Proliant DL380 G3 server questions

I just got a surplused DL380 G3 (3.06GHz) but I'm not sure if it's
working as it was damaged in shipping. It was advertised as "no OS" so
I can't tell from network activity if it's actually running.

It has a RILOE II card in it, but I get no video output on either the
RILOE or the internal VGA adapter, even when I pull the RILOE. It does
seem to power up, and if I pull one of the two 512MB DIMMs I get beeps
so I _THINK_ the main CPU is running.

Is there a way to reset the unit back to factory defaults, and should
I be trying to talk to it over the Ethernet interface in the RILOE, or
from a local console, or from the serial port? Right now I just see
nothing at all when I power it up, but it does seem to be going
through POST. It's kinda hard to tell for sure though because every
single peripheral in it is intelligent - for all I know, the main CPU
is dead and the RAID card and system health processor are running
their own diagnostics indepedently.

Thanks.

On Jun 19, 9:08*pm, "Aidan Grey" <apg...@nospam.con> wrote:
> * Do you see activity from the floppy drive? *Wait 30 seconds or more, and
> see if it tries to boot from the floppy drive.
>
> * Alternately, put a bootable CDROM in the CD drive, and see if it tries to
> boot from that.

No activity that I can see on either of those drives. When I power it
up, the arrow LED on the top-right HDD (bay 1) goes on for a while,
then flickers, then the green "disk OK" LED on that drive comes on. I
have only USB keyboards, but I don't see the Num/Caps/Scr LEDs blink
so I think USB is disabled or not working.

larwe <> wrote:
> I just got a surplused DL380 G3 (3.06GHz) but I'm not sure if it's
> working as it was damaged in shipping. It was advertised as "no OS" so
> I can't tell from network activity if it's actually running.
>
> It has a RILOE II card in it, but I get no video output on either the
> RILOE or the internal VGA adapter, even when I pull the RILOE. It does
> seem to power up, and if I pull one of the two 512MB DIMMs I get beeps
> so I _THINK_ the main CPU is running.
>
> Is there a way to reset the unit back to factory defaults, and should
> I be trying to talk to it over the Ethernet interface in the RILOE, or
> from a local console, or from the serial port? Right now I just see
> nothing at all when I power it up, but it does seem to be going
> through POST. It's kinda hard to tell for sure though because every
> single peripheral in it is intelligent - for all I know, the main CPU
> is dead and the RAID card and system health processor are running
> their own diagnostics indepedently.
>
> Thanks.

I'd suggest these steps for a dl380 that was abused.

remove all cards. Leave them out for testing.

reseat all RAM, this means pull it out and reseat, not just push and move
the latches

reseat the cooling fans. If too many are broken/missing the server won't
work. They'll cut you up bad, so be careful when handling them.

reseat the VRMs (voltage regulators). I avoid touching the processors
because of the one use heatsinks.

reseat the SCSI backplane/cables.

power on, the motherboard has somewhat useful diagnostic LEDs and a legend
of what they mean on the inside of the top cover.

As for total reset, I think there's a dip switch for that on the
motherboard. there are hardware guides for this server on hp.com

On Jun 29, 3:43*pm, Cydrome Leader <prese...@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote:

> > Is there a way to reset the unit back to factory defaults, and should
> > I be trying to talk to it over the Ethernet interface in the RILOE, or
>
> remove all cards. Leave them out for testing.

done.

> reseat all RAM, this means pull it out and reseat, not just push and move
> the latches

Replaced all RAM with known-good modules.

> reseat the cooling fans. If too many are broken/missing the server won't
> work. They'll cut you up bad, so be careful when handling them.

done. But they all come up green anyway.

> reseat the VRMs (voltage regulators). I avoid touching the processors
> because of the one use heatsinks.

Done. But "one use heatsink"? the heatsink is attached to the cpu and
comes out with it.

> reseat the SCSI backplane/cables.

Done. But even with no SCSI controller connected, it still doesn't
come up.

> power on, the motherboard has somewhat useful diagnostic LEDs and a legend
> of what they mean on the inside of the top cover.

.... and all of them are green. Everything's working, but nothing's
working. Grrr.

> As for total reset, I think there's a dip switch for that on the
> motherboard. there are hardware guides for this server on hp.com

tried it

oh well. parts box I guess. Right before posting this message I just
stuck it up in my attic with all my other projects. The day I received
this server in the mail a neighbor said "why did you waste money
buying that? I can give you stuff" and gave me a couple of 1U servers,
one IBM xseries 335 very similar specs to the DL380, and one older
Supermicro generic P4. So I'm up and running on the IBM box right now.

thanks for trying