HP DL 380 won't boot - No POST

[david carvalho]

Hello.

After a long power failure the day before yesterday, an old but reliable (so far)  DL 380 G4 won't boot or show any POST information. After turning it on, the server starts testing each of the 6 SCSI disks  and lights  the activity led (arrow). After that, it turns both Activity and Online Status leds on the 4 disks that belong to the configured RAID 5 volume. The other 2 are one spare and one unconfigured. 

I've disconnected all RAM getting a audible and extended beep but sill no POST, tested all the memory banks with no errors, even disconnected the RAID controller memory. Nothing worked and I also didn't see any red or amber led in the motherboard. I left the server with the power chords unplugged for almost 24H but without any improvement.

Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks and regards.

Dave

[KK]

Hello David,

It seems that the server went to No Boot No POST after the power failure.

As the HDDs are getting LED status and when the Memory DIMMs are removed, you are able to get the audible beeps it means the system board is receiving power.

On the system board, make sure that the PPM (Processor Power Module) is showing green LED. If it is two processor server, remove second processor and PPM and check if the system comes up. Or try swapping the PPM and/or processor from second slot to first slot.

Make sure that at least one DIMM is installed when powering on the server, without DIMM, the server will not give any display.

Let us know if there is any amber or red indication on internal health LED.

Regards,

Kishor

[david carvalho]

Thank you so much for the reply. Unfortunately, even after almost 2 days with the power chords off, the server didn't boot. By the way, can not see any switches to clear NVRAM as I read in some other posts.

I followed your suggestions without any result. Done all combinations with PPM/processor but I get the same result. No amber alights execpt a one in the smartarray memory module, left of a green led. Getting desperate here...

I attached some pictures of my server.

Thanks

[david carvalho]

more attachs

[Jimmy Vance]

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@david carvalho wrote:

Hello.

After a long power failure the day before yesterday, an old but reliable (so far)  DL 380 G4 won't boot or show any POST information. After turning it on, the server starts testing each of the 6 SCSI disks  and lights  the activity led (arrow). After that, it turns both Activity and Online Status leds on the 4 disks that belong to the configured RAID 5 volume. The other 2 are one spare and one unconfigured. 

I've disconnected all RAM getting a audible and extended beep but sill no POST, tested all the memory banks with no errors, even disconnected the RAID controller memory. Nothing worked and I also didn't see any red or amber led in the motherboard. I left the server with the power chords unplugged for almost 24H but without any improvement.

Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks and regards.

Dave

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Sounds like the server is powering up. Are you sure the monitor is functional? Try a known good monitor on the system

[david carvalho]

Thanks for the  reply. The monitor is working fine. Like I wrote, both Activity Status and Online Status are on on the configured Disk Array. It stays like that for ...half an hour? After that I either rebooted or turned it off.

would it be possible for Raid reconstruction to take place even even before POST. Does that make any sense?

[Jimmy Vance]

RAID rebuilding wouldn't prevent the system from showing POST.  it is possible that maybe the video has failed. Have you tried accessing the iLO to view the iLO log and/ or the IML?  Have you tried accessing the system via the network?

[david carvalho]

Thanks again for the reply. iLO is unconfigured but no network access. So I'm sure it is not booting.

You confirmed my thoughts about the RAID,  it should start anyway.

No amber lights, but could it be the board?

[david carvalho]

Hi.

Cleared NVRAM and removed system battery. Still the same.

The following 2 pictures were extracted from a video. They are flashing alternately when the server is off,. The third picture shows the leds of the confugured array, always lit. 

[david carvalho]

When I boot the server, the board lights these leds and the PCI raiser.

[david carvalho]

Also, if I disconnect one or both PPMs The server doesn't test the disks.

it flashes the CDROM drive led once (long) and another one (short) over and over again.

So the strange thing is that some tests are being made, namely memory, scsi, PPMs, etc, but I have to video and the server hangs with the disk leds as shown in picture 3,

Is it dead?

[KK]

Hi David,

It seems there is some issue with system board which is failing to provide display. If you have any active contract for the server with HPE, please raise a support case with us and we will help to get the server up and working.

Regards,

KK

[david carvalho]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately we have no support contract. I'll do some more tests, but I think I have to declare it KIA :)

I'll post an update if anything new comes up.

[david carvalho]

Hi.

I've followed the procedure to clear NVRAM again but sill no progress. Even with the disks removed the server won't POST. 

The strange thing is that the server doesn't show any error both on the board and the front panel.

Any ideas?