Cannot Access server/wont turn on?

[jsoonias]

Hey guys,

 

I am having issues with accessing my server. When turned on, there is no video output. There is also no lights on the flash drive blinking. I turned it on a few weeks ago and it was fine. Is there maybe a problem with my flash drive? i am able to use the flash drive on my personal computer though. 

[Squid]

Power?  Pooched Motherboard?  Any beeping? (although many mfg's don't include the beeper anymore so you can to add one)

Fans running?  Any change if you pull out all add-on cards and disconnect power from the hard drives?  List goes on and on.

 

A flash drive would probably have to have caught on fire and shorted out everything to prevent the motherboard from even posting.

[jsoonias]

It seems to power on fine. lights on the front of the drive bays light up. no beeping. fans are on

[Frank1940]

No video,?  Can you at least see the boot-up Splash screen with the Manufacturer's Logo?  Are using MB video or a plugin video cards?  Look in the MB manual and find the key that will boot you to the BIOS.  Hit that key repeatedly  after you first power up the computer or do a reboot.  

 

If it has MB video and you have a video card plugged in check for video on the MB port.  You could have a bad MB battery and the CMOS has lost its settings after a month without power. 

[jsoonias]

no splash screen at the moment, the first time i powered it up there was one bu i did not have a keyboard plugged in. so it sat on the splash screen for a while until i realized that it never came online. Just MB video. I will try to get into the bios, but the screen doesnt even detect a video source

[jsoonias]

tried getting into bios. nothing changed. I have status leds on the network port, but cannot see on the network.

 

Case: NORCO RPC-4220

Mobo: ASUS P5BV-M

CPU: Intel Celeron 430

RAM: 2 GB Kingston DDR2 800 (low profile)

PSU: Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Cables: 4 x NORCO C-SFF8087-D and 1 x 3ware CBL-SFF8087OCR-06M

Fans: 3 x COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-124K-GP 120mm Case Fan

Add-on Cards: 2 x SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

[Frank1940]

Open up the case and make sure that the fans are running-- especially the CPU cooling fan.  While you have it open, clean out all of the dust and dirt.  (You want to be in a area where you won't make a mess that requires a second cleaning job.  Cases can accumulate an amazing amount of dust in a short period of time.) 

[jsoonias]

all fans are running

[Frank1940]

Take a deep breath at this point and relax a bit.  You could try a new PS (That PS looks a bit small for the potential number of drives that case will allow.) and see if that fixes the problem.  And get a beeper/speaker (If the board doesn't have one) connected up and see if you are getting a beeper codes. Some one else hopefully will jump in and make some suggestions.  

 

But keep in the back of your mind that this is a very old system.  And you must have a ton of HD's on it.  If you start the fix-by-substitution method, it could get expensive and you would still have old hardware.  So think carefully before you commit to this path.  (I will point out that the SuperMicro SATA cards are no longer recommended for any new build that is going to be using the current releases.) 

 

You might want to think a new MB/CPU/RAM upgrade. 

[_0m0t3ur]

5 hours ago, jsoonias said:

Hey guys,

 

I am having issues with accessing my server. When turned on, there is no video output. There is also no lights on the flash drive blinking. I turned it on a few weeks ago and it was fine. Is there maybe a problem with my flash drive? i am able to use the flash drive on my personal computer though. 

If you're not seeing your flash drive LED light blink, that would indicate no activity.  And if you can see it on your personal computer, then at least you know the flash drive works.  Did you make it bootable?

 

Getting away from unRAID for a moment, have you had this hardware (mobo, cpu, ram, psu) running recently with something else such as a version of Windows, or some variant of Linux?

 

I would reiterate what others have said in this thread, you might want to consider getting a newer motherboard, cpu, ram, and power supply, though not necessarily brand new.  And I would recommend getting used server grade equipment through eBay.  Try looking here for a start.  Or perhaps here.

[jsoonias]

ok. wooosaaa.

 

I bought this server years ago from member Rajahal. I was reading the original post he had on the server and remember seeing the PS was on the smaller side. At the moment there is only 8 2tb green drives installed. So I would think it should be ok. On a normal shutdown sequence the server will beep once. So i assume it has a beeper.

 

No luck getting bootable.

 

the server was running unraid fine a few weeks ago. I have not run anything else on it or the other components.

 

I guess I will have to look into buying some new hardware. It might be worth it looking into hardware that can handle any newer features that I probably don't know are out there.(VM)

 

 

[Frank1940]

If you want to use PLEX and be able to transcode steams in real time, you need about 2000 passmarks per stream.   VM's need (at least) as much CPU as you would want in a standalone setup.  Other than that, you should be able to get by with an recent generation mainstream CPU.  If you look at my signature, you will see two such systems.  The CPU, MB and RAM for these systems was about $250US.  The LSI based SATA card was about $80US.   

[_0m0t3ur]

No luck getting bootable.

