BIOS upgrade for netserver 5/133 question

[jessamyn]

I have an old netserver 5/133 LC that came to me in a non-functioning state [used to be running redhat 6.2 but the master boot record seems to be corrupted -- it gets halfway through the LILO process, leaving me with only LI] but used to be running fine.

The boot sequence contains this error message

EISA Config NVRam Bad -- Run Configuration Utility

as well as a warning that there is a drive larger than 1 GB with incorrect partitioning.

So, I went to upgrade the BIOS, formatted and created a BIOS disk [from here: http://www.hp.com/cgi-bin/cposupport/swindex.pl?p=hpnetserve5436&l=en&c=BIOS ] and tried to boot it up. The system ran through its checks, and then gave me a "starting MS_DOS..." message and then hung. Won't go futher.

I have been unable to access the BIOS [Phoenix] through any of the standard key commands [f1, f2, Ctrl-Alt-S, Ctrl-Alt-Ins, esc] and unable to even boot the machine into DOS from a standard DOS boot disk. I have been able to boot it from a BSD boot disk and various Linux boots disks and CDs but the install hangs when it tried to write to the hard drives - because of the weird partitioning - hence the BIOS upgrade.

So, my question is, is there a next step to getting this thing running? I am impartial to starter OS, since once I get one OS running I can get Linux on it eventually. However, I would love to get something running on it.

[harry d brown jr]

You will probably need your HP navigator cd. have you tried to reinstall RH6.2??

live free or die
harry

[jessamyn]

thanks. next question then... my netserver did not come with a navigator CD, and from checking the archives, it doesn't seem like there is a current one for the 5/133 LC.

http://netserver.hp.com/support/compatibility/nav_cd/prTo99srvs.asp

will a different navigator CD work? or do I have to find someone's old copy?

[Helen French]

Hi,

Normally the supported systems will be written on top of the Navigator CD.

Check this out for more information about Nav CDs:

http://netserver.hp.com/support/compatibility/nav_cd/navigator.asp

HTH,
Shiju

[Marco Hogeveen]

What you need is the EISA configuration utility.
You can download it from http://www.hp.com/cposupport/servers/software/lcecu.exe.html .
It will create a bootable diskette that will allow you to configure the server and get rid of the error message.
If booting from floppy doesn't work, try clearing CMOS first.

Marco

[jessamyn]

I can't boot from either the BIOS disk or the ECU disk. In both cases, it runs through the setup, displays the BIOS settings, says "Starting MS-DOS..." and then hangs and no longer tries to access my floppy drive.

I do not have a navigator CD. When I went to the link you provided, I did not see any CDs that seemed to cover my model [netserver 5/133 LC], even when checking the archives. Is there another place to look for legacy software other than the navigator CD area?

[James_59]

Try stripping it down (remove all PCI/EISA cards, excess RAM) and clearing CMOS again. then try booting to floppy.

Once that is done (if it works) then add components back until you get a hang when booting to the ECU. (you have to boot to the ECU after any hardware change)

If it will not boot to floppy or hangs in a stripped down state after clearing CMOS, it is broken. Try any combo of 2 SIMMS that match to ensure the RAM is not the culprit. Otherwise you may need a processor or system baord. Eliminate a bad floppy drive or floppy disk before going too far...