Last night I noticed that my server was down, as I was about to walk over to it, the drive lights came on for about 5 seconds, then shut down again.  Then a few seconds the server started up again only to shut down 5 seconds later.  This kept happening over and over.  I finally shut down the server using the switch on the back of the ps.

 

I'm guessing my power supply may be dead or dying. Not sure.  I don't have any spares around so would have to buy a new one to figure it out.  My server has been running for about 5yrs non stop.  Would anything else cause this problem?

 

 

Last night I noticed that my server was down, as I was about to walk over to it, the drive lights came on for about 5 seconds, then shut down again.  Then a few seconds the server started up again only to shut down 5 seconds later.  This kept happening over and over.  I finally shut down the server using the switch on the back of the ps.

 

I'm guessing my power supply may be dead or dying. Not sure.  I don't have any spares around so would have to buy a new one to figure it out.  My server has been running for about 5yrs non stop.  Would anything else cause this problem?

We don't know, you did not supply a syslog to examine for clues.

 

Joe L.

Didn't even think to check those.  I was about to say "well system won't boot so how can I view them..." but then realized USB sticks...

 

I'll take a look tonight.  Thanks

I'm guessing my power supply may be dead or dying. Not sure.  I don't have any spares around so would have to buy a new one to figure it out.  My server has been running for about 5yrs non stop.  Would anything else cause this problem?

 

The power supply is a likely candidate - they do age more than many other components.  However, other reasons could be a faulty CPU, faulty memory, faulty USB stick, corrupt BIOS settings - there's a long list.  You really need to dig a bit deeper and tell us what's going on.

Is a syslog always created or do I have to do run some command?  If my system won't boot I can't run a command to create one...

Is a syslog always created or do I have to do run some command?  If my system won't boot I can't run a command to create one...

I apparently mis-understood your original description of what is happening to your server.

 

I thought you were just describing disks spinning up and than back down... not that the server itself was unable to boot up.

 

Your description could be a power supply, or, a single disk, or a fan that is not spinning up, and your BIOS shutting down the server to protect itself.  It could even be the CPU heatsink not being seated, and the resulting over-temperature causing the CPU to shut itself down.

 

I'd take a look at the fans first.

 

Joe L.

 

Well got home checked all the connections and everything is fine.  I haven't touched my server in quite some time so can't image something just came loose.  Powered up my server and it oddly enough it powered up no problem.  When the disks came online, they didn't even start a parity check which is odd since normally when it shuts down due to a power failure etc it automatically starts a parity check.  Parity is valid and no errors. 

 

I have no idea what to make of it.  Now that I think about it my place was very warm as the temps were about 27C outside.  I didn't have my a/c on so maybe my server got hot.  I've never had that problem before but then again I never had 10 drives in my server.  I guess I'll just have to monitor my server.

 

I wish I could put it to sleep and wake it up when needed which I did manage to do but never could get it to come back with a gb connection.  So close but so far away....

 

Crap!  Server was up and running for about 10min and then sure enough it went down again.  I only noticed because all my drive lights started flashing and then the power went off...then 5 seconds later came back on.  I guess I'll have to buy a power supply tomorrow and see if that's what's causing the problem.

 

I can't seem to power off the unit.  As soon as I flip the ps switch on the ps back on, the server starts up.  If I hit or hold the power button down, the power goes off but will then go on by itself. The only way to keep it powered off is to flip the switch on the ps.

 

I have no idea what to make of this.  Anyone else see something like this?

 

Managed to power it off.  Plugged in a monitor and rebooted.  Everything booted fine, no real errors that I could see.  I also unplugged half my drives.  It managed to get to the login at root, then 2min later went down. 

I can't seem to power off the unit.  As soon as I flip the ps switch on the ps back on, the server starts up.  If I hit or hold the power button down, the power goes off but will then go on by itself. The only way to keep it powered off is to flip the switch on the ps.

 

I have no idea what to make of this.  Anyone else see something like this?

 

Managed to power it off.  Plugged in a monitor and rebooted.  Everything booted fine, no real errors that I could see.  I also unplugged half my drives.  It managed to get to the login at root, then 2min later went down.

That sounds like you have an option in your bios turned on that will power up when power is restored.  I find I can do this and it works the way I want for SuperMicro boards but with my Tyan mother board I have to use Last State/Power Off or I have a hard time getting it to power off without using the power switch - like you describe.

Well replaced my ps with a Corsair 650W TX and everything is up and running no problems.  The 550W probably would have been more than enough but I wanted something rock solid.

Hmm didn't solve the problem.  I noticed that if I don't start the drives but have my server powered up, it's fine.  Once I start the array, it seems to have rebooted after about an hour.  Is there a way to disable my some drives and start the array and then go through the drives one after another?  Right now when I disable some drives I can't start the array.

Crap, looks like I'm going to have to replace the mb.  I can't get the system up long enough to check any of the drives.  However, I unplugged a bunch and still couldn't even boot up without crashing.  If I just buy new ram, if it's not the ram then buy a new cpu, turns out it's the mb...seems like I'm out more money than if I just go out and buy a new mb, cpu, ram.  I guess I'll have to shut it all down for 3 months as I'm going on a self drive safari thru Botswana and need my cash for second camera body.  Crap, crap, crap!

 

 

Looks like it turned out to be one of my memory modules.  I decided to run a memtest and I kept getting an error, then the pc would reboot.  After a little bit of testing found the bad one and removed it.  System seems to be up and running ok at the mo.  Right now I'm running on 512K DDR2.  Guess I'll have to buy a GB or maybe two which is way cheaper then a new mb, ram cpu.