our Debian 3.0 server just crashed and now it will not boot. i'm not getting a video signal, or ethernet connection, but it powers up ok. i even replaced the motherboard and cpu, same results.

i've tried booting with a boot floppy, and the boot cd. no luck.

any ideas on where to begin further troubleshooting?

Must be the power supply

even if everything is seemingly powering up?

Well, it certainly isn't a software problem then.

I would remove all of the PCI cards and then try to boot it. If it starts, shut it down and put on of the cards back in and try to start it again. Do this will all of the cards until you find the bad one.

It could also be the video card, assuming you are using an AGP card, if it is PCI, it would be covered in the previous suggestion.

You should also check that your RAM or CPU didn't get fried. If your CPU fan blew, your CPU could have burned out without you realizing it. I have actually had that happen on a machine myself.

If all that doesn't help, it could be the power supply. It might be putting out just enough power to spin the fans and light the LEDs, but not enough to actually run the hardware. I have had that happen too.

By the way, do the drives spin up?

If you changed MB and Processor and it won't post I don't see anything else to do, aside from PCI, AGP, Power Supply

thanks for the tips. i'll try the PCI cards. the video is AGP. the CPU, fan, and RAM is new. yes, the drives are spinning. how would i tell if Linux is starting up properly without video, or a network connection?

i'm trying a new power supply tomorrow.

Are you sure that it is not your moniter?

-Joey

Hello,

I get this problem sometime with my redhat 9 setup.

Usually after a crash and ocassionally after normal? shutdown, the screen will not turn itself back on, but the comp. is working ok and is booting up. I think it is a motherboard thing, something is not getting a kill signal maybe?

The only solution I have found so far is to reset the bios manually by shorting the bios jumpers, with the power lead out of the computer.

Hope this helps

Lucas

I have seen a system do this before. It needed to be powered off and on a few times to work. At the time I thought it was the motherboard, but the power supply could also be the problem.