Won't boot

[Ayman Altounji]

I have a 5500 with 1 GB RAM, 4 500MHz Xeon processors, 3200 Array Controller running Windows 2000. We had to shut it down for a power outage & it now won't come back up. The LCD panel has the firmware revision but when it's powered up the LCD goes blank. Fans come on & I see the array controller light up like it wants to come up but nothing else happens. No beeps, nothing. I've reseated EVERYTHING & even replaced the array controller, LCD Panel & Peripheral board but with the same results. Any ideas?

[Mark Cloutier]

When you reseat the meory board, use the palm of your hand in the center of the memory board and give it a good push. I have seen this happen in the past.
When you take the panel off look for a section called "system board interloc LED's." Have a look to see which lights are on. This could tell you the point of failure.

[Ayman Altounji]

I have the same syntoms, We had to reboot it, and it won't started up. LCD Panel display the firmware revision and model, but anythig else, Any ideas?

[Mark Cloutier]

Did the interlocs reveal anything??
Try an emergency ROM flash. This is where you turn all the Maintanence switches on and then bootup with a bootable ROMflash floppy.SP18320. IF you still have problems, please give me you phone number or e-mail address.

[Ayman Altounji]

My phone number is +52 81294123
my e-mail address is hvillarreal@xcien.com

[Ayman Altounji]

Interlocks don't show anything
Does ROM Flash a clearNVRAM?

[Ayman Altounji]

It has been my experience that clearing the NVRAM will not help a machine in this situation. It is useful when putting a machine back to factory specs. Try removing some of the memory. The memory on this box is done in banks - meaning you will have to have the same speed, size and type of memory in slots 1-4. 5-8 and so on. Make sure you have ALL Compaq Branded Memory - I have seen Kingston memory give the exact same symptoms. Without seeing the machine it makes it a little harder to figure out what is wrong. If there was an interlock error you shouldn't get any fan spin - shouldn't being the keyword. Also, if you have the processor terminator boards I would bring it down to one proc. Remove ALL boards i.e. NICs, Array controller, Remote Insight, etc. The other thing to check is where the power plugs into the system board and the power backplane. I believe the LCD will go blank for a short period of time before it finally does POST.

[Ayman Altounji]

I've tried it all. Removed all boards, swapped memory, removed some memory then swapped the memory board with a new board and new memory. That didn't work. Removed processors one by one while using terminator boards & then got others from another box but that didn't fix the problem. Got a different drive cage & tried it but that didn't fix the problem. Checked power plugs and repeated everything again but nothing fixed the problem. Even changed the array controller but that didn't work either. I'm now convinced it's the system board unless someone has a different idea. Clearing NV RAM didn't help either.

[Ayman Altounji]

Checked power plugs and reseated everything again but nothing fixed the problem.