Assembly

What's Needed

• Good knowledge of hardware:

1. Distinguish different types and speeds of RAM modules
2. Distinguish IDE from SATA from SCSI from SAS
3. Distinguish AGP from PCIe

• Basic tools for opening cases
• Voltmeter
• Eval station - power, monitor, mouse, keyboard, Install Server access
• known-good bootable hard drive

Procedure

1. Open the case and check for dangerous conditions
   1. Is the case filled with dynamite?
   2. Are there animal corpses inside? (Yes, this has happened.)
   3. Is it filled with lint?
2. Clean inside of case with compressed air or vacuum
   1. Don't be too assiduous, as we'll be cleaning it again later
3. Remove HDD and send to Data Destruction
4. Power up machine
   1. If no POST:
   2. Check for beep codes
   3. Ensure RAM properly seated
   4. Check for loose jumpers and for fasteners shorting out mobo
   5. Check for voltage at power-supply connector
   6. Call workshop lead to assist
   7. If the machine can't be made to POST successfully, then remove all components. Recycle motherboard, test other components separately.
5. Enter BIOS and check settings, set to boot from HDD
6. Install bootable HDD and boot
   1. If boot fails then i/o bus is probably bad
   2. if integrated, discard mobo
   3. if external, replace card and re-test
7. Reboot from PXE and run automated tools we haven't built yet. See Inventory tracking database for details.