[rescue] U5 PCI riser

[Curtis H. Wilbar Jr.]

Lionel Peterson wrote:
>  On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at  6:16 AM, Phil Stracchino wrote:
>
>> After we took a power hit yesterday, I had considerable trouble 
>> getting my firewall U5 back up.  It would only boot on every second 
>> to third power-on attempt, I had to replace one of the NICs, swap out 
>> the PCI riser from another machine that's not using its PCI slots, 
>> and still had to move the other NIC to a different PCI slot.
>>
>> Does the U5's PCI riser have a rep for being troublesome in this 
>> fashion?
>
> Define power hit please - what else was hit/died? Was the system on a 
> surge protector? (I ask becuase I'm in the process of building a 
> "proper" data center in my basement and I'm currently thinking about 
> power issues (as the first logical step after network connectivitiy).
Depending on where the hit came from.

I had an experience where a lighting surge took out stuff....

I believe it came in via the phone lines (I suppose it could have come 
in via power
though ?).  It took out all the digital phones, got into the ethernet 
switch, took it
out, and every 100baseT NIC downstream of it (but not the 10baseT ones).

If it did come in via the phone lines... it didn't do any damage to the 
phone system
that we were ever able to find.  So maybe it did come in via power (but 
somehow the
phones and the ethernet switch took hits, while systems, printers, etc 
did not (appear
to at least)).

Didn't think there were any active components on the PCI risers in the 
U5/U10... so
seems unusual that it would get taken out (less a trace opened).

If the riser is bad, and you need one, I believe I have one (and I have 
no U5's, so I
don't need it).  Let me know if you need it.

-- Curt

>
> Luckily the U5 is a low-cost item, so replacing them with a cold spare 
> is not a big deal, but I am suprised the PCI riser/PCI NIC were 
> impacted from a power line hit (I would have assumed the MB would have 
> sacrificed itself and spared the PCI cards, memory and HDs. I guess 
> the reality is the riser is wired directly to the PS, and when the PS 
> died, it took out the riser.
>
> Were it me, I'd question the remaining life of the U5 chassis and 
> consider swapping it out with another one. If you don't have another 
> one, I can send you one for actual shipping cost. If interested, 
> contact me off-list.
>
> Lionel
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