Urgent - Strange Server Problem

[Nave911]

Hardware: Dell Poweredge 1500SC, P3 1.4Ghz, 1GB RAM, 4-36.5GB SCSI HDD in RAID 5 config.

Software: Windows 2000 Server SP4, Norton Antivirus Corporate 9.0, Eaglesoft (Sybase based dental software), ARCserve 2000, APC Powerchute.

Symptoms: Sever is up and responding to user requests. Eaglesoft Database server is running and responding normally. DNS, DHCP, TCP/IP all appear to be functioning normally. However... Norton Antirvirus auto protect will not enable, Control Panel won't open, I can't get to network connections, Internet Explorer will open but never opens a page... it just sits there with the flag waving away. Event viewer shows no problems at all. Certain services such as the installer service will not start... after about a minute of attempting to start a message is returend saying that the service did not respond in a timely manner. I can't change the startup options for services either. Without the installer service I can't install new software the relies on it.

My initial reaction is that this is a virus problem. It is as if strategic portions of Windows 2000 server have been disabled. However, this server has been running Norton Antivirus Corporate edtion 9.0 for almost a year. The virus defenitions are up to date, and I can do a scan of the local drives that comes up clean.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or possibly someone else who has seen something like this, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Nave911

 

[technome]

Just tell you have APC software below ver 7.0

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[MichaelCullen]

Hi

I changed the IP on our server and it has now developed the same problem

we have the same software win2k, AV and APC

Help

it's driving me nuts!!!!!!

 

[zigcoors]

As the man says its the APC powerchute software - if its any version 6 - then the Powerchute sevice hangs and wont start - stopping you starting other services. Un-install it reboot. Then download V 7 from APC, in extreme cases the server will not boot period. APC have a KB Article on how to deal with this their website.

Ian

 

[mickeyess]

We have a Dell Poweredge 400SC with the exact same symptoms! The problem started about a month ago and I have not been able to find the culprit.

The only recent change is the addition of a real time backup app from Iomega to a USB 2.0 drive.


Dell Poweredge 400SC
1GB RAM
2 x 120MB Raid 1
Windows 2000 Server SP4 (all updates applied)
Norton AV Ver 8



Mickeyess

 

[porkchopexpress]

Can't find the Powerchute KB but here is the one from IBM, it's worth looking into.

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=psg1MIGR-60054

 

[Nave911]

UPDATE:

Thanks to those that posted on this thread. Due to sketchy english I didn't understand what technome was getting at, but zigcoors is dead on with this one. If you open services, you will notice the both services related to running Powerchute Business Edition 6.x.x (PBE) are not started, but instead are hung up and say starting. The solution is indeed to boot into safe mode, uninstall PBE and reboot. You now have a normally functioning server. I then downloaded PBE 7.0.4 from APC, and after the install, all is still well.

Thanks again!

 

[tcwinont]

Nave911:

Check out this thread

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1116700&page=1

and this knowledge base (KB)

http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_e...dp.php?ISOCountryCode=us&p_faqid=7202&p_olh=1

Had this exact same problem crop on me about the July 27 day it mentions here. It drove me crazy for months and I finally gave in and I did a new install on my server system, reinstalled my software including the APC version 6 software and voila; back to hanging services again. I hadn't had a chance to uninstall the old APC software but I'm sure it's that's what's causing my problem. It would've been niced to have known this before I spent most of the last weekend working on my server. Hope this helps!

Tcwinont

 

[Nave911]

The Saga Continues...

It appears that the expiration of the Java runtime certificate that is causing the problem in APC Powerchute 6.x.x is causing problems with other software. A friend of mine who is on a 10 member team that supports 700 servers was having an issue related to Novell DirXML 1.1a/Lotus Notes. I was telling her about all the fun I was having with APC, and she had the insight to check and see if her problem might be related to the java certificate. She found this TID from Novell that ended up being the solution to her problem.

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/searchtid.cgi?10098323.htm

I wonder where else this java runtime problem might show up...

Nave

 

[edrock200]

Microsoft finally published an article on this annoying problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;905716