Very odd issue

FrenchieFrenchie Maryland
edited July 2011 in Science & Tech
Okay, customer brought computer in today that needs to be "fixed urgently". The issue as she stated it was:
Server will suddenly not boot into the OS

So I was like "Probably one of those normal boot errors", and took it into the back. I plugged it in, pressed on, saw the Bios splash, and then it just stopped. The computer is still running, just nothing is happening at all. I have taken the hard drive out and checked to see if it was corrupt, and the file system loads fine when I plug it into another computer. I have unplugged the CD drive to see if it was causing the issue. I unplugged and re-plugged every device on the board to make sure they were in securely. And it still just stops, black screened, after the bios splash.

Tl;dr: After the bios splash screen the computer just stops, just a black screen. No windows error messages or anything at all.

Thanks
Frenchie

Comments

  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited July 2011
    1st Is this an actual server or just a PC running as a server? If it's an actual server I'd get in touch with the server manufacturer.

    But as for more trouble shooting. Go into the bios and reset it to factory defaults. Then try and boot it up. Next run memtest on it. Then try and boot up into a live linux cd and see how far it gets. The goal in diagnostics at this point is to rule out where the problem lies.
  • FrenchieFrenchie Maryland
    edited July 2011
    I've reset the Bios, didn't seem to work.
    I have also tried booting this HDD on a test bed and it had the same problem.
    I will try the Linux Live CD now....
  • FrenchieFrenchie Maryland
    edited July 2011
    The damned CD drive won't open
  • RootWyrmRootWyrm Icrontian
    edited July 2011
    Sounds like a bad motherboard; SATA controller failure. Exact cause unknown, but possibly DVD-ROM failure caused a short. I was going to say HDD with mechanical fault on Sector 0, but it's readable on other systems; the DVD-ROM not opening was the tell.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited July 2011
    Well if it's an older computer the cd drive could also just be shot. It happens, rather frequently actually.

    But that being said based on everything else I too wouldn't be surprised if it's a bad mobo.
  • FrenchieFrenchie Maryland
    edited July 2011
    Yeah, we made a whole image backup of the HDD, (After struggling with getting it to mount up), reinstalled windows after recovering their system Key, and while attempting to update we got major issues, and then is BSoD, probably a bad Mobo.
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