- Mar 19, 2013
- 42
- 1
- 18,545
Hello! Sorry not sure where is best to post this so hopefully I'm in the right category!
I gave my workstation a hardware service, and now it won't POST... This is a service I have performed on many other machines in the past (I run a computer repair/IT business) and I'm well aquainted with computer hardware having built many rigs, serviced countless machines, and actually worked as a hardware tech back at the start of my career. Alas, maybe I really am a n00b as I've hit a brick wall with troubleshooting and hoping some wonderful expert can relieve me of my suffering. My own rig is not a custom build, in truth it's actually quite an old machine (hence the service) that I'm keen to keep around.
It's an HP XW9400 Workstation running two AMD Opteron Porcessors, 16GB (8x2GB Sticks) of DDR2 ECC RAM. Motherboard, PSU, etc are all proprietry. The machine has a proprietry sealed liquid cooling unit which covers both of the processors. There's also a RAM shroud with a dedicated cooling fan, and one case fan working as an intake on the front. The machine has two optical drives, and 4 3.5" HDDs. There are no onboard graphics, but I have a NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 fitted.
Basically - the machine was working fine but it operates in a very dusty environment and was starting to get pretty loud. I decided to gut and clean it providing a full hardware service.
This included removing all of the dust (using a combination of compressed air and a vaccum) from the case, PSU, fans, and radiator, cleaning up the GFX Card and RAM with some isopropyl alcohol. And removing the dried up thermal paste before applying some fresh arctic silver thermal compound. As I say, this is all pretty standard as a process I often carry out on older machines and I've never had a problem before. But I just cannot get the thing to POST.
When the kettle lead is inserted the power LED turns on and all of the fans spin to life, but not for a few seconds as I would expect. This seems to be constant, having left it running for 15 minutes before holding the power button to turn the machine off. Once off, the machine cannot be turned back on by using the power button. You have to remove the kettle lead and place it back in and the symptoms described repeat. There is also no display being output. The issue of course, could be with the GFX card but I don't have one on hand to test with so wanted to check here before ordering a replacement unit.
I've taken the thing apart and reseated everything again to be sure - but the issue reamins as above. I've replaced SATA cables, and disconnected both optical drives as well as all but the boot HDD. But as I can't even get an HP splash screen I'm thinking the issue occurs before these really become an issue (unless they are failing on some kind of self-check?).
Does anyone have anything thoughts? Would very much appreciate any suggestions that you may have!
Thanks in advance!
I gave my workstation a hardware service, and now it won't POST... This is a service I have performed on many other machines in the past (I run a computer repair/IT business) and I'm well aquainted with computer hardware having built many rigs, serviced countless machines, and actually worked as a hardware tech back at the start of my career. Alas, maybe I really am a n00b as I've hit a brick wall with troubleshooting and hoping some wonderful expert can relieve me of my suffering. My own rig is not a custom build, in truth it's actually quite an old machine (hence the service) that I'm keen to keep around.
It's an HP XW9400 Workstation running two AMD Opteron Porcessors, 16GB (8x2GB Sticks) of DDR2 ECC RAM. Motherboard, PSU, etc are all proprietry. The machine has a proprietry sealed liquid cooling unit which covers both of the processors. There's also a RAM shroud with a dedicated cooling fan, and one case fan working as an intake on the front. The machine has two optical drives, and 4 3.5" HDDs. There are no onboard graphics, but I have a NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 fitted.
Basically - the machine was working fine but it operates in a very dusty environment and was starting to get pretty loud. I decided to gut and clean it providing a full hardware service.
This included removing all of the dust (using a combination of compressed air and a vaccum) from the case, PSU, fans, and radiator, cleaning up the GFX Card and RAM with some isopropyl alcohol. And removing the dried up thermal paste before applying some fresh arctic silver thermal compound. As I say, this is all pretty standard as a process I often carry out on older machines and I've never had a problem before. But I just cannot get the thing to POST.
When the kettle lead is inserted the power LED turns on and all of the fans spin to life, but not for a few seconds as I would expect. This seems to be constant, having left it running for 15 minutes before holding the power button to turn the machine off. Once off, the machine cannot be turned back on by using the power button. You have to remove the kettle lead and place it back in and the symptoms described repeat. There is also no display being output. The issue of course, could be with the GFX card but I don't have one on hand to test with so wanted to check here before ordering a replacement unit.
I've taken the thing apart and reseated everything again to be sure - but the issue reamins as above. I've replaced SATA cables, and disconnected both optical drives as well as all but the boot HDD. But as I can't even get an HP splash screen I'm thinking the issue occurs before these really become an issue (unless they are failing on some kind of self-check?).
Does anyone have anything thoughts? Would very much appreciate any suggestions that you may have!
Thanks in advance!
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