It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 5:56 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]

Recent News:



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 5:26 pm 
Offline
.5TB storage
.5TB storage

Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:36 pm
Posts: 10
Thanks: 1
Thanked: 2 times in 2 posts
I was in the process of upgrading my X510 in preparation for putting it in service and now it won't boot. Hopefully, I don’t have a really expensive door-stop.

I bought two sets of new Intel Q9550S CPU's and new GSkill 4GB (F2-6400CL5S-4GBPQ) RAM modules for both my MediaSmarts. I started with the X510 since it was my spare. All went well installing both the RAM and CPU in the CPU the X510 and I was in the process of "burning-in" the Arctic Silver 5 for a few days before I finished loading things on the new server. I had cloned the original 1GB drive onto a new 2GB Seagate Enterprise SATA Drive to make reverting back to a clean install easier when I was finished with the HW upgrades. I was operating with no network connection using the VOV Console Board with a PS/2 keyboard, PS/2 Mouse and VGA connection to interact with the X510. Windows 2003 was booting but the WHS console wouldn’t start (presumably because I didn’t have a network connection) and I had been able to load CPUID's CPU-Z and HealthMonitor, SpeedFan and IntelBurn Test to verify it was seeing the new CPU and RAM and allow me to raise the CPU temps and monitor things.

All was going so well and I decided to replace the CR2032 battery since it is 4+ years old so I tore it apart one more time to swap the battery. After reassembly, the unit would starts up as soon as the power cord is connected and pressing the power button (including holding it for 10+ seconds) had no effect. Other symptom include no VGA outputplus Power LED displays a constant Aqua and Health LED displays a constant white (presumably Red and Aqua LEDs are both on) until power is disconnected. Both case fans appear to be running at about 50% so I suspect there is something coming out the PWM outputs or the output would be zero or 100% but haven’t put a scope on it to see for sure. When first plugged in, the LEDs for Drives 0 & 1 flash Aqua for 1 – 2 seconds and the LEDs for Drives 2 & 3 flash Red for 1-2 seconds. Drive 1 is installed but never spins up.

To make sure it wasn’t just a failure of the new CPU or RAM, I reinstalled the original E5200 CPU and 2GB HP RAM and get the same symptoms. I haven’t checked the power supply without the CPU board attached but I did probe enough pins to verify that I do have +3.3, +5 and +12 getting to the CPU board.

Any suggestions from the group as to what I might try next?

Thanks.

_________________
EX495 w/ Q9550s + 4GB RAM + VOV Debug Board: 2.5TB
X510 w/ Q9550s + 4GB RAM + VOV Debug Board: Work In Progress


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  

Attention Guest: Remove this ad by Registering with the MediaSmartServer.net Forums. It's Free!
PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2014 3:22 pm 
Offline
.5TB storage
.5TB storage

Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:36 pm
Posts: 10
Thanks: 1
Thanked: 2 times in 2 posts
I did a bit more troubleshooting -

Checked power supply disconnected from CPU. With Pin 1 jumpered to Pin 2, all supplies checked within specs. +12V was only 11.86V with CPU disconnected but was 11.97V with only CPU Connected and 12.06V back in case with drives and fans. Confirms something I had seen before with my EX495 - the +12V tends to run a little low until there is some load on the power supply.

I pretty well convinced that it must be a problem with the CPU board so I ordered a replacement motherboard. Hopefully, that fixes it. Only thing I can figure is that I must have flexed the board too much when I was installing the KVM cable for the VOV board. I may see if I can figure out some way to better support those areas of the board subject to flexing when I install the new MB.

After this exercise, I think I need to have a spare MSS or at least a spare motherboard and power supply if I'm going to put this 2nd MSS in service.

