[olug] “Draining the Capacitors” to fix HP dl360 g6 amber interlock light

[Rob Townley]

This yt short is not what we mean by “draining the capacitors”, but since
he does not die, might be the most funny and instructive video on why it
works one will ever see.   SharpestMarble, thanks again.

https://youtube.com/shorts/pO3-8gYK4Fw?feature=shared


On Wed, Oct 25, 2017 at 5:32 AM Rob Townley <rob.townley at gmail.com> wrote:

> Random person on the internet googled and found this old thread, but was
> not sure of the answer, so he emailed me.  Posting it here as well to make
> it easier to find solution.  Thanks again Kevin
>
> *Drain The Capacitors *
> Yes, i could see that the answer would not be very clear as it is buried:
>
> On Jan 3, 2015 8:25 AM, "Kevin" <sharpestmarble at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>>>* Have you tried draining the capacitors? Unplug, pull all the
> *>>>>>* batteries, hold the power button for 15 seconds, replace batteries and
> *>>>>>* replug, and test again.*
>
> But i held down the power button for much longer - two minutes or so.  Capacitors can hold more charge for longer than they used to.  It did not work until i unplugged everything including ALL the cables, especially LAN and iLO or other cables plugged into powered equipment such as an external mini sas array.  Stripped out all add-on cards.  Removed the watch battery and RAID batteries.
>
> Draining the Capacitors is the most useful hardware advice ever.  Countless electronics are fixed by this now.  GPU crashes my desktop hard?  Drain the Capacitors instead of temporarily unplugging the video card.  Did not have to unplug much for this to work, just the power cord.  Laptop does not post?  Drain the capacitors.
>
> Some other notes on HP.  Many times, i thought HP servers were dead and heading to the recycle bin, setting the switches inside for a complete reset worked.  We had many hassles trying to buy the expensive warranty to get the latest firmware, but new firmware helped a great deal.  Until we managed to get new firmware, i had to disable iLO and disable USB on the G6 otherwise random kernel panics.  There are three separate entities in a HP server to control power, the BIOS, the OS, and iLO - which one should win?
>
> (posting to the list as well so google finds this answer easier when someone needs it again)
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 4, 2015 at 10:02 AM, Kevin <sharpestmarble at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> What was it? Capacitors?
>> On Jan 3, 2015 9:36 PM, "Rob Townley" <rob.townley at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Kevin, I owe you a beer or whatever your poison is... homemade SAS to
>>> Ethernet bridge server is back up.
>>> On Jan 3, 2015 3:23 PM, "Kevin" <sharpestmarble at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Flashing is not necessarily a bad thing; it could be a heartbeat LED.
>>>> Investigate the manual and see what the LED says. I pray that you can do
>>>> so; sometimes it just says LED 13 or something to equally unhelpful. But if
>>>> you get a manual for a HP DL 360 G6, you will have the best luck at chasing
>>>> down a helpful description.
>>>> On Jan 3, 2015 12:33 PM, "Rob Townley" <rob.townley at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> ReFinding led status codes on HP.com makes me envious of service tag
>>>>> ease on dell.com.  I did see a reference for led status lights, but
>>>>> for a g3.
>>>>>
>>>>> There are no amber lights on the MB that I have seen.  There are green
>>>>> lights on the MB near the PCI riser, so "conveniently" located underneath
>>>>> the SAS controller and multiport GB nic cards.  Will remove them yet again.
>>>>>
>>>>> Peering down into a pinhole on one of the cards, i believe about 4
>>>>> LEDs flash, but only two remain, almost alternating as to when they blink
>>>>> green.  Have to have cover off to see them, but in general, "interlock"
>>>>> warnings could be triggered by having the cover removed.  However, I could
>>>>> not find any type of safety switch activated by removal of cover nor shroud
>>>>> either by inspection or google.
>>>>>
>>>>> FYI, noticed in a few forums that these machines have to have the
>>>>> riser plugged-in even if empty.
>>>>> On Jan 3, 2015 10:08 AM, "Kevin" <sharpestmarble at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Not that I know of. I'd check everything connected to the mobo and
>>>>>> make sure that it doesn't include the term "battery", though.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Another thought: are there any amber lights on the mobo that might
>>>>>> give clues to what's going wrong? If you have a DL360G6 manual, that might
>>>>>> have additional documentation which could help.
>>>>>> On Jan 3, 2015 8:51 AM, "Rob Townley" <rob.townley at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> No, but sounds good.  So the watch battery and BBWC RAID batteries.
>>>>>>> Are there others?
>>>>>>> On Jan 3, 2015 8:25 AM, "Kevin" <sharpestmarble at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Have you tried draining the capacitors? Unplug, pull all the
>>>>>>>> batteries, hold the power button for 15 seconds, replace batteries and
>>>>>>>> replug, and test again.
>>>>>>>> On Jan 3, 2015 1:01 AM, "Rob Townley" <rob.townley at gmail.com>
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Upon plugging into power,  no fans whir nor do HDDs spinup, but the
>>>>>>>>> interlock lights up amber in a second or less.
>>>>>>>>>  On Jan 3, 2015 12:43 AM, "Rob Townley" <rob.townley at gmail.com>
>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> > After shutting down and pulling power cords, noticed the time
>>>>>>>>> and date
>>>>>>>>> > were lost on our HP dl360 g6.
>>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>>> > Replaced the cr2032 motherboard battery, but now power light and
>>>>>>>>> interlock
>>>>>>>>> > light remains amber.  Will not power on.  Reseated cover,
>>>>>>>>> baffle, power
>>>>>>>>> > supplies.  Left it unplugged for quite a while.  Amber Interlock
>>>>>>>>> will not
>>>>>>>>> > go away.
>>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>>> > Doubtful both power supplies died, but anybody happen to have a
>>>>>>>>> dl360 g6
>>>>>>>>> > power supply I could use for troubleshooting?  Possibly, a spare
>>>>>>>>> G6 or
>>>>>>>>> > better?
>>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> OLUG mailing list
>>>>>>>>> OLUG at olug.org
>>>>>>>>> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>