I'm having a major issue with my UnRAID server.  First, some details:

 

Version 5.0-rc8a

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R

syslog not available

 

Here's the story -- was watching a movie one night and my entire home theater shut down, as if from a power surge or outage.  After rebooting my HTPC and all other equipment, I had no connectivity to the UnRAID server. I tried to check the server but couldn't connect to it via any means.  I attached a monitor to the server and got nothing on the screen.  Further,  the USB stick light doesn't come on.  I can't access the server from the web GUI or from Windows Explorer.  Since the USB stick is not coming on, it looks as though the server is not booting up. It also doesn't sound like it's booting, though it does power up.

 

With the motherboard USB, video and LAN ports all not working, it seems as though I've had a catastrophic motherboard failure, possibly caused by a surge.  Am I missing something?  Is there any other explanation?  I have removed the USB stick and checked it on a PC, and it seems to be fine.

 

Thanks for your help.  I want to see if anyone has any ideas for repair or troubleshooting before I replace the motherboard.

 

Dave

 

With a keyboard & monitor attached to your server, can you get into the computer's BIOS?

Generally a determination of motherboard failure is made only after you have eliminated everything else, such as PSU failure, memory failure, system too hot, addon card failure, etc.

 

When you said you "got nothing on the screen", did you mean you never saw anything at all (BIOS version, copyright, system logo, anything), and that when turned on prior to the computer, it stays in standby mode when the computer is booting?

 

The next step is to try a different power supply.  PSU failure is somewhat more likely than motherboard failure.

also, make sure the outlet powering the server is still live... and the cord still plugged in...  (obvious, I know, but you'd be surprised at what happens in real life)

Thanks, guys.  To clarify, when I turn the server on, the internal fans all turn on, so some power is getting through.  There doesn't appear to be any activity on the USB stick, however, and nothing is displayed on the monitor.  There is no other activity other than the fans.  Usually there is some video which flips the monitor out of standby mode and then an image can be seen on the screen.  In this case, the monitor stays in standby mode.

 

I'll check all connections between the PSU and the motherboard.

I've made some progress.  I switched the two memory modules and I'm now able to boot to POST.  I have video output, the USB stick access light is on, and I can use the keyboard.

 

I went into the BIOS and made sure the primary boot device was USB-HDD, with USB-ZIP secondary.  The system boots through to "Verifying DMI pool table......." and hangs there.  So maybe the culprit is a bad memory module? The PSU seems to be just fine.

And the progress is undone...

 

Popped in two replacement sticks of memory and I'm right back to where I started -- fans and drives come on, but no video and no USB access.  I thought the replacement memory would do the trick.

 

If I go back to the original memory, it now won't boot with that either.  I've managed to undo any progress I'd made.

I would still want to try a PSU tester on that power supply, I don't think it's off the hook yet.  Try disconnecting the hard drives and all but one memory card, and see if you can reliably boot multiple times in a row.  Then start adding drives back, and the rest of the memory.

I would pull the psu out of the htpc, but only plug it into the MB for a start.  I had a machine brought into a computer shop were I worked years ago that had been hit but a surge.  Musta fried something in the cdrom cause we popped two cheapo psu's working it out!  On the subject, we had another two week old computer hit my a massive surge... one stick of ram was the only working component left........

 

 

I pulled the PSU out of the server and tested all of the voltages on the 24-pin and 4-pin CPU connectors with a multi-meter.  All of them came out within limits, so it certainly seems like the PSU is solid.  I haven't tested it under load, because I'm not really sure how to!  Stuck it back into the case with only the 24 and 4 pins connected, and still not boot.

 

Also tested the original memory sticks by sticking them into another PC and letting them run for 2 days.  No errors there.

 

Is there any way to test a motherboard and confirm that's where the problem is?

 

Thank you!

 

Dave

And now...I'm up and running again.  Turns out there was no hardware that was bad as such, but one PCI SATA card is very particular about how it likes to be seated.  When seated properly and locked in place, no boot.  When only pushed in about 80% of the way, success!

 

Thanks again for the help.  I ended up learning a lot about how to test memory and a PSU, so all is not lost.

 

Dave

Is there any way to test a motherboard and confirm that's where the problem is?

 

Just to answer your question, by quoting myself above, "Generally a determination of motherboard failure is made only after you have eliminated everything else...".  There is no test I know of for directly testing a motherboard.

And now...I'm up and running again.  Turns out there was no hardware that was bad as such, but one PCI SATA card is very particular about how it likes to be seated.  When seated properly and locked in place, no boot.  When only pushed in about 80% of the way, success!

 

Thanks again for the help.  I ended up learning a lot about how to test memory and a PSU, so all is not lost.

 

Dave

 

You gonna get rid of that SATA card aren't you? It should not cause trouble when properly seated, doesn't seem proper to me .