Windows protection errors everywhere - Newbie Help!

[joshnerl]

I got a Proliant 3000 server from a friend. It's been in a closet for the last year or so and I wanted to see if I could resurrect it as a linux fileserver. Here's what I know about the box: SA32000 controller, 2x500mhz, 512mb ram, 8x9gb drives. At some point it was running either W2K server or W2k. From the first time I turned it on, it started up fine and went through it's check routines. Then it started to get weird. I would get to the "F1 or F10" only if I unplugged one of the power supplies. If they are both plugged in, it goes straight to trying to boot. When it tries to boot, I get an error "While initializing IOS: Windows protection error. Please restart your server." I've run the system erase utility and downloaded the SCU to basically rebuild the box. The erase utility from floppy seemed to work, but then when I tried to run the SCU, I get through the first logo screen and get the "press f10 to run quick config utility" in the upper right. If I press f10, i get into the utility, but get prompted to choose an OS and since Linux isn't there, I select "other". It goes through the motions and tells me to restart. On the restart, I get the windows protection error. Now if I don't press f10 at the quick config prompt, it tries to keep booting from the CD and goes through a second logo screen and get the same Windows protection error. I've tried flipping switch 6 and starting up the box, but it didn't seem like it did anything. It looked like it wanted to go through the same routine. When I powered it back off/on, I had the same reaction as before where it eventually hit the error.

Long winded, but my question is - what am I missing? I'm not familiar with these machines, but looking through forums like this, I'm guessing that some part of the Windows install is still there and since I've erased everything from the drives, it's flipping out. I've read that I need to get into the full, manual config utility part of the SCU to run the array config utility and select the Linux OS. Any help would be appreciated. Let me know what other info I can provide to be more helpful.

[tripper91]

Visit this link below:

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/family/model/1112.html?lang=en&cc=us

this will help you find software and drivers for the server.

The link below will direct you to Smartstart 5.50. Download the software and boot using it on cd

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/22678.html

Good Luck

(remember to add points to help for future searches)

[joshnerl]

The SCU that I referenced was Smartstart 5.50. I can't get the machine to really boot from it. Also, I'm not planning on using a full-blown Linux distribution, I want to use something like FreeNAS or unRAID. Any more takers on suggestions?

When I tried to use switch 6 to clear the NVRAM, should it still go through the system checks? The one guide I saw said to start it up with the switch on, wait for the beep and shut it back down. Then put the switch back off and start back up - sound right?

[joshnerl]

The technical fix here was to turn the box on it's side (it's a rack mount server so the CD is vertical) and everything worked great.

Don't know why it worked, but it did.

Thanks for everyone's help.