[clug] Linux Server does not want to do a POST

[Mark Paine]

I got a problem withy my linux server that has me stumped at the moment. 
It won't even get past doing POST and its annoying the you know what out
of me.

Its a Celeron 400 on an Abit BE6-II motherboard with 128Mb RAM. hda is a
40G Seagate, hdc is a 8G Fujitsu & hdd is a CD.  There is also a Ricoh
7060S SCSI CD Burner hanging off its SCSI card (and its the card that came
with the burner.)  S3 Trio AGPx2 video card an a RealTek ethernet card
(ALN-325 I think).  Normally runs Debian 3.0 with custom 2.2.20 kernel and
some of Adrian Bunk's updated packages.

I had problems with it this time last year when I upgraded the HD
(replaced a 20G Seagate with the 40G one) with the kernel doing an oops
(bad reference to memory/swap if I recall - which led me to believe it was
 HD or RAM problem but all checked out).  I finally beat it into shape and
thought I had the problem licked, but the last week or so has proven that
it is not the case.  (What did I do recently?  Installed the CD-Burner
inside the case although the SCSI card was already installed.  Also
shifted the Fujitsu HD off the HPT366 controller and put it as hdc to see
if that would fix the problem.  HPT366 is currently disabled).

What has been happening is that the system would normally boot but after a
couple of hours would lock up.  Recently have not been able to determine
why (video has blanked out).  Sometimes the system would not complete a
POST (no beep) and sit there.  Power off/on and up it would come.  Now it
just sits there.

By sitting there I mean power is applied, HDs spin up and heads
move/reset, the HD activity LED will light and stay on.  No further
activity, no beeps, no video, no nothing.  Last night powered off the HDs,
CD Burner, even disconnected the IDE cables from the motherboard, and the
system will still not boot.  It had a good vacuum last year removing a lot
of dust (and lowering the CPU and SYS temperatures a good 5 degrees C).

Short of stripping it down and starting to swap parts with another system
I have (Gigabyte M/B, PIII 550Mhz) which my son uses, does anyone have any
startling insights as to what can be wrong?

The only things I can think of are power problems (with the extra devices
I've blown something in the PS), CPU has been fried sometime (unlikely as
similar problems was happening last year), hairline crack on the
motherboard (a distinct posibility), or one from left field - the
capacitor problem that was noted a couple of months ago (although I can
not see any damaged capacitors but have not had a really close look yet).

Suggestions?

Mark P.
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