maybe this subject was allready asked and answered, but i realy did a lot of searching and i never came across the right answer. Here is the thing....my server wasn't booting...found a jumper that put it in some kind of solid state and then released the jumper and just got the F1 and other functions. So one problem was solved. Then when i got into config i read somewhere that i must disable planar SCSI. After i did this my server is booting like a charm. everytime i restart it i get menu options of F1, F2, Alt-F1, and F12....everything fine so far. But what i am confused here is that i have never seen SCSI menu when you should press ctrl+c! there is no such menu and i couldnt get it on screen. Am i missing some drivers or some kind of flashing? I did update bios and all other stuff, but then again there were 2 things that couldnt be found by bios upgrade CD. One of them i know it was SCSI somthing.
to sum up.
-i can boot from CD
-i can get to debian install
-in this instalation there are no discs detected!!!!!!!
i know that disc is 80pin SCSI. And i know that i dont have startup CTRL+C menu. and i know i havent slept for 2 days, and i know i wont for another 2 days :)
plz help me on this one...if you need any other details just write down.
oh and this...if i enable planar SCSI in bios i get PCI-C light enabled on error path console inside server. And if that planar is enabled i cant get to boot menu such as F1, F2, F12 etc. Server just hangs after that option is ENABLED.
look slike anything wrong with your disk subsystem.
Try the next:
remove HDD (BTW, what is FRU p/n of this HDD?);
set BIOS settings to default state;
try boot. Do you see error light again? If yes, lets check DSA log.
if booting good, then power of, install HDD and try boot again. If problem comes back, check SCSI cable and connectivity. Try this HDD in another server.
tnx for fast reply, but i am currently not at work. So about DSA log and shifting HDD to other server i' ll try on monday (or someday in other week) when i am at work.
I can tell you one thing if put BIOS is default state (with or without HDD) i dont get boot. I just got stuck at welcome screen and it doesent give me option of booting nor options of BIOS menu. And in the top of corner there is a CP showing me A9 and stucks at that A9. I am guessing that is an CPU cycle.
The server just hangs on welcome screen showing me that 1 CPU is installed and BIOS version (which is updated to 1.15). Then after some amount of time it resets its self and do that wellcome screen again, and so on until the infinity is reached :)
and btw in that BIOS default state i get 2 lights on light path lit. 1st is PCI-C lit and the second is NMI (which for the last one i dont give a damn). But is is PCI-C that it bothers me.
Above is explained when i am in BIOS default state. To be able to boot (showing me all menues F1-bios, F2-system check, F12-Network Boot etc.) normal boot i must do the followings:
-i magicly found 1 jumper that i can brick into some kind of "solid state CPU"
(if you ask me what exactly that jumper does i cant tell you) but i can explain it to you
-well i brick that jumper, CP jumper i think it is. And then i power on the server. All the lights (errors) on light path are gone the fans make terrible noise and are spining like crazy. i must pursue on bricking jumper until i get screen showing me nothing but in upper riht corrne CP:72 (i guess). Then when i get that CP:72 screen then i remove that jumper (this is all done with server powered on) and one beep is made and fans now spin in normal way. Light path still shows me no errors. And after 5 seconds i get wellcome screen the same way as it was before with all 4 menus down below. That jumper bricking is done with server powerd on the whole time. And then i can press F1 to go to BIOS.
this must be done to be able to boot into BIOS. After i get in BIOS i MUST disable the "planar SCSI" to be able to boot in normal way without setting that jumper again.
I just wanna tell you if dont want to be stuck in wellcome screen without menus and options i MUST HAVE "planar SCSI" DISABLED! If i turn "planar SCSI" ON i get stuck and i must do this jumper bricking again. And if the "planar SCSI" is turned ON (enabled) i also get errors on light path, otherwise if it is disabled everything is fine on light path diag.
