HP Netserver 5-133 LS Boot Errors

[Kyle Lee]

I do not know about these servers. With that said, Upon starting up, it detects the keyboard and mouse and then displays this message:

Hard Disk 1, Channel 1 Not Responding...

(There is only 1 drive installed. It is a HP 9 Gig. It is brand new and has never been formatted.)

Also, the server fails on the floppy drive detection. What do I need to do to move forward? I have my Windows NT Server CD loaded, but the server does not boot from it.

Thanks.
Kyle

[Keven Tipping_3]

Hello!
What you are describing is that the Hard Drive on Channel 1, HD 1 (the FIRST one in the cabnet, it says 1 above the drive caddy) is ether damaged, not inserted or dead. It just means that the drive cannot be detected properly. Try pulling the drive out, and reinserting it. Might be dust.

If not, it could be the RAID controller. You are probobly using the default Mylex DAC960; you will need the HPDA configuration utility to initialize the array (this is most likely the case, if it has never been formatted). The HPDA util is available from HP here on the site somewhere. I would personally suggest getting a older Netraid (AMI Megaraid) 3 Channel Ultra SCSI Controller for the RAID. I snagged one for $15 off Ebay, and it has integrated BIOS setup, etc. Runs Win2K Server absolutly fine! (My machine is a 5/100 LS2 Dual Pentium100).

As for the floppy. Your floppy cable is ether not seated or again, damaged. It might also be the drive, but not likely. Check the cable.

I've had some problems with these machines before, of the LS Series (I believe they all use the same motherboards). In my personal opinion, I found a Revision 2 Motherboard which solved alot of my glitches. I came from a Revision 1 motherboard. You might want to check that out- in the case, there is a *small* green-like label on the motherboard by the CPU slots. See if its Rev1 or Rev2.

I suppose if you can't use your floppy, you have a problem. These Netservers are VERY picky about the boot CD's. I just disabled my Boot CD capability, it rarely works. Only OS's like 98 and such boot. Just use a Boot Disk if you can get the drive to work.

Make sure your ready to commit to these machines. I spilled around 30 hours and $300 into my machine to get it running. Works like a charm, but they are a pain to fix should anything go wrong.

[Kyle Lee]

Thanks for replying...after reading you diagnosis, here is what happened:

I pulled the hard drive out and ensured that the connection was good and not obstructed by dust/debris. The HD does spin up.

I am not sure about the RAID controller that you spoke of, but I will do a search on eBay for one.

The floppy drive was dead, I replaced it. It seems to be working properly.

I checked the Motherboard and it is a Rev.2

Also, upon removing the cover, I found the HP NetServer Diagnostic Assistant disk. It says that I can insert in, start the system and the disk will take over, but that does not happen. Here is the readout that I get when I boot:

Keyboard and Mouse: detected
Floppy-Drive A: detected

HPDA Control bios 1.29H

HPDA Controller Firmware Version 2.39 (HP Mylex)

Local Drive Installation ABORT

Adaptec AIC-7870 BIOS version 1.2SB

Int 13h Device Not Found

SCSI Bios Not Installed

Insert Bootable Media in appropriate drive.

Thanks for any help that you can provide.

Kyle

[paul matejcek]

I see those floppy drives fail often, dust,,,,did you install the new HD or was it in there when you got this used machine? There are jumper connectors on the HD to set for scsi drive address number "0" and other spin up delays and such, make sure those are set right. i don;t know why you need any specail raid array control with only one HD. Did you go to the HP site and make the latest BIOS and ECU bootable diskettes and use them?