So I was trying to install R5F1 on a spare IBM Intellistation M Pro workstation, and I've run into the most bizarre hardware/software problem that I've ever encountered.

Basically, the computer seems bricked. No video, no LAN (at least not that I can ping or ssh into), no fail-POST beeps, nothing. When turned on, it just sits there, fans/drives spinning, doing nothing.

The backstory: I was trying to get R5F1 working on it (and generally pulling my hair out, but that's another story) when I decided I'd reboot the machine. Nothing was wrong prior to the reboot. System went down fine, but then the video went out ... screen went into Power Save ... and it never came back up. No BIOS screen, nothing. When turned on, the monitor never even comes out of Power Save. The power LED on the motherboard goes on, as does the little connection light on the Ethernet jack in back, and the CPU fan spins, and the HD and LAN lights flash intermittently, but that's all it does.

Now, I know, first assumptions would be bad hardware. But it's nothing obvious. The monitor is good (I'm using it right now). The video card is good (I swapped it for another one that was fine, a Matrox, and no dice). I tried pulling the RAM DIMMs in pairs to see if they were doing it. I tried booting from a CD and floppy; nothing. It just spins up and then sits there, doing nothing but flashing the LAN-access light and apparently spewing out broadcast packets once in a while (judging by the lights on the router).

This machine hasn't ever had a problem before; it was doing just fine as a Xubuntu machine until recently.

I even tried going in and resetting the boot-block jumper on the mobo -- nothing. And I pulled out all the PCI cards and disconnected all the drives besides hda, just to see if that would do it. Nothing.

Basically, I've got a big doorstop under my desk, and no idea how to fix it.

Has anyone ever had anything like this happen before? And what did you do to fix it? It seems odd that I'd have spontaneously blown a logic board or something else serious, without any warning at all, and without doing anything besides rebooting...but I'm completely stumped.

Anyone have recommendations on what to try next? I don't have a spare PS sitting around, should that be next?

Setup is as follows:

IBM Intellistation M Pro, Pentium 4 (IBM Mod. 6229, I think)
Conqueror FX5200 AGP (also tested Matrox Millenium G450 DVI)
1GB DDR RAM
40GB hda mounted as / (on mobo's IDE controller)
RocketRaid 133 PCI Fakeraid
40GB hde mounted as /home
200GB hdg mounted as /myth
Hauppauge PVR-150 MCE

I'd go get a PS (or borrow one) and hope to god it is the problem. The only other component that might be zorched is the CPU. I have had this happen to me -- once -- and it turned out to be a bad processor. I considered it an "upgrade opportunity" since I had no other options.

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I concur, Power Supply would be my first suspect as well. I've had plenty die on me that would still get a board to spin up (fans and lights), but not boot far enough to show anything on screen.

Certainly the CPU or the Mobo could be the culprit too, but those are trickier to test, and in my opinion less likely to be the problem.

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Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to stop by Microcenter tomorrow and pick up a PS, and hopefully that's the problem.

I've never had a power supply go out like that (the last time I had one go, the computer just wouldn't turn on, period) but maybe only one of the rails has gone or something...anyway, I'll report back.

Try and boot it without the RAM in it, you will hopefully get some beeps out of it telling you it is missing some RAM. You can also do this with the Video Card and you should get a different set of beeps.

Funnily enough I have a similar problem a while ago with a HP e-Vectra, if I had a problem with the power, the system would appear to come back on in powersave mode when the power was restored. No matter how hard I tried I had a &*^& of a time getting it to boot back up again.

How I eventually worked out how to get it to boot was to let it come up to the mode it was trying and then hold down the power button. It would turn off. I would then turn if back on again using the power button and most times it would come back on again. If that didn't work I would power down using the power button, remove the power for a short time, plug it in and boot up using the power button.

I have since decommissioned this computer, although it may become a front end at one time.

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The only time i've had similar symptoms to this, it was the CPU going bad. Of course it could also be the mobo or RAM.

Okay, so I went out today and got a new PS. Thermaltake, 450W, not a bad little unit (it was like $40 after rebate). Anyway, so I put that in there, hooked it back up, and pressed the button.

And ... nothing. Drives spin up, fans spin up, LED on the mobo glows, but there's no life. Actually, there's one LESS sign of life than with the factory PS -- the Power LED on the front of the case doesn't even light up with this one. I try various connection schemes, but I can't get anything to work.

In despair, I put the factory PS back in, hook everything up, and press the button. And what do you know, the bastard turns on.

Everything runs fine, until I try to reboot -- suddenly, it's bricked again. And now, no matter what I do, I can't get it back running again. I've unplugged and replugged everything, tried disconnecting everything but the mobo ... nothing. It worked that one time, but now it won't start again.

I'm letting it cool off with the case open just to see if maybe it's a weird heat issue (maybe it starts when it's cold but not after it's been running? But I don't think that's it -- it was barely running for more than a minute or two before I rebooted it and it went back out on me again...)

I'm completely mystified. It's like it's taunting me.

Thanks for the suggestion. I gave it a try. No beeps, even with all the RAM removed. Also no beeps on no video card.

I've seen circuit boards that had a hairline crack act real funny. They'll work for a while until they heat up and then... nothing. Something expands, opens and powers down. I don't know if this applies to your box, but intermitent problems are a pain to troubleshoot. I'd rather just see the 'magic smoke' and be able to move on!

Are the capacitors on the board bulging and have a brown, crusty ooze on them? I've seen a heap of IBM machines with bad caps at work, probably 60% of our fleet. They cause the same symptoms you are describing.

It would appear then that it is one of two components, the Mainboard or the Processor. It may be heat even though itis only been on for a minute and the system is staying shutdown to prevent damage. The thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink could have gone bad and thus the heat is not getting away from the CPU.

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Girkers

Another idea - Is there a jumper for the clear CMOS on the motherboard? Having the jumper in the clear position will make the computer not even post. Some motherboards ship with the clear position in place and require you to move the jumper over one. I have even had a motherboard where it was labeld wrong

Based on suggestions that it might be the processor (and a complete lack of other options -- and I did try the BIOS reset), I pulled the processor, just to see if it looked obviously fried or anything.

Pulled it out, reseated it ... when I got everything back together, it started right up. I've been running it for about 24 hours and a few dozen power cycles since then, and it seems to be stable.

Only thing I can think of is that the proc might not have been seated, and the one time I got it to boot up, I must have just hit the heatsink just right to knock it back in ... but why it'd go out the way it did, no idea.

Afterwards, I found an IBM service note for another model of Intellistation, saying that some units were shipped from the factory with improperly seated processors. So if anyone else ever has a similar issue, and nothing else works ... try pulling the proc and reseating it.

(Incidentally there was virtually NO grease between the sink and processor itself, so I fixed that at the same time; it looked like nothing had been put in when it was manufactured.)