N40L Microserver will not power on. On switch will not do anything.

[A_J]

Team,

I have a N40L micro server which I am using for a home cinema media server. It has been sat in my lounge for a couple of years quite happily.

This week, possibly after a power cut, the server failed to start. I noticed it sat there with the on/off button showing an amber colour and the HP logo on the front panel was not illuminated.

I tried to press and hold the on/off button but the amber light remained on and the server did nothing.

If I removed the power cable there is a click as I plug it back in, the amber light comes back on. The only other light is the network activity light which flashes occassionally as it was still plugged into the network.

No fans run, no disks start, no output to the monitor via the Radeon HDMI graphics card. It won't even show the bios page.

I am assuming that the power supply has failed perhaps. What tests can I do to find the fault?

Could it be a faulty switch?

The OS which was running was Windows 2008 Server.

It had two disks, 250Gb system disk and a single 500Gb data disk. No RAID was configured.

The only addition was a Radeon graphics card.

Any ideas what to try?

Thanks

AJ

[Cloud_Strider]

You may want to try the business support forums found at the following link.

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/bd-p/itrc-264

[Champnet]

Did you get a solution to this as i now have the same problem ?

DM

[A_J]

Hi,

I think it's a dodgy switch. I powered off and pulled out the mains cable from the back. Left it 10 minutes, plugged it all back in and then pushed (hard) on the  button pushing and holding it in until it started to boot. I haven't had cause to use it again since and have just left well alone, but I am pretty sure it's a faulty switch.

I hope that is of some help.

AJ

[Champnet]

Thanks for your very quick reply.

I was prepared to replace the power supply unit but it's a big expense if it's not the solution.

As you suggested the power button looks the likely problem as it is showing signs of power........

DM

[A_J]

No problem. I know how frustrating these things can be. I did have to push the switch quite hard while holding the back of the box to stop is sliding off the desk it was on.
Do post back to let us know if that was the issue as I am sure we won't be the only ones finding this if it is.
AJ

[Champnet]

I'll be back...........

[Champnet · Accepted solution]

You were right, problem was caused by jammed power switch.

After a bit of prodding it's still jammed but in the ON position.

Hugh improvement till i can get it replaced.

Thanks for your help...........

DM

[A_J]

Excellent news... in a way.

At least you know where the problem lies and it saved you the cost and hassle of changing the power supply only to find that the problem still existed with the switch.

I wonder if this is a design fault in the switch. I can have only used the switch about 3 times in the the past 2 years so it's certainly not an overuse issue!

AJ

[nealgs]

Not an N40L, but an N36L - server is used as a media server, running VMWare and an XP guest. 3 HD, one added as a RAW LUN to VMWare as, no extra cards.

Server just under 3yrs old, been used pretty much 24x7, but very rarely gets powered down.  Yesterday, after copying a few GB of files around, i noticed my Vsphere client connection to the server had dropped.

Bit wierd, thought it was a network issue, tried to reconnect - nothing, then i noticed the N36L server had no lights lit - wierder.

Power light not illuminated nor the HP logo - press power button, nothing.  removed power lead, swapped with another one, nothing.  Luckily i took out a HP Care pack on this server.  Have tried pressing the button harder, nothing, swapped power lead and sockets, nothing.

HP support suggesting try booting with just CPU & single memory stick - not tried this as yet, but IIRC it only has one stick of RAM in it anyway.

Anyone any ideas what other test i can try?

cheers

Gary