ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)
1745814 Members
4355 Online
108722 Solutions
New Discussion

Tip: Why our ProLiant ML310 wouldn't boot...

 
Andy Bender
Advisor

Tip: Why our ProLiant ML310 wouldn't boot...

Avoid wailing and knashing of teeth. Passing on a tip. I had recently replaced the ATA cable to the CD-ROM reader in an infrequently used ML310 (2 GHz P4, 1 GB, 80 GB mirrored) that we're gonna implement as a workgroup database server. The CD-ROM cable did not have keyed sockets, and was installed reversed at the motherboard because the IDE CD-ROM plug at the motherboard is reversed. Looking closely, it appears that the CD-ROM cable plug is reversed to prevent twisting the data cable.

Before correctly reinstalling the CD-ROM data cable, the ML310 wouldn't boot; no POST. All system health LEDs were green, so we were baffled. Reading a few posts here about resocketing everything as a debugging technique for similar behavior gave us a diagnostic clue. All devices were removed (including the CPU, which we resocketed), and the ML310 was powered on. POST worked correctly, so we knew that the m/b was OK. Selectively adding cables until POST failure isolated the CD-ROM cable.

So carefully connect sockets to plugs. If you do it incorrectly, there's no indication by the POST of what's wrong, as POST won't run.

Hope this helps.
1 REPLY 1
Andy Bender
Advisor

Re: Tip: Why our ProLiant ML310 wouldn't boot...

FYI.