Page 1 of 1

IBM Powerstation won't turn on

PostPosted: Wed May 15, 2013 4:39 pm
by ryanvade
Hello everyone. A friend of mine wants to turn their old IBM Powerstation Server into a Linux file server. The problem is that the dang thing won't turn on. When
I press the power button the thing justs beeps. Continuously. He told me that it used to run fine and that he was able to get it to turn on before by messing with the ram. Well I tried all combinations of the ram and it wont turn on. I don't have the specs with me at the moment but it has 2 xeons and (i think) up to 8Gb ram. It weights a ton. I am also wondering if it could be the power regulator for the ram. It has one of the removable chip kind. Does anyone have any suggestions? What should I look for? This thing is PERFECT for a server, if I could just get it to work.

Re: IBM Powerstation won't turn on

PostPosted: Wed May 15, 2013 10:57 pm
by Micro
First take out all the RAM and keep only one module in the labeled #1 slot on the motherboard. If it's a two socket server make sure there are one of equal size RAM on the #1 slots for both. Then if it turns on, check to see if the RAM is set to advanced ecc mode. Or let me know what it is set to and I can tell you what the module config should be. It will give you diferent memory options in the bios, but each one has specific placement and size configs. Or you can just get the manual for this server and check for yourself. Either way just let me know and also what powerstation it actually is might matter?

Re: IBM Powerstation won't turn on

PostPosted: Thu May 16, 2013 2:51 pm
by ryanvade

Re: IBM Powerstation won't turn on

PostPosted: Thu May 16, 2013 3:05 pm
by Micro
That should be ok for ftp but your bottleneck might be at the 10/100 nic. Try my RAM suggestions and let me know if it powers on. Only populate the first modules of each socket with the same size memory. Preferably 512mb on each first slot...

Re: IBM Powerstation won't turn on

PostPosted: Thu May 16, 2013 5:11 pm
by ryanvade
I will let you know what happens. I may not have access to the machine for quite some time. (A few weeks to a month) The machine would only be used for video backups for the video team, although we have a better network card ready. I definitely think it is the ECC bit. Something I will have to explain to my friend..
Parity memory modules have an extra chip on them to check for errors. Therefore, non-parity memory should have an even number of chips on the module and parity memory should have an odd number. Typically, there will be 8 chips on a non-ECC module and 9 chips on an ECC module.

However, some parity SIMMs can have 12, 18, 24 or 36 chips. Therefore, a sure-fire way to determine of a memory module is parity or non-parity is to divide the number of chips on the module by three. If the number is evenly divisible by 3, it is a parity, or ECC module. If the number of chips is not divisible by three, the module is non-parity, or non-ECC.

Re: IBM Powerstation won't turn on

PostPosted: Fri May 17, 2013 8:34 am
by Micro
Rgr shouldn't be to hard to get back online. Drop me a PM when you touch down on this machine in the future...