Hi,

I picked up a used EX485 that supposedly had a failed system drive, but when I used an old good 1TB drive that I had and boot it I don't get any health indicator light or drive light. The network light does work (and so does the power light).

Am I out of luck or what could cause the health indicator light not to work (I can't recall when the drive lights come on)?

Scott

what os are you using?
If you are not using the default os whsv1 then the led's don't have a driver for them.

_________________
EX-490
WHS v1
VGA/PS2 Keyboard/PS2 Mouse/Serial debug board
Q9450s CPU
Stock Ram
ESATA Sansdigital Towerraid TR5M-B
Popcorn C-200
Popcorn A-200
Dune HD Connect
Rasberry PI OSMC(KODI)
ReadyNAS RN316
Amazon FireStick
Amazon ECHO
AnyDvD
MyMovies

This is a new system drive and to do a system recovery, you are supposed to hit the recessed status/recovery switch as the server boots and the health indicator status light flashes between white and red.

My health indicator light isn't lighting at all which it should during the boot process. I am installing WHS v1.

Scott

You are correct. Since this is a used unit you may need to open it up and make sure all the wires are connected.
Possibly the prior owner took it apart to clean out the dust and did not plug all the cables in properly.
For just the health led it is a small philips screw in the front. on the lower cover panel.
While you have it apart I would double check that the fans are working.

Just a guess, hopefully the led is not bad.

The drive leds will not light until you have installed a os, then they will pulse until you install the connector on the first pc

_________________
EX-490
WHS v1
VGA/PS2 Keyboard/PS2 Mouse/Serial debug board
Q9450s CPU
Stock Ram
ESATA Sansdigital Towerraid TR5M-B
Popcorn C-200
Popcorn A-200
Dune HD Connect
Rasberry PI OSMC(KODI)
ReadyNAS RN316
Amazon FireStick
Amazon ECHO
AnyDvD
MyMovies

Thanks Ruben.

I'll check it out although looking at the videos on taking one apart, it looks like it's a single connector so you would think the network and power lights would be out also. I can see both fans are working from the top view.

Thanks for confirming that the drive lights don't come on until there is an OS installed.

Related to the taking it apart, the top cover doesn't seem to clip into anything. Do you have a picture on what's under the top cover? There's a metal plate with a rectangular hole that the top cover "clip" goes down into but I just don't see anything for it to slide under.

Scott

Hmm or now that I look at it maybe the plastic cover is supposed to be fastened to the metal plate in some fashion? If so can you tell me how? I see a number of plastic nibs (4 down each side and another 5 down the middle), but not sure how those would have held the 2 together unless they were melted over. Only A few go above the level of the metal plate and the rest appear to be broken flush with the metal surface.

Scott

Well took it apart and didn't find anything obvious wrong internally. I checked the power supply and all the voltages measured good (it had been replaced with an Overtek one already).

I noticed that if I disconnect the power cord, reconnect it and then hit the power that the health status indicator light's very briefly before the power and network lights come on.

Is there anything else that can cause this to not light or any other way to troubleshoot it?

Scott

The cable that connects to the health led look to see that all the pins are present ,not bent or broken off and aligned.
Other than that I don't have a answer.
If it was taken apart before the top cover would be easier to pop off.
By removing the drives and pushing up on the notch hole at the front center and sliding the top cover off at the same time.
The top cover has a tab that pushes down in that hole.
The first time it is done it is very hard to push in.
If the unit was taken apart before. Then I can only guess that possibly the backplane may be damaged.
You need to be very careful when you unplug it.
The damage is very hard to see but usually it is a component on the board that the pins broke off.

_________________
EX-490
WHS v1
VGA/PS2 Keyboard/PS2 Mouse/Serial debug board
Q9450s CPU
Stock Ram
ESATA Sansdigital Towerraid TR5M-B
Popcorn C-200
Popcorn A-200
Dune HD Connect
Rasberry PI OSMC(KODI)
ReadyNAS RN316
Amazon FireStick
Amazon ECHO
AnyDvD
MyMovies

Thanks for the replies. I'm considering purchasing (or making) a video cable so I can see what's happening during the boot process.

Scott

I made my debug VGA cable. I work for *copier company and in our strip/salvage area we had a plethora of machines I pulled a cable connector off of and found one with the right pins and size. Had to sacrifice a VGA cable but was SO worth it. That would at least show you if it is actually booting up or not. On that note, if you cant get the WHS boot to work, installing and running server 2k8 or 2012 is easy to install esp. if you have the VGA cable. I'm running a 485 with server 2012, and a 475 with 2k8


edit: IIRC, i followed this thread for my VGA cable. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=622 i then looked up the standard VGA pinout to find the corresponding pins..



-Justin

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EX470- Server 2008,4GB,2.5TB-Virtualbox Server,Web Host backups
EX485- Server 2008,4GB,4.5TB-Media/Document host, Backups
Buffalo Linkstation II-4TB-Offsite Shadow Backups
PPC Mac Mini-Debian-1GB,80GB-Web/Email/DB
Intel Mac Mini-Debian- 4GB,500GB-Sandbox