Netfinity 5100 Won't Boot

[jstark3]

The VRM and LED4 were lit the book said replace the system board. I did. When I turned the machine one I got a System 164 error on boot. The boot process locked. I removed the power supplies and replaced them. Then turned on the server and the system booted up to the 164 error and hung.

I tried unplugging the power supplies again, but this time the machine turns on and stops then turn on then stops and the VRM and LED4 come on.

What do I try now?

 

[rclarke250]

There is a possability that when the original vrm went it took out the cpu, I have seen this before on the 5100.

 

[jstark3]

Is there any way to check this without being abel to boot the machine?

 

[rclarke250]

if you have a dual proc system remove the first cpu, it will boot from just the second proc, as long as you have the bridge card installed, If you only have the one cpu, swap the cpu and bridge card,and install a vrm in the second cpu vrm slot. and boot, if it boots, cpu is ok,and the board is bad,where did you get the replacement board? If it still fails then the cpu is bad,and could have damaged the new board.

 

[jstark3]

Before this all started the server crashed and VRM light and LD$ light were on. I unplugged the power and and then plugged in again and got the server to work. A few days later is quit again I went through the same process and got it up and running. Then the same thing with VRM and LED4 lit. The book says probably replace the System board. When I went to do that yesterday, the server was running fine.

Could there be problems with the power supplies? - There are no lights on the panel lit. I'm at a loss of what to do.

 

[rclarke250]

possible, how good is the ac in? and check connections from the power distribution board to the the system board, and devices.

 

[nlsandro]

I have the exact same thing happening to me. SO I bought a used server on ebay. I'm having a problem with this machine. I move my PCI cards and hard drives over to the ebay machine and I get the 184 error that the power-on password is invalid and the keyboard dosen't work, and I get the configuration has changed error. So I moved the CPU to the second slot on the original machine and I'm getting the same error message.

I took out the CMOS battery and flipped switch 8 as described in the manual but nothing works. Does anyone know what in the world is going on and how to get around this?

I'm new to this site, now sure of protocol, any help would greatly appreciated.

 

[ibmtech65]

A 164 error indicates a memory issue. Your first memory dimm should be in slot J23.

If you have an older sysbrd and a single cpu machine you will need to move the cpu to slot 2, move the terminator to slot 1 and install a plugable VRM into the slot next to cpu 1. The vrm fru# is 36L8901.