PL3000 dual PIII 550 not posting

[PLstudent]

I am trying to bring back to life a PL3000 (it is my first time to work on that kind of system). The system died (have no details about how it happened), the board seemed dead (no beep codes) although the LEDs light up normaly :
- by the bottom of the board, one amber when the power cord is plugged in the wall, one green when the system is turned on

- by each processor 1 red lit whenever the system is turned on, 1 green when a processor is present and system turned on
the integrated management display lights up whenever the server is plugged to the outlet and doesn't seem to react at all. Here is what appears on screen " COMPAQ LCD
Model # 56022
LCD FIRMWARE 1.9"
The screen stays blank, no beep codes, processors semm to stay cold all fans run normaly, all the LED in the HD bay are lit (took out HDs) .....
I am wondering if processors are dead or VRMs ? Tried pulling out 1 processor and VRM ..... but don't have a processor cache to fill the slot .....

Replaced motherboard, get the same thing but realized the new board is 008099-101, the old one was 008099-102

Any info is welcome ...

Thanks a lot !

 

[ntinlin]

On those servers dead VRM's are quite common.
Dead CPU's aren't. I would pick up a couple of VRM's from eBay.


Neill

 

[PLstudent]

Thanks a lot ...... Neill

 

[ntinlin]

Please let us know how you get on.

Neill

 

[PLstudent]

I will, still looking for a good deal ....

Thanks

 

[PLstudent]

Got new VRMs, quickly installed one, still doesn't work.... I will do more troubleshooting later (check dip switches ...)...
The new motherboard might need a bios update, don't have P2's for that matter ........

PL

 

[burtsbees]

Is this a customer of yours? Can you find out if any updates were done to the machine, including drivers? Do you have a Smart Start CD you can boot to, or does it give you the same symptoms?

Burt

 

[PLstudent]

The machine died, they bought a new one and did not want to bother fixing this one .... A fellow worker looked at it and thought the motherboard was dead, He let me have it.... I have replaced the motherboard with a similar one. My guess is that those motherboards were made for PIIs at first, they might need a bios update to work with PIIIs. I will try the new VRMs with the old mobo and see how it goes... I have disconnected everything form the motherboard to make it post first, so I don't know about drivers.... The thing turns on, the fans work, some LEDs llight up on the motherboard but no response from the video card, not a single beep even with no ram ... Just bought and old DL580 Quad PIII, installed SUSE Linux on it would love to have the PL3000 as a backup ...

I guess you understand that the CD cannot help in this situation ....

Thank you

PL

 

[burtsbees]

I get it. Good luck, then.

Burt