Author Topic: Faulty HP NetServer E60 Motherboard  (Read 567 times)

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Offline HalcyonTopic starter

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Faulty HP NetServer E60 Motherboard
« on: February 24, 2023, 08:14:16 am »
I thought I'd ask here in case anyone was familiar with these machines.

I have a NetServer E60 which was kindly donated to me. Dual Pentium 3 450MHz machine, quite nice condition.

Only issue is, the board seems dead. 1 long, 2 short error beeps on power-up (which apparently indicates some kind of option ROM checksum failure and the manual suggests to replace the mainboard).

I went through all the basic troubleshooting steps, including clearing BIOS, replacing the battery, removing all cards. trying different combinations of CPU/RAM, and powering it up outside the case. Nothing works, so it does seem that something on the board has actually died.

The only removable chip is in a 28 pin PLCC socket with the label "PBNC1 4.06.13", which I assume is the BIOS/CMOS chip. Everything else is soldered to the board. But I don't have the appropriate hardware to read it out or re-flash it.

Any suggestions where to go from here before I try and source a replacement board?

The part number(s) of the board is D7140-63000 / D7140-69000 (because HP love separate part numbers for spare/replacement parts).
 

Offline coromonadalix

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Re: Faulty HP NetServer E60 Motherboard
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2023, 04:16:14 pm »
could this error,  check the cmos battery too, the bios may have resetted to default values who are not good for the computer until settled right

1-2 Search for option ROMs. One long, two short beeps on checksum failure.
 

Offline HalcyonTopic starter

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Re: Faulty HP NetServer E60 Motherboard
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2023, 02:10:18 am »
Modern machines (anything in the last 30 years) will still POST even if CMOS is cleared (otherwise there would be no way of setting them again).

Either way, I have ruled out the battery, as I said, it has been replaced/settings reset. The only thing I haven't ruled out is a corrupt BIOS, which there is no way to re-flash using this PC.
 

Online Ed.Kloonk

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Re: Faulty HP NetServer E60 Motherboard
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2023, 03:06:42 am »
Check voltages. If it's as old as I think it is, it's prime for having shitty capacitors.
iratus parum formica
 

Offline MrMobodies

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Re: Faulty HP NetServer E60 Motherboard
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2023, 09:16:27 pm »
I had a few boards like that Pentium 3 and 4's with poor quality noname capacitors but not showing any signs of bulging.

When coming out of storage for some time they come on dead.

When I apply the hairdryer and they start working again for a while.
 

Offline HalcyonTopic starter

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Re: Faulty HP NetServer E60 Motherboard
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2023, 01:46:26 am »
You guys raise a good point and one I didn't turn my mind to. I do have another Pentium III era board with bad caps, although the symptoms were a bit different. It would intermittently boot (well it used to, now it just doesn't do anything at all), so it was a slow failure.

I might replace some of the caps as a matter of course.
 


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