_________________
EX495 w/ Q9550s + 4GB RAM + VOV Debug Board: 2.5TB
X510 w/ Q9550s + 4GB RAM + VOV Debug Board: Work In Progress


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 7:51 pm 
Offline
.5TB storage
.5TB storage

Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:36 pm
Posts: 10
Thanks: 1
Thanked: 2 times in 2 posts
Replacement motherboard seems to have fixed it. Not a cheap solution but at least it is fixed. :) :) :)

_________________
EX495 w/ Q9550s + 4GB RAM + VOV Debug Board: 2.5TB
X510 w/ Q9550s + 4GB RAM + VOV Debug Board: Work In Progress


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 9:45 pm 
Offline
Top Contributor
Top Contributor
User avatar

Joined: Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:04 pm
Posts: 678
Location: Montreal
Thanks: 28
Thanked: 77 times in 72 posts
I believe there is an option in the BIOS for the server that can be set for when there is a power failure. Always On, Always Off, Last State. I expect that when you changed the battery, that must have been set to Always on. Since you have a VGA cable you cab give that a check.

_________________
HP MediaSmart EX495 E8600 3.2Ghz CPU, 4GB ram, 8TB storage including 3TB drives in pool. WHS with Active Directory, WDS, Media Center Master, Logitech server. Office 2010 server with client add-ins.
Microsoft MVP - Windows Home Server.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
The following user would like to thank Diehard for this post
James_T_White
PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 11:10 pm 
Offline
.5TB storage
.5TB storage

Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:36 pm
Posts: 10
Thanks: 1
Thanked: 2 times in 2 posts
Thanks for the suggestion Diehard. Unfortunately, no video was displayed with the old motherboard and it didn't seem to respond to the reset button or keyboard but your reply does suggest something I hadn't tried.

I wonder if rebooting with the battery removed would cause it to reload default BIOS parameters and maybe produce a clean start-up? Probably worth a try before I trash the old MB.

_________________
EX495 w/ Q9550s + 4GB RAM + VOV Debug Board: 2.5TB
X510 w/ Q9550s + 4GB RAM + VOV Debug Board: Work In Progress


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:46 am 
Offline
Max Contributor
Max Contributor
User avatar

Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 12:49 pm
Posts: 2226
Location: Casper Wyoming
Thanks: 81
Thanked: 256 times in 251 posts
Glad to hear you were able to get a new board, I have upgraded 2 of my 4 x510's with no problems, but I'm old and go way back on working on PC's.
But you got me thinking, I am running 2 x510's now, one is the main server and the other wakes up on sat just long enough to syntoy from the main on the shares for a backup.
I plan on running these server as long as I can.
What has me thinking, is when/if I need to replace a bios battery, is it going to change setting and give me trouble. If it does, that would be a nice little surprise left over from HP.
I do have the video if I need to access the bios, but I am wondering if I should go into one of my spares and screen capture all the bios setting for use later.
:-k
Goodluck with your upgrades, I hear those CPU's will be running a little warmer even thought they are low power. Some set the fans to run full all the time.
P.S. You should still be able to open the console on the server even without a nic connection (if you had video) so something was not right there.

_________________
[X510 CPU/RAM/All 2 TB Red's] [X510 CPU/Sync'ed Backup/All 2 TB Hitachi's]
[X510 /2 in box]
[X710 LIAN LI DIY W2016E] Stablebit Drivepool [EX-503 LIAN LI 5-bay USB3 External]
:twisted: Fear the Cloud :twisted:


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 12:23 pm 
Offline
Top Contributor
Top Contributor
User avatar

Joined: Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:04 pm
Posts: 678
Location: Montreal
Thanks: 28
Thanked: 77 times in 72 posts
Gardian wrote:
Glad to hear you were able to get a new board, I have upgraded 2 of my 4 x510's with no problems, but I'm old and go way back on working on PC's.
But you got me thinking, I am running 2 x510's now, one is the main server and the other wakes up on sat just long enough to syntoy from the main on the shares for a backup.
I plan on running these server as long as I can.
What has me thinking, is when/if I need to replace a bios battery, is it going to change setting and give me trouble. If it does, that would be a nice little surprise left over from HP.
I do have the video if I need to access the bios, but I am wondering if I should go into one of my spares and screen capture all the bios setting for use later.
:-k
Goodluck with your upgrades, I hear those CPU's will be running a little warmer even thought they are low power. Some set the fans to run full all the time.
P.S. You should still be able to open the console on the server even without a nic connection (if you had video) so something was not right there.


