ML530 wont start after being powered of for some months

[albr]

Hi.

I have a ML530. It's been switched off for some months. I tried to switch it on last night, but it won't boot. It starts (all fans going), but the monitor doesn't initialise. The light on the cdrom drive blinks a couple of times repeatidly.

I've noticed that there are two orange leds lit next to the processors on the motherboard.

I've reseated everything and checked all cables, but it wont start.

Can anybody recommend what I should do next?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

Al.

 

[phillid2]

You can try putting in a known, good processor to eliminate both of them being bad, although, I doubt both have failed at the same time.

 

[TheLad]

You could reseat everything to get rid of any dust that might be present - good items to reseat are processors. memory & PCI cards.

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"Insert funny comment in here!"
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[tf1]

I take it htat there are no bleeps from the motherboard? This sounds quite serious as the motherboard will normally beep - even if it is to give error codes before shutting off. So it seems it is not starting POST.

It may be the processors have failed - but this seems an unlikely scenario as I cannot think why they would fail when the equipment is powered off.

My guess would be that the CMOS battery died very soon after the server was last powered down (was it ever changed in the course of its life?) and this has resulted in the BIOS EPROM losing its data. That's serious doodoos and would probably mean a new motherboard. I guess the ML530 is well out of warranty?




Regards: tf1

 

[albr]

Ok, here's the strange think. I took another look at it.

I removed the smartarray 3200 card, then powered it back on. This time it worked.

Powered it back off, re-inserted the card, and all is well!


I recon the cmos battery is long dead, but hey, it works!

Thanks for your thoughts.

Al.