Turns out that there was a cooling fan that wasn't functioning (spinning). I removed the fan, reseated it and it immediately started right up. The machine then booted normally .... go figure. So I guess this would cause the machine to hang on boot apparently. Why not just give me a warning message? Why screw up my whole day! Damm!
Keep in mind that Sunday's can be kind of slow around here ... since we aren't Dell and paid to wait for questions to come in, we get to questions here and there as we can, between church, dinner, Trio Blocks, kids, naps, etc.
Having dealt with hundreds of Dell servers (including 2600/2650's), I have to say that the fans causing that kind of issue is an absolute first for me. Was the power light on the server blue or amber? If amber, it will have shown an entry in the Hardware Log, accessible by OpenManage Server Administrator (as the 2600 does not have an LCD panel that displays error messages). My guess is that there was some other issue that may have been temporarily (or permanently) fixed while jostling around in the machine reseating the fan. Since it may have been a fluke/temporary thing, I would suggest reseating all major components (including the riser, RAID, memory, and data/power cables - backplane, etc.), to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Heh ... sorry, didn't quite mean it that way. It was a long two days with a boss climbing up "you know where" as this machine had the only deployed copy of some new web based software. The machine went down early Saturday morning (3am and backup was to run right at that time) and I didn't get it back online until 8:30pm tonight. (Eastern Time). Scheduled roll out for tomorrow morning, big money involved apparently.
I have my doubts as well as to the fan being the source of my problem. I was correct in assuming that the machine had rebooted due to a windows update, 3 of them in fact. I don't think that they were the cause of the problem either as the machine finished installing them when it successfully rebooted. I, of course, checked every log I could find and no answers there. While I had the machine opened up I did re-seat all the memory, voltage regulator, video card, etc. So it just may have been any one of those. It was upon rebooting while it was open that I noticed the flashing amber light on the fan assembly and discovered it wasn't spinning. This machine had been running unattended for at least a year, so it could have been just about anything.
The power light is a nice "healthy" blue.
This machine had been originally designed to run UNIX/LINUX, perhaps it doesn't care for windows?!?! Eh? :)
" I was correct in assuming that the machine had rebooted due to a windows update, 3 of them in fact."
Yes this last Ms update release screwed up 5 machines total for 4 different client of mine. I just used system restore on four of them, to go back to just before the automatic update installed, then reinstall the updates.
You really have to wonder how MS tests these updates! Not complaining as they were billable hours.
chartierpw
5 Posts
1
August 14th, 2011 18:00
Guess I had to fix my own problem ... :)
Turns out that there was a cooling fan that wasn't functioning (spinning). I removed the fan, reseated it and it immediately started right up. The machine then booted normally .... go figure. So I guess this would cause the machine to hang on boot apparently. Why not just give me a warning message? Why screw up my whole day! Damm!
theflash1932
9 Legend
•
16.3K Posts
0
August 14th, 2011 20:00
Keep in mind that Sunday's can be kind of slow around here ... since we aren't Dell and paid to wait for questions to come in, we get to questions here and there as we can, between church, dinner, Trio Blocks, kids, naps, etc.
Having dealt with hundreds of Dell servers (including 2600/2650's), I have to say that the fans causing that kind of issue is an absolute first for me. Was the power light on the server blue or amber? If amber, it will have shown an entry in the Hardware Log, accessible by OpenManage Server Administrator (as the 2600 does not have an LCD panel that displays error messages). My guess is that there was some other issue that may have been temporarily (or permanently) fixed while jostling around in the machine reseating the fan. Since it may have been a fluke/temporary thing, I would suggest reseating all major components (including the riser, RAID, memory, and data/power cables - backplane, etc.), to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Glad you got it sorted though.
chartierpw
5 Posts
0
August 14th, 2011 21:00
Heh ... sorry, didn't quite mean it that way. It was a long two days with a boss climbing up "you know where" as this machine had the only deployed copy of some new web based software. The machine went down early Saturday morning (3am and backup was to run right at that time) and I didn't get it back online until 8:30pm tonight. (Eastern Time). Scheduled roll out for tomorrow morning, big money involved apparently.
I have my doubts as well as to the fan being the source of my problem. I was correct in assuming that the machine had rebooted due to a windows update, 3 of them in fact. I don't think that they were the cause of the problem either as the machine finished installing them when it successfully rebooted. I, of course, checked every log I could find and no answers there. While I had the machine opened up I did re-seat all the memory, voltage regulator, video card, etc. So it just may have been any one of those. It was upon rebooting while it was open that I noticed the flashing amber light on the fan assembly and discovered it wasn't spinning. This machine had been running unattended for at least a year, so it could have been just about anything.
The power light is a nice "healthy" blue.
This machine had been originally designed to run UNIX/LINUX, perhaps it doesn't care for windows?!?! Eh? :)
Prescott ....
pcmeiners
4 Operator
•
1.8K Posts
0
August 16th, 2011 19:00
" I was correct in assuming that the machine had rebooted due to a windows update, 3 of them in fact."
Yes this last Ms update release screwed up 5 machines total for 4 different client of mine. I just used system restore on four of them, to go back to just before the automatic update installed, then reinstall the updates.
You really have to wonder how MS tests these updates! Not complaining as they were billable hours.