Xserve1,1 gives me the nope, nopity nope treatment

[Alf Torp]

You'd almost suspect I had asked it on a date or something. I feel rejected!
...
*Hrm* Anyway, I got my XServe 1.1 2x 3.0GHZ 2006 Xserve home yesterday, after a month or so of waiting so what better way to kill a few hours than to start it up and see what's what? I starts right up, but since there were no disks in it, I plopped a 1TB Seagate in to bay 1 and figured I'd install 10.5 or 10.6 server on it. So I made a couple of bootable install partitions on a FireWire disk and held down the option key. Cool! It finds both partitions! So I selected 10.6 and moved forward.

No. Chance.

It finds the partition, I get the dark grey apple on the light grey background. But as soon as it is about to enter the installer/desktop it either gives me a grey screen, or a blue screen. That's it. No cursor, no nothing. Some times, if I wait long enough the cursor will show up with a bunch of 10x10mm'ish black squares. Once or twice, I have been able to access the "select language" menu in the installer but when I have selected lingo it just... does nothing. I can sometimes move the cursor at this stage, sometimes it freezes.

Troubleshooting so far (I've rebooted after every step):
- Tried booting from 10.4 to 10.7 in various iterations
- Removed both drive bays
- RAM shuffle (It has 7GB of RAM, I've removed, shuffled, paired, unpaired, despaired....)
- Removed the optional SCSI card
- Removed the Fiber channel card.
- Removed and shuffled the power supplies around
- Removed the original graphics card
- Tried an NVIDIA GeForce 6600 graphics card (not sure if compatible. No video at all to it)
- Removed both processors, one at a time
- Swapped the processors around
- Disconnected the optical drive (for good measure. Nothing to lose, right?)
- Installed 10.7 to a sata drive and put it in the Xserve. (boots to apple and spinning boot thingy, gets no further. Fans go full blast after a while)
- Verbose boot from boot partition gives me "Waiting for DMOS" even if I delete the Don't Steal Mac OS.kext), and stops there indefinitely.
- Tested with a different displaaaay (on the off chance a good displaaaayy was incompatible) ... no difference.

Im pretty sure it is a hardware issue by now. But what? I’m basically down to the graphics card and the mlb... Oh, and... does anyone know if the XServe is finicky about its mini DVI adapter?

What I am considering doing:
- Try to make it boot in some sort of Linux (to hopefully rule out ALL software incompatibility issues)
- Replace the graphics card with a known good one, if I can get one somewhere.
- Start looking for a different logic board (...meeeh, not worth it. But still...)
- Put the Fiber channel card in my G5 (If compatible, I haven't bothered checking and can't remember) and use the raid with the G5 instead.

Input is most welcome, I may have missed something "D'oh", and right now I'm *holds up thumb and forefinger 1 micron apart)* THIS close to giving it a reprogramming it will never remember...

... and boy howdy, what a loud mouth that thing is! Noisy doesn't quite cover it.

Also, if anyone has a couple of fiber channel cables floating around that they don't need, would you consider selling them to me?

 

[Alf Torp]

You'd almost suspect I had asked it on a date or something. I feel rejected!
...
*Hrm* Anyway, I got my XServe 1.1 2x 3.0GHZ 2006 Xserve home yesterday, after a month or so of waiting so what better way to kill a few hours than to start it up and see what's what? I starts right up, but since there were no disks in it, I plopped a 1TB Seagate in to bay 1 and figured I'd install 10.5 or 10.6 server on it. So I made a couple of bootable install partitions on a FireWire disk and held down the option key. Cool! It finds both partitions! So I selected 10.6 and moved forward.

No. Chance.

It finds the partition, I get the dark grey apple on the light grey background. But as soon as it is about to enter the installer/desktop it either gives me a grey screen, or a blue screen. That's it. No cursor, no nothing. Some times, if I wait long enough the cursor will show up with a bunch of 10x10mm'ish black squares. Once or twice, I have been able to access the "select language" menu in the installer but when I have selected lingo it just... does nothing. I can sometimes move the cursor at this stage, sometimes it freezes.

Troubleshooting so far (I've rebooted after every step):
- Tried booting from 10.4 to 10.7 in various iterations
- Removed both drive bays
- RAM shuffle (It has 7GB of RAM, I've removed, shuffled, paired, unpaired, despaired....)
- Removed the optional SCSI card
- Removed the Fiber channel card.
- Removed and shuffled the power supplies around
- Removed the original graphics card
- Tried an NVIDIA GeForce 6600 graphics card (not sure if compatible. No video at all to it)
- Removed both processors, one at a time
- Swapped the processors around
- Disconnected the optical drive (for good measure. Nothing to lose, right?)
- Installed 10.7 to a sata drive and put it in the Xserve. (boots to apple and spinning boot thingy, gets no further. Fans go full blast after a while)
- Verbose boot from boot partition gives me "Waiting for DMOS" even if I delete the Don't Steal Mac OS.kext), and stops there indefinitely.
- Tested with a different displaaaay (on the off chance a good displaaaayy was incompatible) ... no difference.

Im pretty sure it is a hardware issue by now. But what? I’m basically down to the graphics card and the mlb... Oh, and... does anyone know if the XServe is finicky about its mini DVI adapter?

