Finally got a stubborn old server to boot after three days of trying

Last week, a small law firm brought in a 2012 Dell PowerEdge that wouldn't post, just beeping at me. I spent hours swapping RAM, checking the PSU, and finally found a single bent pin on the CPU socket I'd missed twice. Has anyone else had a similar fix that felt impossible until the very last check?

4 comments

4 Comments

kimr743mo ago

Spent a whole weekend on an old HP ProLiant that kept shutting down. I was convinced it was the power supply, but it turned out to be a tiny crack in the motherboard near a mounting post, only visible with a magnifying glass. The relief was unreal, lmao.

wesleyb201mo ago

Funny enough, I used to think those hairline crack theories were overblown, but @lisa531's mention of that RAM slot issue got me thinking. Then I dealt with an old Dell tower that would randomly freeze, and I swapped out the PSU, RAM, even the CPU cooler. Ended up being a tiny stress fracture right where the board flexed near the I/O panel, impossible to see without pulling the whole thing. Totally changed my mind about checking for physical damage early on. Your mileage may vary, but now I always do a close visual inspection before throwing money at new parts.

betty_wells3mo ago

Man, that's how it always goes. The biggest headaches come from the smallest, dumbest things you'd never think to check.

lisa5313mo ago

Ugh, my buddy had that with a hairline crack in a RAM slot.