Smart Start Not Loading:

[James W. Elmore]

Trying to boot to a Smart Start 5.30 cd on a ML370 G1. Smart Start gets past the splash screen and the screens says (Loading Smart Start. Please wait.). Then the screen goes blank for a second then say's (Loading Smart Start. Please wait.). It does this over and over. I have tried Smart Start Versions 4.60, 4.90, 5.10, and 5.30, all of these produce the same same results. I have also tried removing all of the memory and replacing it with 1 stick of Genuine Compaq 128 meg memory. I have also tried a different CD Rom drive. All to no avail. It also appears that the Smart Start loader is not able to write to the installed hard drives even though they are recognized by the bios during the boot sequence.

Thanks in advance for your help,
James Elmore

[Sunil Jerath]

Hello James,
I have seen this before. Just make sure that you have the basic configuration. That being said please remove any third party hardware if you have any. Assuming you are starting from scratch please run system erase and thereafter you will be prompted to reboot. Do not reboot just shut down the system shuffle the HDDs around and then reboot. You should not have any problems after this.

Regards,

P.S: While you are at it please update the system bios as well as the firmware of Array controller if you have any.

[James W. Elmore]

Is there a way to run system erase without SmartStart? SmartStart is the only way I have ever ran the system erase utility and since SmartStart will not load I am at a loss as to what to do.

Thanks again for your help
James Elmore

[Stephen Grimmer]

Yes you can download floppy based smart erase from here...

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/20_1119.html

[Sunil Jerath]

Hello James,
Here is the link to download the diskette based System Erase:

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/17918.html

Regards,

[James W. Elmore]

Well I have downloaded the System erase utility, and now I get a error message (An unrecoverable Error occured while running SS. Error Code : 24 The system erase utility must be run to prepare the system to run SS againg. Press any key to start earse utility. And once I erase it at the last I get the messages as Your system has been intentionally locked up. Power cyling if necessary for all of the system changes to take effect.) This is happening over and over.
I have ran the update for the Bios and all of the firmware updates for the machine. There are no 3rd party parts in the machine, and the memory is still the original Compaq memory that came with the machine. I have used Smart Start on many occasions, but I have never had any trouble with it until now.
Please help a very frustrated systems admin.

Thanks,
James Elmore

[James W. Elmore]

Somebody, anybody, please help if you can.

Thanks,
James Elmore