New server update (bad news) (in General)

The colo place says they hooked up the machine and it won't boot, just sits there and beeps at them. No clues on the monitor (that is, no signal at all).

Worked fine before I shipped it, of course.

Probably what happens next is I have them ship it back to me so I can replace whatever is broken. (I imagine it's probably the motherboard, I can't think of anything else that would kill it so thoroughly.) I might try to make a claim on UPS insurance but from what I see online that is probably a waste of time.

Frustrating.

I always open computers after I receive them and before I turn them on, to check for loose parts. Most recently I discovered that a memory module for a server was not exactly in its socket...

We could always ban Popsicle Man and buy a new one ;)


j/k of course...

Bart "loose parts hey." oh look that ram is loose, yoink "mine." you'd take anything if it wasn't nailed down,

rofl, G. Good plan, bart. Jonathan, I (along with probably everyone else) am pretty sure that you're doing all you can. Thank you very much fr the effort, and no matter how long it takes, we'll still be here :)

This happens all the time with shipping servers around, and I'm surprised they don't know the issue. There's just a loose card in it -- nothing's broken. The most common thing is an AGP card, but I'm assuming that your server is without video. AGP slots were redesigned to include support for restraining clips due to the laxness of the slot itself.

At any rate, all they have to do is remove the cpu, ram, hard drive cables, etc, and replace them one at a time. Takes about 15 minutes to find a problem like that. The ATX standard dictates that if there's a shorted connection anywhere (such as from an improperly seated ram chip, ide cable, scsi connection, etc), no power shall be applied. The downside is that you will not get a beep code. The upside is that you won't fry any components.

Ah, I misread your message. If it *IS* beeping, then what's the beep code for the motherboard?

Weird. Just this morning I was thinking about the co-location deal and wondering how that all works with getting the machine set up, rebooting, etc. Now I know the colo guys are a bunch of moneys who only know how to reboot and re-ship. *smile*

Good luck, Jonathan, and thanks for all the work...

According to the manual, there are just two kinds of beeps

1 long and two short beeps - video configuration error
1 continuous long beep - no memory detected

The tech at the colo said "I hear a beep every second," which to me implies noncontinuous (hence, matching neither expected beep pattern), but he also concluded "you should have hardware troubles" so perhaps it is a continuous beep after all and he's just having trouble with English. I'll request clarification.

He confirmed that the beeping is non-continuous.

Sounds like re-seating the ram should do it.

Oh.. misread your message again. Which moterboard is it?

I always open computers after I receive them and before I turn them on, to check for loose parts.

Indeed. At a former employer, we took delivery of a way-too-expensive IBM 1U server, but couldn't get it to boot.

Funny how missing hard drives will do that to a machine.

We could always ban half of Freed and still get a new server. :-)

Did you have him try and re-seat the video card and check the cables inside? I know that the shipping could have possibly loosened cables in just the right way that the mobo is giving a certain error that has higher priority then a "video card is broken" error.

Does the mobo allow for multiple error messages to be relayed through the beeping? Maybe it is saying "video card error" and "power issue"? Is it possible that during shipping a piece of junk got into the PSU and maybe that is causing a more serious error code that is alerting the mobo and making it decide not to display anything?

That seems a damn shame for a mobo that worked fine to stop working after shipping it. I would either suspect cables/junk getting into something important (PSU comes to mind) or temperature issues. One thing also, in case you are using SATA HD's for anything in your machine, those stupid SATA cables are notorious for falling out, at least in all the machines I've seen.

"The new machine has 8GB of ram and 6 15k rpm SCSI disks, so I'm looking forward to it. :)"

i am trying having cables + ram reseated

there is no separate video card, no expansion cards at all...

No improvement after reseating.

I'm going to have them just ship it back to me. What a waste of time.

=( Sorry to hear about all these difficulties, Jon.

ten bucks says they ship you someone else's server =)

Five bucks says the guys working on the server are idiots, wanted to check out your setup when they got the server, didn't ground themselves, and shocked the hell out of the mobo.

They finally gave me a tracking number. According to FedEx it will be delivered tomorrow. Also according to FedEx my server weighs 15 lb. I sure hope they didn't screw up and ship me the wrong thing. Guess I'll find out tomorrow.

cant wait, getting major lag right now, =/

Also according to FedEx my server weighs 15 lb

Was the weight different when you sent it there or?

No, you aren't going to find a 2U server with 6 hdd weighing 15 lb. (That's about 7kg for you metric people.)

(More like 40-60 lbs, so 15 isn't even close.)

Wow this keeps on sounding worse and worse ! You will get it back and find its just someones lunch box the way this saga is headed.

And i hope the server gets here soon, cuz this lag im getting on the college uber connection is horrible.

FedEx updated the weight estimate to 53 lbs. That makes me feel a little better. :)

Obviously a few bricks in the box helped that out.

Or all the helium did escape ;)

Liquid Helium cooling? O.0


;-)

Great, they tried to deliver while my wife took the kids to the park.

Those pesky kids did it again !

You should see about insta upping your kids to age 24.

Not likely ten years from now he'll be wishing they were this age again !

Got the server. Tried a bunch of things and couldn't get anything but the beeping. I emailed the vendor to see if they have any ideas.