Support and non working system

[BritOverseas]

Well, I guess this is my last recourse seeing as nobody will answer my emails, shame really.

 

My system seems to have gone completely down. I can neither read nor write to it, can not open a telnet session and my led's are static on the ethernet port.

 

This is despite completely disconnecting it from the rest of the system, attaching a new router to one of my spare computers and attaching a monitor to see what is going on.

 

I get the initial text string when it initially boots but that about it. It does not seem to get any further.

 

I have written several email to the support department asking what is wrong but have not had any answers, can any of you guys help?

 

Brit

[TCIII]

BritOverseas,

 

You might start by hooking a monitor, keyboard and mouse up to the motherboard and take a look at the motherboard BIOS and make sure that all of the settings are correct.

 

Restarting the system with the monitor, keyboard and mouse hooked up will allow you to see the unRaid start up without having to telnet to the unRaid system and might give you a better idea about what is going on during the unRaid system startup.

 

Just a thought.

 

Regards,

TCIII

[Joe L.]

There are so many possibilities it would make sense to isolate a bit to determine what is going on.

 

Assuming your unRaid server did work at one time...

 

First, and easiest, unplug your flash drive from the unRaid server and plug it into a different PC.  Can you read it?  If so, are all the files there?  If you can read it, make a copy of your config folder to somewhere safe (on the other PC) so you can restore the configuration after you make any changes in your tests to figure out why it is not booting.

 

You might try it back in the unRaid server, just in case the USB plug was not making a good contact.

 

Check your bios options on your motherboard.  Perhaps the unRaid flash drive is not the boot device any longer. On many motherboards the bios will reset if it sees a different disk configuration.  This is as likely as anything why you are not booting.

 

Next, try booting it in a different PC.  (On my laptop I can press F12 when it is booting for it to prompt me for a boot device.  I can choose the unRaid flash drive if I have it plugged in.  It will boot, but not start.  (Don't start it, or even try, but you should see lots of messages as it boots up) If you get to the "Login" prompt, type "root" (without the quotes) and then "poweroff" to shut it down. 

 

If it boots to a "Login:" prompt on the laptop/other PC, but not on your unRaid server it could be RAM, the power supply, the motherboard BIOS settings, the motherboard itself, or a cable that is partially plugged in, or even a defective cable.    If it does not boot on any PC you might just have a defective flash drive, or it will need to be re-loaded from a fresh download from Tom's site.

 

Hopefully, he'll see this thread and give his insight. Unfortunately, Tom will not be able to do too much more to talk you through the diagnosis of the issue than these hints I've suggested.

 

Joe L.

[BritOverseas]

Yes, it worked fine (although I could not open a control window half the time when I was connected to the internet at the same time but that was a minor annoyance.)

 

I have hooked up a monitor to it and it seems to only boot to a certain point and goes no further.

 

I do not have a PS2 keyboard or mouse to use on this system, only USB and I have tried to use one of those before with no luck so I don't know what else to do there.

 

I have already plugged the USB drive into my other PC and all of the files seem to be there but I must admit I am no expert so I wouldn't be able to tell for sure.

 

I will try booting the flash drive on my laptop and see what happens and apart from that I suppose I will take the case apart and see if I can see anything loose...

[Joe L.]

Everything you are describing seems to point to a BIOS setting.

 

What are the last few things you see when it "half boots up" ??  (What are the exact words you see on a monitor connected directly)

 

I think the newest version of unRaid supports a USB keyboard... (never tried, I use a PS2 style)

 

What version of unRaid are you running?

 

What motherboard are you running?

 

Lastly, what, if anything did you do just before the server stopped booting?  Did you have a power failure?  Did you change the drive config? or boot without the USB drive plugged in?  (Not saying you caused the boot failure, but trying to get as many clues as possible to help)  Or... did you do nothing and it just stopped responding on your LAN.

 

Joe L.

[BritOverseas]

Nope, it just stopped working by itself.

 

It should not be due to a power failure as it has it's own UPS and I have not messed with anything myself, although we do get occasional power cuts here in Texas due to the weather.

 

How easy is it to download and update the OS and how would you do that?

 

I bought it last April (ish) as fully built system (minus drives) but I could not tell you what version it is or what the motherboard version is. It was The 1200 I believe. It has all Seagate drives in it or either 300GB or 400GB sizes.

 

It's hard to tell what the last thing I see when I have a monitor connected. It zips by and then all I am left with is a flashing cursor in the corner of the screen. If I remember rightly, one time when I put a monitor on it when it was booting (and working correctly) I was left with most of page of text, which Tom said was correct.

 

I have taken the side panel off and snugged up all of the plugs that I can see. The RAM seems in fine and I can not see any obvious breaks, PCB burns etc etc etc.

 

I have plugged in the flash drive to my laptop but it will not let me attempt to boot to it although again, it seems like all of the files are on it and I can read it OK.

 

Don't know what else to do, guess I will have to go out and buy a PS2 mouse and keyboard from RS and see if I can get into the BIOS.

[sonicos]

how many beeps does the system speaker make upon bootup? Check the amount of beeps agaist the motherboard manual. If everything sits there after it passes POST, and hange with a flashing cursor in the upper left, the PC may be trying to boot, but cant find an OS to load. You may want to make sure the .sys file exists on the flash drive (its a hidden file, and I believe its system and read only as well) Make sure your boot order in bios loads the USB first. Try removing and reinstalling RAM modules. Beyond that, use your motherboard guide to try to troubleshoot. If the system is passing POST, its likely a problem with the Flash drive.