It might me a good option to backup the BIOS settings. Then create a bootable USB that will restore those settings if you have server issues. It would be cleaner and faster.

_________________
HP MediaSmart EX495 E8600 3.2Ghz CPU, 4GB ram, 8TB storage including 3TB drives in pool. WHS with Active Directory, WDS, Media Center Master, Logitech server. Office 2010 server with client add-ins.
Microsoft MVP - Windows Home Server.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 9:13 am 
Offline
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:15 am
Posts: 4
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Hi there,

this is really a coincidence as I wanted to open up this topic myself!
Exactly the same problem happend to me when I upgraded my 2nd X510 (but only at the second step -> read along)!

I opened up the housing, pulled the sata backplane carefully, pulled out the Mobo/powersupply and all I did was replacing the RAM wit a 4GB module and installing a VGA cable.
After that - still outside the case - I plugged in the power cable connected a display pushed the power button -> the system wouldn`t boot up, just a short flicker of light on the power LED.
So I realized that i fried my power supply :evil:

O.K. so I used the power supply from my other unit and hurray the power supply started up, but I got this solid white Health LED like described and still no signal to the VGA Display.
Just to be sure that the 2nd VGA cable was o.k. I changed it with the 1st one on my working server -> it ist o.k, but neither one of the VGA cables showed a signal on my Display on the "white light" server :twisted: :twisted:

I changed the CMOS battery (first pulled it out, waited for 2h without power cord to the power supply etc.), I changed the CPU (all the CPUs get warm), I changed the RAM, but even WITHOUT Ram the problem with the white ligt remains! So I really think, the mainbord (or the BIOS) is defect, but without booting up it is not possible to flash the bios.

Any other suggestions from your side? Is there a company which sells spare mainboards?

Greetings from Germay :cheers:
calculon1001


Last edited by calculon1001 on Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 3:08 pm 
Offline
Moderator
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:10 pm
Posts: 5157
Location: Georgia, USA
Thanks: 86
Thanked: 704 times in 682 posts
No one is out selling replacement motherboards accept those who are parting out their systems and HP never really sold spare parts for any MSS Model not even the PSU's. For the most part you will need to look on sites like eBay to find what your looking for. What I recall is you will need a copy of the BIOS placed on a flash drive. Connect the flash drive and keyboard into the server turn it on and this is the part I do not remember and that is what keys to press and when to force the BIOS to be loaded.

If you search the web you will find procedures for how to reload the BIOS in to your server but look for EX490 and EX495 as they have the same motherboard that is in the X510. The only differences is how they were packaged and marketed.

Good Luck with your search and hopefully you will be able to reload the BIOS and resolve your issue. I wish I could be more helpful here but I think you have enough info to get you going.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 9:34 am 
Offline
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:15 am
Posts: 4
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Hi Comp1962,

thanks for your reply!
I found the info regarding the BIOS reload, but I am not very confident as it seems that I have to hold down the recovery button and the the lights should start to change flashing from aqua to white.
When I press the reset button the health LED colors don`t change at all!

But nevertheless I will try it out - probably at the weekend - and will let you know if there is any change!

Regards,
Markus


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 9:55 pm 
Offline
.5TB storage
.5TB storage

Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:36 pm
Posts: 10
Thanks: 1
Thanked: 2 times in 2 posts
Hi calculon1001,

I got my replacement motherboard from impactcomputers.com. Here is the web page for the532837-ZH1 I bought - http://www.impactcomputers.com/532837-zh1.html. Website currently says "Ships within 3-5 days" so you may want to call before ordering to confirm availability.

Mine came in a static sealed bag with a cover over the empty CPU socket and a 90 day warranty, so I suspect that it was a refurbished board and not a simple "part-out" of a Junked EX490/EX495/X510.

Good luck and let us know if you have any success with your current MB.

_________________
EX495 w/ Q9550s + 4GB RAM + VOV Debug Board: 2.5TB
X510 w/ Q9550s + 4GB RAM + VOV Debug Board: Work In Progress


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group