[semi-OT] Dead Tyan machine??

Roberto C. Sánchez wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Today I found that one of my Tyan machines was dead. It is a gt20b2865.
> I've tried pulling the RAM and hard drives and turning it on. However,
> there is no video at all. I tried plugging the RAM and hard drives back
> in and again, no video. It emits a somewhat high-pitched beep at about
> one-second intervals. I suspect a fried motherboard, but at this point
> I am not sure. Can anyone with experience with Tyan machines confirm or
> refute my suspicion based on the behavior I am observing?
>
> Much appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> -Roberto
>
>
The beeping is usually an indication of dead memory, but as you say it
could be the board as well. There is also a chance it could be the CPU
but on most boards you need to at least get CPU initialization before
you can get any output from the speaker. You said you removed the memory
but have you also tried with other memory as no memory, and failed
memory could possibly give the same result. possibly try one stick at a
time if you have multiple pieces installed and see how that goes.

Dave

--

On Sun, Sep 30, 2007 at 12:51:39AM -0400, Jim Popovitch wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-09-30 at 00:30 -0400, Roberto C. Sánchez wrote:
>
> Was it dead after a reboot or just died on it's own? If the prior, then
> could this possibly be due to a dead onboard CMOS battery?
>
When I found it, it was probably hung. I have no monitors near that
rack, so I did not look at the machine's state. I then rebooted and
then it came back with the beeping I described (one-second interval, the
beeps themselves being about a half-second long). After that, I carted
a monitor over to it and that was when I was unable to get any video to
the monitor. However, the monitor and keyboard both work since I was
able to plug them into the server just above it and have them work.

Any idea on how to trouble shoot the CMOS battery? I'd hate to ship a
whole server or buy a whole new one if that is the only problem.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention that when I tried to power on the
machine with the case open, I noticed near the left-rear of the
motherboard (noted while standing in front of the server) two seven
segment displays that quickly display "44" when the power first comes
one and then switch to "C1". I am not sure if this some sort of
diagnostic or something.

Regards,

-Roberto

--
Roberto C. Sánchez
http://people.connexer.com/~roberto
http://www.connexer.com

> From: Roberto C. Sánchez
>
> Today I found that one of my Tyan machines was dead. It is a gt20b2865.
> I've tried pulling the RAM and hard drives and turning it on. However,
> there is no video at all. I tried plugging the RAM and hard drives back
> in and again, no video. It emits a somewhat high-pitched beep at about
> one-second intervals. I suspect a fried motherboard, but at this point
> I am not sure. Can anyone with experience with Tyan machines confirm or
> refute my suspicion based on the behavior I am observing?
>
> Much appreciated.
>
>
>From a quick Google search, this box has a Tyan Tomcat K8E mainboard. >From the manual for that:

4.1 Beep Codes
Fatal errors, which halt the boot process, are communicated through two kinds
of audible beeps.
* A single long beep followed by two short beeps: It indicates that a
video error has occurred.
* A single long beep repeatedly: It indicates that a DRAM error has
occurred.
The most common type of error is a memory error.

Hope this helps,

Dan Harris.

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