What are you asking?


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[jsoonias]

I mostly use kodi. I don't really know the benefits of plex over kodi so I havent bothered with it.

 

I assume when you ask if I made it bootable that meant I was able to get into the bios. I was not.

 

I also cannot see your signature Frank

Edited July 3, 2018 by jsoonias

[jsoonias]

As doitmyselftoo was saying, I have priced out some used enterprise gear to replace my old broken gear. I have the following list compiled mostly from ebay.ca

 

 

1PC USED Supermicro X8DT6-F Dual LGA1366 X58 Serverboard #V1669 CH C $204.14

 

Matched Pair Intel Xeon L5640 2.26GHz 12MB 5.86 GTs LGA1366 Hex Core CPU SLBV8  C $57.78

 

LOT OF 24GB (6x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10600R 1333 MHz 240-Pin ECC REG RDIMM SERVER RAM C $77.41

 

Lot of 2 __ Supermicro SNK-P0038P Heatsink X8 2U Xeon Socket LGA1366 40.67

EVGA 850 BQ, 80+ BRONZE 850W C $79

 

Total C $457

 

Is this going to be the most cost efficient/decently performing route? 

 

Am i missing anything?

 

 

[_0m0t3ur]

As doitmyselftoo was saying, I have priced out some used enterprise gear to replace my old broken gear. I have the following list compiled mostly from ebay.ca
 
 
1PC USED Supermicro X8DT6-F Dual LGA1366 X58 Serverboard #V1669 CH C $204.14
 
Matched Pair Intel Xeon L5640 2.26GHz 12MB 5.86 GTs LGA1366 Hex Core CPU SLBV8  C $57.78
 
LOT OF 24GB (6x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10600R 1333 MHz 240-Pin ECC REG RDIMM SERVER RAM C $77.41
 
Lot of 2 __ Supermicro SNK-P0038P Heatsink X8 2U Xeon Socket LGA1366 40.67
EVGA 850 BQ, 80+ BRONZE 850W C $79
 
Total C $457
 
Is this going to be the most cost efficient/decently performing route? 
 
Am i missing anything?
 
 

That board has onboard SAS which runs at SATA III speeds. With 2 SAS to SATA cables you’ll get 8 SATA III connections. There are also SATA II connections (6 I think), which are great for standard platter HDD’s. Overall, with IPMI, that’s a solid board. Keep in mind it is E-ATX, so it won’t fit in a standard ATX case. A Rosewill server case would be great.

https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Rackmount-Computer-Pre-Installed-RSV-L4500/dp/B0091IZ1ZG/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1531370017&sr=1-3&keywords=Rosewill+server+case+l4500


Looks good. Double check that the PSU is duel EPS. Get some thermal paste (non-metallic), such as Arctic MX-4. Get some Arctic PWM PST case fans (80.mm and 120 mm) for that Rosewill server case, if you get it.

https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-F12-PWM-PST-Technology/dp/B00NTUJTAK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1531369784&sr=8-3&keywords=arctic+pwm+pst&dpID=41gF0%252B4TALL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch


https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-F12-PWM-PST-Technology/dp/B00NTUJG62/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1531369784&sr=8-3&keywords=arctic%2Bpwm%2Bpst&dpID=41gF0%252B4TALL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch&th=1


Amazon sells them in 5-packs for cheap (see above). Don’t mix PWM (4 pin) fans with 3-pin fans on Supermicro boards. Get a couple SAS to SATA forward breakout cables and some SATA cables and you should be good.

https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Internal-SFF-8087-Breakout/dp/B018YHS8BS/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1531370091&sr=1-3&keywords=SAS%2Bto%2BSATA%2Bforward%2Bbreakout%2Bcables&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/CableCreation-5-Pack-18-inch-Female-Locking/dp/B01IBA3ITK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1531370430&sr=1-1&keywords=cablecreation%2Bsata%2Biii&dpID=41apn1rwEUL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch&th=1

You’ll want to price shop.


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[jsoonias]

On 7/2/2018 at 3:29 PM, jsoonias said:

tried getting into bios. nothing changed. I have status leds on the network port, but cannot see on the network.

 

Case: NORCO RPC-4220

Mobo: ASUS P5BV-M

CPU: Intel Celeron 430

RAM: 2 GB Kingston DDR2 800 (low profile)

PSU: Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Cables: 4 x NORCO C-SFF8087-D and 1 x 3ware CBL-SFF8087OCR-06M

Fans: 3 x COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-124K-GP 120mm Case Fan

Add-on Cards: 2 x SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

 

Doitmyselftoo, I am hoping I can reuse the case I have now. And hopefully the cables and addon cards will work with this setup.

 

Do you see a problem with this?

[jsoonias]

BUMP. 

 

Want to make sure this will work with my existing Norco setup.

 

Thanks

[jsoonias]

OR would this build be a better choice?