Upper post is blog-like :) and the whole 2 days of researching rawly explained in one sheet and for long explanation i apologize my self. Like i told you i will be able to give you DSA report next week and i'll also swap HDD to other machine. But if you have any explanations to upper post i'll be happy if you tell me. Even if you say that server is non-functional i'll be happy to hear. Couse i dont want to be a wreck for another 2 days like i was 2 days ago.
check the next doc (this is about another server, but I guess that source of problem can be the same):
Hangs at checkpoint A9 during bootup - IBM eServer xSeries 345
http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-53926&brandind=5000008
See jumpers location and inform us which one used (section System-board switches and jumpers ):
Hardware Maintenance Manual and Troubleshooting Guide - IBM eServer xSeries 335
http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-44204&brandind=5000008
thx for that pdf file that you directed me to. It seems promising, i'll check it and report it back to you next week. But i am not sure just about one thing called "PCI Riser Card Assembly" and how should be seated? I dont have any cards installed and if i tell you the truth i don't even know what is "PCI Riser Card Assembly". For that kind of lack of knowledge i apologize :)
I havent yet read the pdf manual so i guess the directions are mentioned within it.
I will report back either with solution or another problem
Hello everyone! I'm having similar problems and exact bios errors (No SCI BIOS/ Device found!). My X 232 boots to HDD but does not show up in BIOS. My BIOS shows SCSI as master and slave but, again, boots to damaged HDD. The problem is that I'm using Acronis and Data Lifeguard to try to clone the damaged disk while I still can but it always fails. Also, I cannot seem to get any of IBM's updates to work. I finally got server to boot with both old and new HDD on IDE cable and it booted to Server 2003 but BIOS still showed my array as master/slave. This array is only file storage right now and has no OS on it.
How do you get an RSA report?
I did get the machine with one of the cables unplugged. This cable has an end on it that looks like it goes to a Mac hard drive and it looks more like a flat wiring harness than an IDE cable. Also has black square on it about 2/3rd of the way up. Is this the cable B that I read about and where does it go?
today i've tryed it all. Put PCI card in, put another one in made all permutations yet the error still remained. I gave up. I din't even do the log reports. me and other 3 engineers researched the error and came to a conclusion that SCSI controler isn't responding or it is broken.
So i've made changes. Since the server doesen't have regular +12 and +5V for IDE disks i cut the power supply from SCSI controler, changed it to regular power and put in the IDE disk. Now it is booting and working just fine. I don't need RAID so i said "what the heck" and put in the IDE :)
I really hoped it would be that Extension card for pci which you sugested but it wasn't. It was PCI-C error for SCSI controller. Well so much for PCI Riser Card Assembly (so sophisticated name for such a non-operating card :) )
Well anyways, now it is working and it has OS installed allready. I thank you Alex that you gave me directions and i hope i didn't waste your precious time.
See you around if i have any more troubles (lets hope not :) )
I'm sorry Alexander I had RSA on my mind at the time. I meant to say how do you check DSA log?
I will check that link to see what is supported as soon as I get home but are you saying my only choice of media to run OS from is SCSI? I hope not because this busted drive contains my website, SQL, ColdFusion etc. and I don't have enough SCSI capacity to hold it even if I could restore to SCSI which I think I read that I cannot.
p.s. Still cloning almost 24hours and it is 27% of stage 3:4 and 40% overall.
Okay I can see on the Server Proven link you provided that there is no support for IDE type HDDs and I'm guessing that doing away with it would probably eliminate most, if not all of my post errors but would there be any harm in keeping it? Because I don't see very many options. Only like 18 GB SCSI
Hi Alex,
I've the similar problem when I tried to install win XP in IBM X335 with SCSI. BIOS start to boot up and able to see the 2 SCSI installed. Start to install OS from disk and press F6 to install required LSI SCSI driver. And the error started when tried to install XP it complain there is no disk found. But... It recongize 2 disks are presented in disk 0 and disk 1!! What am I do wrong?
Appreciate in advence any inputs.
