POST failure on Dell Poweredge 1300
 

Hi guys, I'm sure you can point me in the right direction, - again.

I have an ageing Dell Poweredge 1300 server which is currently my Debian box. It has given sterling service
over the years so I'm loth to part with it even though its nearing the end of its useful life.

The problem has arisen on POST. Essentially it doesn't, - when I plug in the mains cable the power supply fan comes on but nothing is delivered to the motherboard so
there's no POST or output to the screen. The funny thing is the disks are powered up and the on/off mains button and reset buttons are lit. Nothing happens when I press the buttons.

Anybody got any ideas. Occasionally it behaves normally so it doesn't seem to be too serious a problem. I've removed the power supply box and hoovered all the dirt and dust out of it but again it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Thanks again you guys are wonderful!

Its been some time since I worked on a problem as you have described. The approach I have taken, is to check the voltages being supplied to the main board. You can google for a pin out of a standard power supply.

If all appears good, strip the system to the minimum components and power on to see if post will start. If yes, then you can add one component at a time until you can isolate the problem.

The minimum, as I remember it, is the power supply, main system board, video card and monitor, and one stick of ram. Everything else can be removed, and set aside. With most components removed, don't expect post to complete, it will give you errors. That is OK.

If post still won't start, you have a bad power supply, and bad main system board, or a bad stick of ram.

Best of luck with it.

Cliff

Really appreciate yr input. Since I did the posting I've essentially done what you suggested and got the box back to a position where it boots regularly and POST usually executes successfully through to normal startup. Here's the
rub and its quite bizarre. When the box is in the bench, - ie on its back ready to have the cover removed/replaced all is well. When the cover is replaced and the box is upright (its a floor standing server) I'm back to the "no POST" position.

If you can explain this then I should be home free!

Thanks again

Martin

I suspect you have one ( possibly more ) flaky components, most likely in power some where. What you do next, will depend on whether you want to fix this hardware, or replace it.

Since power is the most likely problem, you could replace the power supply and try that. Second on the list would be the system board, ( bad capacitors ).

I had an older pentium 4 system that with symptoms similar to your problem. I could not buy a power supply, since it was a non-standard footprint supply. So, that one has gone to hardware heaven.

It might happen if motherboards printed circuit get cut leading to erratic behaviour. The system might work if motherboard gets bend in a such way that circuits get completed. So it may explain the observed error woking in one position and not on another.

All is sorted! Took the cover off and pushed all components (memory, processors, cards etc) fully home. Put cover on and rebooted and it now works in all positions.

Got there in the end, - all help much appreciated, its really confidence building when you know yr not alone!

Martin

Happy you had success.