HELP! server won't boot

[garwain]

For some unknown reason, my server, running redhat 7.2, crashed yesterday. I've been working at it for hours now, and have got no further than I was before.

When I try to boot into linux, it will stop loading when it displays the line
hda1 hda2 > hda5 hda6

I have tried every backup kernel on the system and have gotten nowhere.

My boot disk doesn't help one bit.

I just tried the "linux rescue" option from the install cd, and that will give me a blue screen, then hang and the CDROM will power down.

Any ideas are appreciated.

Thanks
Ben

 

[marsd]

Sounds ugly..
Try to break it down a little is my advice.

If you made any recent hardware changes,
undo them.

Funny problems occur when you are getting funky power. I've had some quite mysterious problems disappear after changing outlets, cords, UPS's .etc..

Check your bios setup and see if your settings are still as you set them. A bad cmos battery could play havoc with a bios and a kernel and hardware that depend on certain settings.

Usually when you have an abrupt incident like this it's hardware. If nothing else
you could start piecing out the box and
trying the components in another machine
if possible. I usually kept around an old beater for this and a voltmeter so I could test components.

Good Luck

 

[pupu]

I agree. I would suspect memory. Try

http://www.memtest86.com/,

or change your RAM chips with tested ones.

 

[garwain]

Thanks for the suggestions. memory was fine, but I found out real problem when the secondary CPU went up in smoke, killing the mainboard in the process.

 

[marsd]

Oh..
Well that's a shame. Lost a fan and OH , or bad voltage,
or just a defective cpu? Not a personal machine I hope,
Two processor boards are expensive.
Best of luck.