IT staff have all been there. Here's an odd one though. I shut down my home server (which is basically a virtual gaming PC / server hybrid) for the first time in ages. I changed the CPU, the GPU and added an additional M2 nvme drive. Booted back up and all I got was the classic fans spin for a split second, then shut down. No further pressing of the power button would do anything until turning off at the wall and attempting again.
What follows is a list of troubleshooting steps until I finally arrived at the problem. So where's your money going? Which component?
This machine is stacked and fully populated with 10 fans, 8 HDDs, 2 ssds, 2 nvmes, 2 GPUs, 1 hba card so it could be a minefield but....I only changed the above 3 things.
I start by reseating and then removing entirely the new gpu. Same.
I remove both GPUs since I had to remove the second one to get to the second M2 slot and could have not seated it correctly. Same.
I start to worry it's the new CPU so put the old one back in. Same.
I reset cmos. Same.
I remove the new second M2 nvme. Same.
I try a spare PSU and connect it just to CPU and main mobo power headers quickly....it posts! But I don't have GPUs plugged in at this point.
I start to plug more stuff into the PSU and after a few quick cycles to see if it would keep posting, it has the same issue again...
I go back to the original psu and plug in only the motherboard and CPU power....it posts!
I realize it's not the PSU and might be something is causing it difficulty like a hdd or sata power cable maybe...
I gradually plug stuff in until I find that one of the power cables with 2 X sata and 2 X molex is the problem.
I trace it down to a single molex connected to power fans...
The molex has been stretched and knocked possibly overtime and the black and red pins are making barely a connection and are sticking out the back of the plastic connector block slightly causing a short.
Once again molex proves to be the worst cable connector type we still have to live with, closely followed by micro usb!
Do you still touch bare metal servers today? Any interesting/funny stories?
What follows is a list of troubleshooting steps until I finally arrived at the problem. So where's your money going? Which component?
This machine is stacked and fully populated with 10 fans, 8 HDDs, 2 ssds, 2 nvmes, 2 GPUs, 1 hba card so it could be a minefield but....I only changed the above 3 things.
I start by reseating and then removing entirely the new gpu. Same.
I remove both GPUs since I had to remove the second one to get to the second M2 slot and could have not seated it correctly. Same.
I start to worry it's the new CPU so put the old one back in. Same.
I reset cmos. Same.
I remove the new second M2 nvme. Same.
I try a spare PSU and connect it just to CPU and main mobo power headers quickly....it posts! But I don't have GPUs plugged in at this point.
I start to plug more stuff into the PSU and after a few quick cycles to see if it would keep posting, it has the same issue again...
I go back to the original psu and plug in only the motherboard and CPU power....it posts!
I realize it's not the PSU and might be something is causing it difficulty like a hdd or sata power cable maybe...
I gradually plug stuff in until I find that one of the power cables with 2 X sata and 2 X molex is the problem.
I trace it down to a single molex connected to power fans...
The molex has been stretched and knocked possibly overtime and the black and red pins are making barely a connection and are sticking out the back of the plastic connector block slightly causing a short.
Once again molex proves to be the worst cable connector type we still have to live with, closely followed by micro usb!
Do you still touch bare metal servers today? Any interesting/funny stories?