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So, to make a long story short, despite no emergency calls over the weekend post-lightning strike, my morning has been blown to hell by tons of outages, including an entire server. 
This particular server manages data backups and all of the phone charges from guest phone calls. For 100+ rooms on a busy weekend, that's a fair amount of lost revenue.
I go in, check the server, and get nothing from the KVM. Verify it is plugged in, power it down manually
and turn it back on. No post, no beep, no video. Red lights instead of green lights on the tower. This makes me a sad helpdesk.
On a whim, I run our warranty through the vendors online system. Expired in Jan 2005. Huzzah?
I unplug the HDDs to see if it will post, as this wouldn't be the first time a bad drive has shorted a system board. Still nothing. Repeat with the CD drive. Nada. It would appear the board is indeed toasty.
I spend some time calling around to see if a replacement board is anywhere in the county, but I come up with nothing. A replacement system is available for $2,400 but they won't sell me just the board.
After calling our 3rd party contractor, who actually knows all the details of the software, I learn there's a restore utility 'somewhere on the network' which we can use to reinstall the server end to a new system. Including the spare XP box just sitting on the floor in the server room. All it needs is a serial card because the software uses multiple COM ports.
So, I go to swap the extra serial card from the toasty server and I say out loud to the server racks "Watch, the damned serial card will be what's shorting out the board." You can see where this is going.
Install the serial card in the new machine. Plug it into the KVM and turn it on. No beep, no post, no nothing.
Grab one other spare machine, plug it in before swapping the serial port: POST, beep... No HDD?
Fine, no HDD, but same hardware as the other XP box, so I swap the HDD and the serial card. Plug it in and: No POST, no beep, nothing...
Unplug the HDD, start the machine no POST, no beep, nothing. AAAAAARGH!!!!
MY PSYCHIC POWERS WERE WORKING AND I IGNORED THEM!!! I'M AN IDIOT!!!!
Grab a new serial card. Toss it in the server. POST, BEEP, BOOT! Victory is mine! And psychic powers too!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!
P.S. Please don't tell the end users my psychic upgrade was finally installed because then they will expect me to fix everything before it breaks. Thanks.
This particular server manages data backups and all of the phone charges from guest phone calls. For 100+ rooms on a busy weekend, that's a fair amount of lost revenue.
I go in, check the server, and get nothing from the KVM. Verify it is plugged in, power it down manually
and turn it back on. No post, no beep, no video. Red lights instead of green lights on the tower. This makes me a sad helpdesk.On a whim, I run our warranty through the vendors online system. Expired in Jan 2005. Huzzah?
I unplug the HDDs to see if it will post, as this wouldn't be the first time a bad drive has shorted a system board. Still nothing. Repeat with the CD drive. Nada. It would appear the board is indeed toasty.
I spend some time calling around to see if a replacement board is anywhere in the county, but I come up with nothing. A replacement system is available for $2,400 but they won't sell me just the board.
After calling our 3rd party contractor, who actually knows all the details of the software, I learn there's a restore utility 'somewhere on the network' which we can use to reinstall the server end to a new system. Including the spare XP box just sitting on the floor in the server room. All it needs is a serial card because the software uses multiple COM ports.
So, I go to swap the extra serial card from the toasty server and I say out loud to the server racks "Watch, the damned serial card will be what's shorting out the board." You can see where this is going.
Install the serial card in the new machine. Plug it into the KVM and turn it on. No beep, no post, no nothing.
Grab one other spare machine, plug it in before swapping the serial port: POST, beep... No HDD?
Fine, no HDD, but same hardware as the other XP box, so I swap the HDD and the serial card. Plug it in and: No POST, no beep, nothing...
Unplug the HDD, start the machine no POST, no beep, nothing. AAAAAARGH!!!!
MY PSYCHIC POWERS WERE WORKING AND I IGNORED THEM!!! I'M AN IDIOT!!!!Grab a new serial card. Toss it in the server. POST, BEEP, BOOT! Victory is mine! And psychic powers too!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!
P.S. Please don't tell the end users my psychic upgrade was finally installed because then they will expect me to fix everything before it breaks. Thanks.
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