Netfinity 5100 Wont boot windows

[Pseudospace]

I have a netfinity 5100 I got from work. It's a daul 933 with 1.5GB ram and 2 36GB HD's. I ran serveguide and reset up the system. Installed Server 2003 and everything was up and running fine. I updated the bios and firmware on the ServeRaid card, updated the driver from the ASM. As far as windows goes everything was fine. I have shut it down to and came back the next day to finsih setting the system up. When I booted the server it wouldn't load Windows. The system posts but no windows splash screen. I removed and reinserted all cards and connections but still nothing. So as a test I ran the serveguide again and setup the system. When I start the Windows installation It loads all the device drivers and gets to the Starting Windows prompt but no further. I never get the To install windows press enter, License aggreement or anything. I get no errors, and no lightpath warnings. It just sits at the starting windows screen. Any Idea on what's wrong or what to check.

 

[newBPhoneGuy]

when yui updated the bios/firmware and the device drivers in windows did you make sure they matched

 

[Pseudospace]

Once I updated the bios and firmware the system never again booted into windows. I have tried re-installing and still can't get windows to install. During the windows installation it hangs after loading all the device drivers. I never get the press enter to install Windows or the press F8 to agree to the license agreement.

 

[newBPhoneGuy]

ok what i would try is booting the ServeRAID manager CD not the one you updated with but the last one that actually worked and once the program loads there will be a window that says its looking for updates or something like that when you see this window there will be a icon with like a little IC chip and a lightning bolt on it press and hold alt ant right click the icon the follow the steps and force the update to the older bios/driver then try to install windows again....

also what do you see durring post does it see the drives and the scsi card.

 

[Pseudospace]

Yes during post the system see's allthe drives and the ServeRaid controler. When I run the ServerGuide CD It see's the controler and all the drives. I can set up my raid and everything looks good. Everything seems fine until windows trys to install. As i mentioned I get to the point in the installation that it says Starting windows. Which is right after the CD loads the device drivers, and it never goes any further. Tried your suggestion of rolling back to the old bios and firmware. Still get the same results.

 

[newBPhoneGuy]

possibly a bad windows disk have you tried another copy also it is possiple the 2003 doesnt support the config you have i would try 2000 server

 

[Pseudospace]

Yes I have tried different server 2003 CD's. Prior to the serverraid update I did have 2003 loaded and running. I've also tried 2000 server and a new raid controller. each time I get the same results.

 

[newBPhoneGuy]

turn the server on and press f or what ever it is for the diagnostics utility and run the test on youre server and see if that can help

 

[paulw]

My guess would be a mis-match between the serverguide and your bios levels.

You don't have to use server guide to load the system, normally it just makes things easy.

Create your arrays, then load the serverraid driver during the OS install.

I have seen this exact problem on an x366 using serverguide and 64bit windows 2003