Andrew Gaffney

I recently managed to get a HP C3600 workstation (after a lot of frustration and having to threaten legal action...don't ask). It had been working fine for the last week or so on serial console. I decided to try to get keyboard/video working. I picked up one of those PS/2->USB adapters that handles the USB stuff for the keyboard. I plugged in the keyboard and stuck in an ATI Rage II Mach64 GT card that I had laying around. The card had been pulled (working) from my x86 box about a week ago and replaced with a card with more video memory.

The machine came up just fine but it kept going to serial console. The video card was detected:

Information Menu: Enter command > io

I/O MODULE INFORMATION
                                                                     IODC IODC
Path         Decimal     Type                  Location   HVER SVER  Vers Dep
------------ ----------- --------------------- ---------- ---- ----  ---- ----
<snip>
PCI6         10/1/6/0    VGA                   slot 6     0070 8500  0x01 0x00

I ran a few more information commands and walked away leaving the machine running. When I came back ~15 minutes later, I saw the following on the serial console:

Main Menu: Enter command > pcoq000000f0 f000b748
    000000f0 f000b74c
ior 00001f38
iir 53c63e73
pcoq000000f0 f000b748
    000000f0 f000b74c
ior 00001f38
iir 53c63e73
(same 4 lines repeating 6 more times)
pcoq000000f0 f000b748
    000

At this point, the box was locked up (not responding to any input over serial). I shut it off and turned it back on. I hear the fans and HD spinning up, but all I get on the LCD is solid blocks across the top row, and nothing comes over the serial. I've unplugged the keyboard and removed the video card, but that hasn't helped. I've left it unplugged overnight, but that didn't help. Does anyone have any idea what happened or how to fix it?

I just finished putting together a FAQ (URL changed) for the Installer project. We've been getting asked these questions over and over again, and it was starting to get a little bit annoying. Questions, comments, additions, etc. are welcome.