Proliant DL380 G5 Freezes at boot

[mfhawa]

I have a year old Proliant DL380 G5 with the following spec:

dual Intel Xeon E5335 Quad-Core 2.00GHz
8GB on eight FB-DIMMs
SAS/SATA RAID Controller with 256MB


The server used to run just fine with Windows 2008 Server installed.

But now, when I boot the server, I get a blank screen. The cooling fans are running at full throttle, which means the power supply is working fine. It used to be the case that the fans slow down after a very short period of time and the Proliant logo shows up on the screen. Now, the fans keep running (never slowing down) and nothing shows up on screen (blank screen).

Any hints on what is wrong or how can I diagnose the problem will be gratetly appreciated, as I am still new to the Proliant world.

Thanks.

[Andrew Rutter]

hi,

does your model have the pull out display panel on the front of the server near the power switch.

this may have one of the leds lit amber or red to help fault find

Andy

[mfhawa]

Thanks Andy for your reply.

The server has the "display panel on the front of the server". However, there are no leds lit amber or red (fans, memory, proc, PPM, power supply, etc LEDs are all OFF).

Also the internal health, external health and power supply LEDs are all green, which is puzzling.

I also connected to the server using iLO2. iLO2 works fine, and does not report any hardware errors. However, it reports that the server is in stand-by mode even though the fans are running.

I tried resetting the NVRAM using switch 6, but that did not work either.

I've been searching the forum for a similar problem. This issue of freezing seems to occur from time to time on HP Proliant servers of the same model and other models. However, there is no consistent answer. Some have replaced the fans assembly altogether, some have replaced the riser cage, and some have replaced the system board for the server to work. Some have abandoned the server altogether since they could not locate the problem. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of extra parts to start a trial/error hunt for the problem.

So, any hints would be appreciated.

[Andrew Rutter]

hi,

without parts this is going to be abit difficult to fully diagnose

however, a good start would be to try and reseat everything, and even reduce the system down to just one power supply to start with.

then one cpu and base memory, if it works slowly build it back up again.

Also you could try and just hold the power button in for more than the normal power on press, hold it in for about 5-10 seconds

Andy

[Sayed Hassan Naqawi]

I have the same problem. What to do???

[mfhawa]

My problem was resolved. I'll keep this note in case someone else has a similar problem.

When Icontacted HP customer care by email, they had me run a group of tests. This includes:

> 1. Clear NVRAM.
> 2. Bring the server to base configuration with only one processor and one pair of memory module installed.
> 3. Swapping the Processor and PPM.
> 4. Remove all the Memory Modules and observe the beep sequence.

The one I found most useful is the last one. What I have seen is:

a. LEDs on keyboard flash
b. Fans run at full throttle
c. NO beep sounds at all

This indicated to the HP customer support that the motherboard has failed, which was the issue in my case. They sent me a replacement motherboard since the server was under warranty.

HP customer care were very helpful (A+), but the new motherboard took a while to reach me. I guess shipping and customs took more than I expected. Other than that, the server is now back online, thank God.

[uchytilian]

the issue i ran into was the system was stuck on the BIOS level. it was asking me to press F9, F11, F12 or hit any key for the ROM messages. once i hit the space bar it started to proceed and display the messages. they were regarding my attached storage device. i continued through and the OS started up OK