Proliant 6400R Random Rebbots during OS Install

[Robert_382]

Greetings,
I recently aquired a Proliant 6400R and am having trouble getting an OS to install. I have tried many things including removing most of the RAM and updating the firmware. I believe I have done all of the Firmware upgrades on this system that are available and have been using SmartStart 5.5 to do the RAID configuration and initial setup.

The problem that I am having is that when I attempt to install an OS the server will reboot itself about half way through the process. Below I have detailed the various ways I have attempted to install the OS's

I have tried to eliminate as much hardware from the picture as possible up to and including removing the RAID controller.

OS install attempts:
Mandrake 10.1 from CD reboots while trying to install packages from first disk. Almost completes disk 1.

Mandrake 10.1 from network reboots while attempting to download packages from remote server.

Suse 9.1 from CD reboots while trying to partition the drives

Windows 2000 reboots while trying to save settings at end of install

RedHat 7 will not read disk (Dont know if this is an issue with my disk or the CD drive in the system)

So this is where I stand. Everything seems to work except getting an actual OS on the thing. Any help would be appreciated!

[CA1228435]

Have you tried using the switch ide=nodma ?

For example:

Below is a modified section of the grub.conf file for Red Hat Linux 7.2:


title Red Hat Linux (2.4.7-10smp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.7-10smp ide=nodma ro root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p2
initrd /initrd-2.4.7-10smp.img


Below is a modified section of the lilo.conf file for Red Hat Linux 7.2 (run LILO after modifying this file):


image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.2-2smp
label=linux
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.2-2smp.img
read-only
root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p5
append="ide=nodma"

[Patrick Bushe]

Reboots during an OS install is almost always caused by either bad hardware, or non-natively supported hardware.

I'd suggest that you run memtest86+ to confirm that your RAM is fine, and then proceed to check your HDs.

If you have got the server second hand, then the first step must be to verify the hardware.

IIRC, there is a 'ultimate boot cd' which contains all the software you need to check the hardware.

I'll just dig out the link... ubcd.sourceforge.net

cheers

[Oleg Koroz]

As Patrick says check your HDD run ChkDsk, run diagnostic from smart start CD, try with differed h drives

[Robert_382]

Thanks for the link. I will try this out asap. I believe I have it narrowed down to one of the 4 xeon processors overheating or the motherboard. I just need to hunt down a terminator for the processors and try it out with only one. That should tell me if that is the issue. Other than that only the motherboard is left. I hope it isnt that or I might be into some money getting a replacement.
Thanks for all the help and any other suggestions are welcomed!