Greendrake
New Member
- Joined
- May 22, 2017
Motherboard: Intel S1200KPR
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1270 v2
After working fine for several years, my home server became hard to start. When turned on, both the CPU and GPU fans would spin loudly at perhaps their maximum speeds and there will be no display signal at all (no even BIOS screen). Sometimes the machine would then suddenly slow down and start booting (often this comes with a few seconds of complete stop; I noted that this also happens when I change the GPU), but lately it would often spin at high speed forever, making me turn it off and try again.
I googled the problem and found a checklist of things to check. All power connectors are in place, the memory is fine (tested with memtest86). Then, in my case the problem is intermittent: it would sometimes start and work perfectly fine but only until next stop/start or even just reboot.
CMOS battery became the main suspect. On this motherboard, the battery comes with wires and connector — something hard to find in retail. I took the connectors off from the old battery, attached them to a new CR2032 and plugged in. All of a sudden that worked — the machine started booting without delay. On the next start, it spun loudly for about 5-10 seconds and then started booting. But now, just after a few hours of installing the new battery, I am again having hard times trying to start it.
My second suspect was the PCI-E slot. I used to plug/unplug GPUs in it very often, and that could have made it unstable. But then, why did the battery change help instantly? And if it was the battery, why would the help last only for a few hours? Any ideas of what could be wrong will be much appreciated
P.S. Just as I finished writing this post, when the server had been off for about an hour, I decided to give it a shot again. And it started booting instantly! But I bet when I turn it off later and try again straight away it won't work
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1270 v2
After working fine for several years, my home server became hard to start. When turned on, both the CPU and GPU fans would spin loudly at perhaps their maximum speeds and there will be no display signal at all (no even BIOS screen). Sometimes the machine would then suddenly slow down and start booting (often this comes with a few seconds of complete stop; I noted that this also happens when I change the GPU), but lately it would often spin at high speed forever, making me turn it off and try again.
I googled the problem and found a checklist of things to check. All power connectors are in place, the memory is fine (tested with memtest86). Then, in my case the problem is intermittent: it would sometimes start and work perfectly fine but only until next stop/start or even just reboot.
CMOS battery became the main suspect. On this motherboard, the battery comes with wires and connector — something hard to find in retail. I took the connectors off from the old battery, attached them to a new CR2032 and plugged in. All of a sudden that worked — the machine started booting without delay. On the next start, it spun loudly for about 5-10 seconds and then started booting. But now, just after a few hours of installing the new battery, I am again having hard times trying to start it.
My second suspect was the PCI-E slot. I used to plug/unplug GPUs in it very often, and that could have made it unstable. But then, why did the battery change help instantly? And if it was the battery, why would the help last only for a few hours? Any ideas of what could be wrong will be much appreciated
P.S. Just as I finished writing this post, when the server had been off for about an hour, I decided to give it a shot again. And it started booting instantly! But I bet when I turn it off later and try again straight away it won't work
