Proliant DL380 G2 hangs after network driver upgrade

[Apu]

We have a DL380 G2, currently running Windows 2000 Server (trying to get ready to do an in-place upgrade to Windows 2003 Server), that now hangs on any attempt to boot.

The recent changes were installing HP NC31xx Fast Ethernet NIC Driver for Windows 2000 (8.0.21.0 B) and HP Network Configuration Utility for Windows 2000 (8.37.0.0). (Was running 5.?? versions of each - needed to upgrade for Windows 2003 Server.)

On a regular boot, you get to the graphical boot progress screen -- the upper bar continues to scroll but the lower bar stops at 13 blocks filled in.

Trying safe mode, the white-on-black progress screen gets to the point where the white progress bar is complete before it hangs.

Last Known Good Configuration or VGA mode gets to the same point as a regular boot before it hangs.

(Dual 1.266 GHz processors, 4 GB RAM, SmartArray 5i has no drives connected, SmartArray 5300 has six physical drives and two logical drives, P24 BIOS dated 8/17/2002)

Any thoughts on how to get this system up and running?

[Apologies if this is a duplicate post. I posted it about half an hour ago from another computer and then came here to watch the forums for any responses but the original post disappeared.]

[Connery]

Hi Apu,
It seems that you are suspecting the NIC or the NCU (Network Configuration Utility) as the culprit.

I do not know of any NIC of NCU bugs with the current driver that would cause this behavior. However, if you want to prevent the NIC and NCU drivers from loading, simply remove any PCI NICs you have installed and disable the onboard NC3163s via the BIOS. With no hardware installed/enabled, the drivers won't load. At least you should be able to get back into the OS if the problem is directly associated with the NIC/NCU drivers.

Let us know the outcome. If there is a problem with the driver, we need to know about it.

Best regards,
-sean

[Apu]

Thanks, Sean. Tried that but it didn't make a difference.

At the same time I posted here, I opened a case with HP via the website. 6:00 AM Eastern on a Saturday. Got a call back about 45 minutes later which was pretty good. The tech basically had me pull most of the stuff out of the system, update the BIOS and finally swap the drives into another DL380 we have -- the problem remained in every case. Its definitely an OS issue; what during the driver/network config utility install caused it is still unknown.

I also got an e-mail from another HP tech support rep who advised to replace HAL.DLL, NTKRNLPA.EXE & NTOSKRNL.EXE in \WINNT\System32 with the copies in \WINNT\Driver Cache\I386\DRIVER.CAB. He also advised to tried replacing the registry files in \WINNT\System32\Config with the versions in \WINNT\Repair

The above gets a working system. In my own further testing, with the replaced DLL and EXE files, but original registry, I get the system to hang after all 18 blocks of the progress bar are filled in (vs. the 13 blocks originally). And, if I replace the SYSTEM registry file with the \WINNT\Repair version but leave the rest, I can get the system up and running (network cards are still disabled in the BIOS) except, of course, the configured services don't run properly.

So... any idea how I can edit the "SYSTEM" registry file and what I can add/change/delete from it so the system will boot with it in place? Again, the goal is to upgrade to Windows 2003 Server so even if I can't get the network working under 2000, its not critical if I can do the upgrade and then install the new drivers again under 2K3.

[Apu]

We installed the upgrade to Windows 2003 Server and are reinstalling the services that were disabled due to the registry corruption.

[Apu]

We installed the upgrade to Windows 2003 Server and are reinstalling the services that were disabled due to the registry corruption