Unable to boot PC

[cryogene]

The Problems:
1. PC unable to boot up occationally.
    This happens on and off since a couple of months ago. I had to unplug all the PCI card and then plug them back to let the PC boot. After a few days/ weeks, it happen again. The current set up was unchanged until now.
2. Now, the PC is unable to boot if the PCI slot is slotted in certain slots. On other slots, the PC is able to boot up but unable to detect all the NI cards.

Current NI PCI cards:
a) PCI-6528
b) PCI-6229
c) PCI-7344

Industrial PC:
a) AAEON industrial PC chassis (ARC-640) (link)
b) AAEON P4 full size CPU card (FSB-886G2-VE) (link)

I'm not sure if this is a compatibility issue or what. I have 2 other testers using the exact same setup but never have such issue so frequently. The two others have such issue at least once when the PC was new, but now running fine. Also, the environment where it is used is air conditioned and no vibration.

I would appeciate it if anybody out there have any ideas or recommendation to resolve this problem.

Thanks!

[Robert_F]

Hello Cryogene,

It sounds like there is resource problem.  Most of the time this problem is resolved by making sure that you have the most recent BIOS.  Try contacting AAEON and ask for the current BIOS. 

Try inserting these cards into a regular desktop in different orders.  We want to rule out that these cards must be in a specific order for your computer to boot.  Your computer should not have any trouble with these cards in any order.

Write back with any updates, I want to make sure that you are able to get your system working correctly.

[gwd]

Could be a hardware problem with the PC. I had something rather like this happen when a hard drive was going south and drawing excessive current.

[cryogene]

Rob,

Thanks for the suggestion. I have tried all sorts of slot combination. They worked fine previously.....but still unable to reboot on certain days, probably due to PMS or something and then everytime it happens, I have to plug out all the cards and plug them all in again. Sometimes there's no problem if i plug them back to the same slot, other times when it can't boot, I have to use another slot order.


That was months ago. Now the cards totally can't be detected. I'll be changing the power supply and try again, else I'll change the backplane. If it still happen again, I'll have to change another PC.

Is there a chance where external wiring connection cause this problem? If there is, then no matter what I change on the PC side will not solve this problem.

[Robert_F]

Hello Cryogene,

To my knowledge there are no external connections that could be made that would be causing this problem.  Are you able to boot up your computer if nothing is connected to the boards?  Are you only seeing this problem with hardware connected to your boards?

If something or nothing is connected to the boards, they should not limit your computer from booting.  The cards should not be affected by any external connections.  I really think that this problem is related to resource conflicts. 

It is possible that the power supply is on its way out and the boards are drawing too much power away from the CPU. This could explain why the computer is not booting.  I would update the BIOS first before you try to replace the power supply or any other products.

[gwd]

Just a thought about this. Changing the power supply is cheap and easy to try. Updating BIOS...maybe could cause some other issues, much harder to reverse? If it were me I wouldn't try the BIOS first.

[cryogene]

Rob,

The PC would normally boot up without any PCI cards attached but I have encountered once where the PC was unable to boot and I have to plug out/ in the CPU daughter board in order to boot up again.

I have shipped power supply and backplane over to customer site and I should know the result by next week. I'll update here again by then.

[cryogene]

We managed to solve the problem (hopefully once and for all) by changing the backplane. Apparently, the backplane has scratches on it.