seen to cause this issue. Uninstall if it exists. Or disable your CD/DVD drive from Device Manager.

Otherwise, this problem can also be caused by hardware, such as a faulty system board or RILOE board. Try removing the RILOE and see if that makes a difference.

Is it possible to switch the drives between the two servers? This will help isolate whether it's a hardware or software problem.

[Troy Blewitt · Accepted solution]

Here's some more possibilities

Issue #1: IBM Tivoli RC driver installed.

Fix #1: Disable the Tivoli remote control service. Another solution is to change driver from primary to secondary (default video driver is primary).



Issue #2: Veritas vsp.sys driver installed or referenced in registry.

Fix #2: Delete or rename driver, including references in 2000 registry.



Issue #3: Media Player 7x installed.

Fix #3: Add/Remove Software from Control Panel; remove the Adaptec Plug-in. Reference:



Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 306942: Monitor Screen is Black or Computer Does Not Go into Standby After Windows Media Player 7 Installation



Issue #4: 2000 physical disk performance counters are enabled

Fix #4: By default Windows 2000 has physical disk performance enabled in the Performance console. To disable, use this command line utility:



diskperf -n (to view the current status, type DISKPERF)



Issue #5: Problem does not occur in Safe mode.

Fix #5: Reference this Microsoft document:



Q266169: Troubleshoot Problems with Standby, Hibernate, and Shutting Down

[Jason Hindson]

We do not have Adaptec CD buring plugin installed. We have the default media player 6.4 installation that comes with Windows 2000. We do not have IBM Tivoli products so this should not be an issue.

We do have a RILOE card in the system although it is not being used. It is integrated into the system board I believe so I can't remove the thing.

The Veritas file vsp.sys is installed and in the registry. We use Backup Exec to backup this server. If I rename this file, will it break our Backup Exec installation?

Physical disk counters are loaded also. I will look into removing these on the test server first and then roll the change to production.

During our next reboot of the server, I will attempt the restart from Safe Mode to find out if we have a problem there.

Thanks for your responses, I will keep everyone updated.

Jason