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I have a HP ProLiant DL160 G5 and a real strange problem:

If the server is unplugged for several minutes, it comes up without any problems.

If I gracefully shut it down, pressing the power button doesn't power it up again. Replugging the power cable also doesn't help. The only solution is to unplug it for several minutes, wait, and replug it. Together with some magic unicorn dust eventually it comes up again.

I'm able to connect to the serial IPMI console. So I tried to trigger a boot from there and typed:

/./-> cd system1
/./system1/-> start
System1 started.

But guess what, it doesn't come up, just nothing happens.

Did anyone already have similar behaviours?

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Sounds like a broken capacitor to me. If you're lucky, it's in the power supply. Try changing it and compare the result. If it persists, another, more important piece might be damaged.

Less likely, but easier to fix could be an issue in the BIOS. Try reflashing it (with the most recent version). Also, try starting the server with just one stick of RAM to rule out any issues there.

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  • Thx, first I'll test reflashing the bios. Afterwards I hope changing the supply solves the problem. As far as I can say, the caps of all (visible) capacitors still look okay, none of them are bloated.
    – rralf
    Dec 8, 2015 at 14:39
  • Latest Bios firmware - now fans are running on 16krpm and won't calm down - even if the system is not under load. And now the bios has problems detecting my hdds which use to work fine on other machines. Sounds like a hardware failure...
    – rralf
    Dec 8, 2015 at 23:08
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    Very much so.. But I'd still try changing the PSU before doing anything else.
    – vic
    Dec 8, 2015 at 23:58
  • Were you able to resolve the issue or at least pinpoint the problem?
    – vic
    Dec 13, 2015 at 12:20
  • Thx for your interest. I found out how to reconstruct the problem: After powering on a vacuum cleaner next to the server, it went immediately in fail state. So it definitely looks like a damaged power supply. I ordered a new one just few days ago. I'm very curious!
    – rralf
    Dec 13, 2015 at 19:24

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