Dead Windows Home Server 2011

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kiwifidget

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#222880 1-Sep-2017 19:38

I posted a day or few ago about my dicky server and enquired about Nas's.

Seems the server may have overheard as it seems puckeroo for good now.

Of course I dont have a NAS yet and all my data is on the server (I do have a backup of the major stuff).

It powers on, in as much as drive lights and LAN light come on.

But no display, not even BIOS.

Its not just a display issue though, as if I leave it for 15 minutes it does not appear on the network, so I presume its not booting.

What would the lack of BIOS signify?

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#1856919 1-Sep-2017 19:49

Does it beep at all? Any sequence of long or short?

Any blinking lights on the keyboard? (as in, the numlock light and/or scroll-lock lights flashing)

Often a BIOS that is failing POST will signal what the failure is that way.

Obvious suspects would be failed video card or failed RAM, by the way.

kiwifidget

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#1856927 1-Sep-2017 20:09

No beeps.

The mouse light underneath is out and the keyboard capslock/numlock lights do not go on and off when you hit the CL/NL keys.

Dead motherboard maybe? Although the LAN light comes on and thats on the mobo.

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andrewNZ

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#1856931 1-Sep-2017 20:16

What sort of computer is it?

I had a PC fail in a similar way recently, turned out to be bios corruption. Pulled the bios battery for a few seconds and away we went.

If it has more than one stick of ram, pull that one stick at a time and see if it boots.

If all else fails, WHS 2011 doesn't do anything fancy with disks, so any machine should be able to read them. Just dont buy a NAS and bang them in, you'll loose everything.

kiwifidget

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#1856934 1-Sep-2017 20:21

Its a box from PBtech, its an older Core 2 quad core (Q6600) cpu.

It doesnt owe me anything, I'm kind of surprised its lasted this long.

Good point about the drives.

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kiwifidget

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#1858015 4-Sep-2017 11:44

OK, I opened up the box.

When I turn it on, the fans spin up then spin down.

I took the CMOS battery out, same thing.

I've replaced the battery.

Now the fans spin up and stay spinning, but nothing else seems to happen.

What should I try next?

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gzt

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#1858027 4-Sep-2017 11:55

Bios reset jumper if you have nothing special like raid configured.

ech3lon

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#1858039 4-Sep-2017 12:02

Faulty psu usually will not power on at all but worth mentioning, it may have flaky components but hasn't completely dead.

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MadEngineer

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#1858071 4-Sep-2017 12:36

Unplug everything except the power cable and see if it beeps on powerup

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

kiwifidget

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#1858078 4-Sep-2017 12:48

Hooray, its going again.

I had to reset/clear the CMOS, easy once I found a spare jumper.

It should be good for another 12 years now!

Thanks everyone for your help and guidance.

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kiwifidget

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#1858220 4-Sep-2017 15:29

Forget that, I spoke too soon.

It does now start up, but after a while it goes into some sort of coma.

The fans and lights are still on, but no display, keyboard, mouse or presence on the LAN.

I cant see anything in the logs but I may be looking in the wrong place.

Is there a wee utility that can ping the server and alert me when it fails?

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Sideface

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#1858307 4-Sep-2017 16:51

kiwifidget:

<snip>

Is there a wee utility that can ping the server and alert me when it fails?

You don't need a wee utility, you need a new server.

You are flogging a dead horse - cut your losses and move on.

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kiwifidget

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#1858319 4-Sep-2017 17:06

I suspect you are right @sideface , but for now, giddy up!!

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hairy1

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#1858348 4-Sep-2017 18:35

I would pull out the RAM and try it with only one stick at a time (if there are multiple sticks)

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PhantomNVD

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#1858359 4-Sep-2017 18:59

Next step after RAM would be to do a big clean out for dust buildup (leading to overheating) and then swap out the PSU and see if it’s on its last legs too?

kiwifidget

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#1858557 4-Sep-2017 23:04

the ram is in pairs, which could be tricky.

I took out two at a time, but not sure if i can run an odd number of sticks.

@phantomnvd swapping out implies I have spare parts to hand, sadly I do not.

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