Server up and died! Help diagnose problem!

[Audiofight]

System specs:

Athlon 1200 (266 bus)
- All copper hsf w/ 2900 rpm 60mm fan
Crucial PC2100
Asus A7N266-VM/Lan
48x Samsung cd-rom
60 GB Maxtor 7200/ATA133
Codegen 300W psu
Mid-Tower ATX case w/ 1 80mm exhaust fan

Problem:

I came home from the gym and nothing was wrong to my knowledge. I grabbed a towel and went to take a shower. I can back to my room 15 minutes later and I heard a beeping coming from my closet where I kept my server. It was beeping at a regular interval. I have tried to disconnect all the IDE devices and re-seat the connector on the mobo. I also tried to re-seat the ram. Nothing is helping.

I don't have a multimeter right now (batteries went dead) and I don't have spare parts laying around to test with. Any suggestions as to what my problem may be? I will start borrowing parts from friends, but would like to hear any suggestions. I have read that the early releases of the motherboard are buggy and known to die early in their life. This board was purchased new from Newegg back in November.

Thanks.

 

[larciel]

first thing to check when it beeps is memory.. next could be CPU (my suspect)

good luck 🙂

 

[KC5AV]

When you reboot, do you get any beep codes? I would think it might be the processor... you keep it in a closet. Do you have any sort of cooling other than fans?

 

[mechBgon]

I'd be thinking about a new power supply, too. I have an A7N266-VM, my dad has an A7N266-VM, and at work I have about 25 of them, some from the middle of last year, and about the only thing I can think of that they ever disliked was when I tried to force mine to run CL2 on the RAM (SPD is your friend here 😀). It acted a little flaky when I did that. Overall, however, they seem to be rather bulletproof (partly because they don't OC, perhaps).

Try resetting the CMOS, if you haven't already. Pick up a new high-quality power supply like an Antec, Sparkle Power or Enermax 300W+. Do check to make sure the thermal compound between the CPU and heatsink isn't dried out, and make sure the heatsink's on in the correct direction.

edit: a line-interactive UPS might not be a bad idea either, if you can find a good buy on one. APC BackUPS Pros, for example. A power surge/sag could've played a part here.

 

[acemcmac]

Is it not posting? If you can get to bios, I'd go check your temps and see what drives are visible....

 

[Audiofight]

situation:

No post period. Hit the power button and nothing but a blank screen and the beeping starts.

I will be shutting down my main rig and swapping memory out. If it is the memory, I can just RMA it to Crucial. It is under a lifetime warranty. I used AC3 between the cpu and hsf.

I don't have any spare power supplies right now, so I can't really test that yet.

I will post later what happens with the memory swap.

 

[Audiofight]

Alright.

Swapped a good stick of Corsair XMS PC3200 256MB from my main rig and the beeping still occured. So, I swapped processors. My roommate has a 1200 Athlon laying around from a recent upgrade that I forgot about, so he let me borrow it. Same problem still occuring. He took the power supply with him to work and tested it, but the tester said it was good.

So, I have come to the conclusion that the motherboard is shot. I put in an RMA request to Asus, but who knows how long that will take.

 

[DogberryOfMessina]

You didn't mention which, if any, video adaptor you have. There are some BIOSes that will not allow the system to boot if it doesn't get a handshake from the video card. The constant beeping suggests to me that the system may be telling you "I'm alive, but you can't see me". You said it would not POST. Are the fans and case LEDs coming on? I'm assuming so since there's enough power to "BEEP". It may very well be the motherboard, but I think I would have checked the video first.

 

[Audiofight]

The A7N266-VM/Lan has the integrated GF2 video. I am using that, since this is my server and doesn't need anything fancy. If it failed, then the motherboard is to blame and needs to be RMAed.

Thanks for the thought. The fans do power up, hsf even. The beeping and no post are the problem. Many attempts to clear the CMOS didn't work either.