PL1600R - El Torito Hard Stop

[Andrew Stafford-Brown]

After BIOS checks SCSI CDROM drive detects bootable SmartStart CD but returns a message
Retry El Torito
Retry El Torito
Hard Stop.

How can I rectify this error so I can boot from Smartstart CD and Erase System Utility.

[Tom Mucha_1]

El Torito is a bootable cdrom standard. Chances are the CD itself, or the even the drive may be bad.

If you need the system erase utility, you can get it here: http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/16251.html

[Andrew Stafford-Brown]

Tom

Thankyou for replying, very much appreciated. The CD-ROM drive is fine when W2K o/s is loaded. I can read various types of CD's and if present, the Autorun facility works fine. Why does this error occur just prior to W2K loading. Have tried another Version of Smartstart (5.4) instead of 5.3 and just the same. Will try bootable W2K CD to see what happens. Could this have anything to do with the system utility files which Smartstart creates when setting up the server.

[Tom Mucha_1]

Ok, I thought this was happening during smartstart itself. Is the System Partition installed?

[Terry Hutchings]

Is this the cdrom drive which came with the machine? If so, then this should be an IDE cdrom drive.

If it's able to boot off other bootable cds then I would say it's likely there's something wrong with the Smart Start CD.

[Pedro Emiliano]

Be sure if cdrom isn't scratch or damaged.

Once i had that problem, and de cdrom was dirty.

[Jens Baumann_2]

Yep, the server recognizes the CD as bootable (thus the "El Torito" message), but he cannot boot from it. So it's either the CD itself (scratched? dirty? Try a different CD or try copying it onto a CD-R to boot from, CD writers have a better error correction than standard CD drives, so it should be able to read it) or the CD drive in the server is defective (laser lens dirty or mechanics). If you cannot boot from a different CD, try replacing the CD drive.

[Frank Kaufman]

We had a similar problem with a ProLiant 530. Most CD-s would boot, some would not. Replacing the CD ROM with another IDENTICAL Compaq drive (32x) did not make any difference. Replacing it with a Compaq 40X drive fixed the problem.

[Andrew Stafford-Brown]

I have replaced the drive with an IDE and can boot directly from a W2K bootable CD, but still cannot fully boot from the SmartStart CD either 5.3 or 5.4 versions. I have only used the 5.4 version once. When the Smartstart CD in the IDE drive it boots specific DOS drivers and then when it attempts to load the SmartStart software I now get a Spawn Error - unable to find path or file win.com error 13. Help!!!!

[Terry Hutchings]

How much memory is installed and is it all supported memory? These type of Smart Start errors are usually caused by incompatible memory. The server may run fine with this memory, but Smart Start may produce errors.

[Andrew Stafford-Brown]

POST details show 392Mb. From what I can gather, it is all supported Compaq memory (will check). Never had this problem in the past using SmartStart, only just recently. This server is a test server and constantly being tried and tested for new IT people in the dept. so they understand Smartstart and configuring arrays.

[Michael Saurman]

I just had this issue today, I cleared the NVRAM via the systemboard switch and my issue was resolved. I know this is late and your server was probably thrown out the window by now but its here for future references.

[Corey Laymon]

Had the same Swap Error Code 13 and after reading this board, reset jumper S6 on the Perifpheral board and everything is working great. Thanks for the help!

[Dean Malandris_1]

I know the original post was over 2 years ago, but as someone else said, I'll add something now for the record. I just picked up a Proliant 7000 and decided to fire it up even though it didn't come with any hard drives, just to play with SCU and perhaps set the messages on the LCD while I was waiting for the hard drives to arrive later in the week. Much to mu surprise, I too, got the "Retry El Torito" error message. Now I knew the CD was good, because I used it last week to build a firewall out of a 1200, so I reasoned it was having a brain fart because there were no hard drives in the machine.

So I pulled a drive at random from the 1200, plugged it into the top bay of the 7000, and lo and behold it fired up and ran SmartStart normally.

[Andrew Stafford-Brown]

This server was systematically butchered for spare parts and the case went out the window. Thankyou for all your support and have taken onboard all your comments. Never had this issue with any other HP/Compaq server in the LAB.

[Andrew Stafford-Brown]

Manhy Thanks everybody

[Archilles Castillo]

I know this is an old post but I just want to bring to your attention that clearing the NVRAM (did twice) didn't work for me - at least on the ProLiant 1600 server that we have. Took one CD-ROM drive from ML370 (Gen1), plug it on PL1600 and the SmartStart 5.50 booted like a dream.

We are basically a Compaq/hp shop but I don't like the fact that only Compaq CD-ROMs will work on their machines. That's how I see it!

Regards, Archie