Unmountable_boot_device after upgrading RAM

[DarrenMcCabe]

I have not come across this before and wondered if anyone here has seen it?

A customer a Dell Tower Server (SC440). The server is running Server 2003 and works fine.

However it only had 2GB of RAM (2 x 1Gb) and needed an upgrade. We put in an additional 2GB of RAM (2 x 1GB) and the server started in a reboot loop.

Taking out the RAM stops the boot loop. Looking at the blue screen error it is "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_DEVICE"

Putting just 1 stick of RAM in so it has 3GB works fine. With all 4 in, it will start in Safe Mode.

I have updated the BIOS on the server without any luck.

Any clues?

 

[Posilan]

I have not come across this before and wondered if anyone here has seen it?

A customer a Dell Tower Server (SC440). The server is running Server 2003 and works fine.

However it only had 2GB of RAM (2 x 1Gb) and needed an upgrade. We put in an additional 2GB of RAM (2 x 1GB) and the server started in a reboot loop.

Taking out the RAM stops the boot loop. Looking at the blue screen error it is "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_DEVICE"

Putting just 1 stick of RAM in so it has 3GB works fine. With all 4 in, it will start in Safe Mode.

I have updated the BIOS on the server without any luck.

Any clues?

Sounds like it's either bad or incompatible ram. Are you putting ECC ram in (the SC440's need it) and also matched pairs?

Steve

 

[DarrenMcCabe]

Yep all matched pairs, all ECC and also sent back the first lot of RAM and got a new lot, so am very confused

 

[Posilan]

Yep all matched pairs, all ECC and also sent back the first lot of RAM and got a new lot, so am very confused

Bad socket on the motherboard? Does it work with 2GB in different sockets?

Steve

 

[DarrenMcCabe]

Yeah doesnt seem to matter what slot it is in either, will just not work with 4Gb.

Odd thing is that it does work in Safe Mode

 

[Judge_Joolz]

What Steve says......

We had 3 different lots of RAM sent from our warranty supplier - all wrong type despite specifing exactly what we wanted. Also specify NEW, not refurbed matched pairs.

Best regards


JJ

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Try booting into Safe mode with all the RAM in, hit start/run and type msconfig and press enter.

Click on the boot tab and then "Advanced Options" set the number of processor to the number of cores the processor(s) in the server have and the RAM to 4096.

Reboot and see if that works, had a similar issue on a 2K3 server and that fixed it.