Help with SC505-203B

[busterswt]

Hello all,

I've had a SuperMicro X10SDV-TLN4F board installed in a SC505-203B chassis for some time now running ESXi, and recently powered down the server to move it to a UPS. Upon moving it, I found it would not start up via the power button, but IPMI worked and the network activity lights were on. Attempting to boot the server via IPMI was unsuccessful.

I spoke to SuperMicro and had the board RMA'd, but it came back with a clean bill of health. I reinstalled into the chassis and it worked fine. 10 minutes later it was offline with the same symptoms. I tried various combinations of RAM to no avail, and went so far as to pull the board and reinstall. The only remaining components are the power supply and the front switch panel. Lightened the load on the power supply by pulling drives, but that didn't appear to help any.

Has anyone experienced similar issues? I'm all for suggestions before RMA'ing the chassis.

 

[MiniKnight]

Sounds like a symptom of either using more than just the ATX power supply, bad BIOS chip, or a short. Since you RMA'd the board, it's most likely not the BIOS chip. Did you try running it with only the ATX power connector and out of the case?

We've got ~two dozen in that configuration so it isn't a compatibility issue.

 

[busterswt]

Thanks for the assist, MiniKnight. I tested the board outside of the chassis with success, reinstalled, and ran into issues shortly thereafter. Immediate followup tests outside of the chassis failed. Fast forward to today, and outside the chassis works fine for about 10 minutes then it powers off unexpectedly.

On a side note: when the unit is functioning, the BMC LED (LEDM1) on the motherboard blinks when the unit has power. The light continues to blink when it fails, but if the unit is unplugged and plugged back in, LEDM1 is solid.

Anyway, I'm gonna RMA the power supply and go from there. Thanks again.

 

[Rhinox]

I do not know 505-203B, but I have 504-203B (which should be the same except for eth/usb ports on the back side) and I remember I could plug in the front-panel header into mobo in two ways. If done wrong way, nothing on the front panel works...

 

[K D]

I do not know 505-203B, but I have 504-203B (which should be the same except for eth/usb ports on the back side) and I remember I could plug in the front-panel header into mobo in two ways. If done wrong way, nothing on the front panel works...

There will be a white line on the motherboard indicating which is PIN1 and the purple(or pink) strand on the cable is pin1. You can align both to plug in the right way.

 

[busterswt]

Just an update for anyone who may be interested in how this worked out.

8/4 - RMA'd the motherboard
8/15 - Received the motherboard back with clean bill of health. Issue still exists.
8/21 - RMA'd the power supply
9/12 - Received a replacement power supply. Issue still exists.
9/15 - RMA'd the motherboard, again.
10/13 - Received replacement motherboard. Issue still exists.
10/16 - RMA'd the power supply (cross-shipment).
10/26 - Received replacement power supply. Issue resolved.

So, all-in-all, it took about 3 months to resolve the issue of a faulty motherboard that included multiple RMAs and non-working replacement parts. The server is back up and operational, but what a PITA.

 

[K D]

Painful.... But glad the ordeal is finally over.