What I am considering doing:
- Try to make it boot in some sort of Linux (to hopefully rule out ALL software incompatibility issues)
- Replace the graphics card with a known good one, if I can get one somewhere.
- Start looking for a different logic board (...meeeh, not worth it. But still...)
- Put the Fiber channel card in my G5 (If compatible, I haven't bothered checking and can't remember) and use the raid with the G5 instead.

Input is most welcome, I may have missed something "D'oh", and right now I'm *holds up thumb and forefinger 1 micron apart)* THIS close to giving it a reprogramming it will never remember...

... and boy howdy, what a loud mouth that thing is! Noisy doesn't quite cover it.

Also, if anyone has a couple of fiber channel cables floating around that they don't need, would you consider selling them to me?

Some imagery of the Xserve tantrums

 

[Alf Torp]

Some imagery of the Xserve tantrumsView attachment 4786View attachment 4787

Grudgingly, I have invested heavily ($180) in another Xserve. 2.26 GHz 8 core, 12GB RAM. I am NOT letting this one get away with it though, I just needed to feel that there was some sort of progress (there isn't) and that I was moving forward (I'm not) with my server project. Luckily, this new old Xserve IS functional. Now I just need fibre channel cables, a gigabit ethernet switch and some chutzpah/gumption. I will also need a place ->outside<- to put it. Because no matter where I put it in our house, it will keep us awake at night as well as give us tinnitus. So there's that. But there is a plan put forth, for what might possibly might be the weirdest server room ever... I might even be able to get that done before winter. 45 days and counting...

 

[Alf Torp]

Ok... a little progress, I guess.

Two dead drives, though. Trying to revive them but I don't have much hope for them.

Does anyone happen to have two of these disks - in functioning order - laying around?

I enjoy the light show on the front of the Xserve Raid though. I might have to set up a webcam pointing at it, so I can watch it when I uh... watch movies or download/upload files.

 

[luminescentsimian]

Now I just need fibre channel cables, a gigabit ethernet switch and some chutzpah/gumption.

I saved some Apple fiber channel DAC cables from recycling back in the day. A pair of them fit nicely in a USPS flat rate box ($10). DM me if you're interested.

 

[Alf Torp]

Finally managed to do some troubleshooting on the Xserve 1,1. The RAM slots behave very weird. I have four 1GB memory modules, and two 512MB modules. I need to mention first, that slots 2 and 5 don't work at all so I don't populate them at all. Also, the server will ONLY boot in Safe mode. Otherwise it simply hangs at various stages at, or just before loading the GUI.

So:
- If I put 1GB modules in any of the working slots, they seem to read ok, but the computer acts weird (graphic anomalies, hangs when loading desktop and whatnot) if not booting in Safe mode.

- However, if I add the 512MB to any of the working slots, it will also reduce the 1GB modules to 512MB. So here I have the 4 1GB modules installed:

And it looks like this in System Profile:

Looks all fine and dandy.

But if I install the 512MB modules, it reads all modules as 512MB(different slots used in this image):

I am assuming a defective logic board, but... what on the logic board would cause symptoms like this? I am considering pulling the board to see if I can find visible damage, but I am thinking memory addressing is haywire...

 

[luminescentsimian]

Hmm. I wonder if you can use memtest86 or memtest86+ on that machine and maybe get better diagnostics of the RAM.
Do the serial numbers all read the same when it reads everything as 512M?

 

[Alf Torp]

Hmm. I wonder if you can use memtest86 or memtest86+ on that machine and maybe get better diagnostics of the RAM.
Do the serial numbers all read the same when it reads everything as 512M?

I guess I should have checked those serial numbers... but didn't.

I've tested all the modules separately though, in the computer, and the symptoms (garbled video when or just before entering desktop, hangs at the same time) don't change unless I safe boot. I kind of refuse to believe all 6 modules are bad...

However, I pulled the logic board just now, and there is indications that the memory controller has overheated. I am pretty sure by now that this is where the problem is. It's a soldered Intel 5000X memory controller, so that basically means that either I can try to reflow the controller or I replace the board.

The board is already bad as far as I am concerned, so I may try reflowing just for funsies.

 

[Alf Torp]

Another update.

Reflowed the memory controller, now it recognizes all the memory slots, and doesn't reduce the 1GB modules to 512MB. Also, the symptoms have changed somewhat. It now panics on ordinary boot, same place where it would get weird graphics and freeze before. So yeah, I think I am in the market for a known good logic board for this bugger, as I can't be bothered chasing this problem. I'm reluctant to use the server for parts as well. Too good for that, as all the other bits seems to work just fine....

And to whoever decides to try to reflow these memory controllers... make sure you have a reflow station that goes to ALL the degrees. F° or C°. That thing sinks heat like a champ!

 

[Alf Torp]

Crapskis... I guess I now own yet another Xserve. $20. Complete except caddies. *sigh*

 

[Alf Torp]

....and another one. So now I am up to 3 XServes and 1 RAID. I really could use another RAID or two though. Because I can't keep the heat up in the workshop where I keep all of it when it dips below -10°C...

 

[Alf Torp]

...aaaaaand two more. 1 single processor 2.26 with hardware RAID built in and a battery that is dead, as well as an XServe G4. So, grand total of 5, and one XServe RAID. Now I just need 4 more RAIDS, a 25 U rack to put everything in and a sponsorship with the local power company.... My new years resolution was: "Stop buying computers". And I lasted all of 5 days in to the new year. Yay me!