[geeks] Q: On Compaq Proliant 800 PPro server

[Ken Hansen]

Well, having said too many times in the last few days that I had my 2nd CPU,
I decided to shut my Compaq Proliant 800 PPro 200 server down and upgrade
the various bits, and I have a few questions/observations:

Questions/Observations:

This is a well-ventilated case - the PPro 200/256K that was running
Seti at home packets for the last 25 days was *merely* warm to the touch after
being powered-down. The CPU only had a heatsink attached, and there is an
"extra" fan in the front of the case blowing cool air over the CPUs. Cool.

The case itself is nice, relatively quiet - since I have an external U/W
connector on the back of this unit, I decided I needed an external U/W case
to hold additional storage, so I got a used Compaq SCSI tower with all
*seven* narrow trays included, and an extenral U/W SCSI connector. (The
system and the SCSI tower make a matched set!) But, I noticed in the Compaq
manuals for this system that they said I should only add drives *either*
internally or externally, not both - any ideas why? (I am not familiar with
U/W SCSI, just narrow/SCA...)

I went through two "known good" PCI video cards before returning the
original card to the system (a 1 Meg PCI card) - is there any special
requirement for compatibility with these systems? When my other cards were
installed, the system "beeped" - and the sequence decoded to a message about
a defective monochrome adapter... Monochrome? I suspect it wants an unusual
mode newer cards don't support (I am going to try living with 1024x768 at
256 colors... 8^(

After adding the 2nd CPU (another 200 MHz PPro w/256K cache), the BIOS/POST
display tells me that the processor configuration is invalid (178 -
Processor Configuration Invalid), but continues to boot and runs fine (not
sure if 2nd CPU active). I have a VRM/CPU installed. Do I need to enter the
BIOS/System Config screens to "activate" the second CPU? (Some older PCs
required you to enter the BIOS so it could update the new RAM count after
upgrading the RAM, I am thinking this may be similar)

How do I enter the BIOS/System Setup screen? I saw in the manual that I
press F10, but when, holding it down appears to do no good, nor does
"tapping" it repeatedly while booting - any thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any light that can be shed on this box,

Ken
(BTW, anyone ever try Solaris/x86 on one of these boxes? Just curious...)