Hard drive diagnostic for PC Server 330

[RachelD]

Does anyone know if there is a hard drive diagnostic utility for the IBM PC Server 330 8640-PM0? I have tried running the standard diagnostic program (the one you get by pressing F1 at startup) and the ServeRAID diagnostic (the one you get by pressing Ctrl-I) at startup. Neither of these shows errors.

The problem is that upon rebooting this server, we heard some clicking, and then got a screen showing a graphic indicating the machine needed a boot disk.

We managed to reboot the machine successfully, but want to try & figure out what's going on before it dies for good.

Any help is appreciated

Rachel

 

[CitrixEngineer]

It sounds like the hard disk has died or is dying.

Have you tried this utility?

http://www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/welcome.htm

You say you get a clicking sound? Is it fairly obviously from the disk?

When you say "We managed to reboot the machine successfully", do you mean from the hard disk (eventually) or from a floppy?

My approach would be to boot the machine, back up the hard disk, then replace it.

If it's a production server, there's no point running with a potentially dodgy disk, in my opinion.

I hope this is useful

 

[RoKy]

How can i upgrade my SCSI AIC-7880P onboard controler in my IBM PC SERVER 330
version is 1.25 witch cannot recognize discs larger than 8GB

 

[CitrixEngineer]

You should be able to simply plug in a new card to the PCI bus, and disable the on-board in its own BIOS.

Hope this helps

 

[Jarden]

There has been a PC Server 330 sitting at work for the last 2 years *not working* <<sigh>>. It's warranty ran out (this is before I began working here).

When I try and boot it, it says something about a &quot;pointing error&quot;. Any ideas? It has 1 IBM SCSI drive in it.

Thanks in advance,
Rich.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Could you post the exact error, and I'll see what IBM come up with.

Regards

CE

 

[mrmike66]

At work we have an IBM PC Server 330. But its diskspace is nearing its full capacity. We were planning to add two more hard disks to the server and expand the logical drive so we can get more space..
Currently there are 3 drives and a hot spare using RAID 5. The os is novell 4.5.

Can this be done? And how?

 

[Guest_imported]

how can i activate the dualprocessor feature on the ibm pcserver 330? only led 2 is on for the processor status. what operating system shall i use to maximize the proformance of my server?

 

[CitrixEngineer]

The &quot;pointing error&quot; named above is a problem accessing the mouse. If the BIOS is configured to detect the mouse on the serial port instead of the PS/2 port, you will get this error. You will also get it if there is a problem with the mouse.

In reply to activating the dual processor feature, you need a VRM (possibly 2, although I think the PCServer 330 only needs one). There should be a jumper description legend inside the case, if any jumpers need to be moved.

Note: Before purchasing a VRM (they're fairly difficult to come by), check that the server doesn't already have one!

I would recommend using any flavour of Linux, although I've had particular luck with Debian on my PCServer 310. Solaris for Intel also runs very well on dual P200+ machines.

Windows 2000 would be OK, if the server has at least 256Mb, preferably the full 512Mb RAM. NT4 is quicker on these older machines.

I hope this helps.

 

[MicHviid]

CitrixEngineer; Do you mean that although there are slots for two vrms on the Ibm pcserver 330 you only need one in order to run dual?

Thank you for any info in advance

Mic Hviid

 

[CitrixEngineer]

If there are two VRM slots, you'll need two VRMs. I assumed (wrongly, in retrospect) that the PC Server 330 was similar to other IBM servers of that vintage that I've worked on. Most of them have only had one VRM slot, which is actually quite unusual, because each processor requires access to a VRM - most modern dual motherboards require two.

I've seen VRMs on eBay for £10 ($16), and computer surplus sites for $20.

Hope this is helpful. CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk