Windows 2003 Server hangs at splash screen / acpitabl.dat after SP

[Macesr1]

As an addendem to the previous post there are three controllers in this server; an internal HP 6i Ultra 160/320? houses the OS, an HP 6400 Ultra320 series that the array is attached to shared files about 250Gb, and an LSI ultra 160 that has a Neo 2000 tape library attached to it.

This server is running AD, DNS, Apache, .Net Framework, Bugzilla, Spectrum SCM, that has worked for the last year, and is the sole developement environment for about 15 programmers that are looking to buy a rope for me...

[Macesr1]

My server is still not booting when the RAID array is attached. Symptoms are blank screen after splash screen and Safe mode hangs at acpitabl.dat. When I power off server and array and power on server only it boots just fine. I have upgraded drivers for the arrray, HP MSA20 attached to HP 6400 controller installed in server, and that did not change the problem.

[erik van trijp]

Kicking an old topic.. Macesr1, i have the same problem. how have you fixed it ?

grts,
Erik



Macesr1 wrote:

My server is still not booting when the RAID array is attached.
24-Feb-09

My server is still not booting when the RAID array is attached. Symptoms
are blank screen after splash screen and Safe mode hangs at
acpitabl.dat. When I power off server and array and power on server only
it boots just fine. I have upgraded drivers for the arrray, HP MSA20
attached to HP 6400 controller installed in server, and that did not
change the problem.


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Previous Posts In This Thread:

On Saturday, September 15, 2007 10:00 PM
GrantEllswort wrote:

Windows 2003 Server hangs at splash screen / acpitabl.dat after SP
After installing win2k3 sp2 on win2k3 server which had no prior sp1, update
to dot.net framework 3.0 hung and I had to power down/restart server. In
normal boot, it hangs at spash screen; in safe mode, it hangs at
acpitabl.dat. What can I do to fix without having to rebuild the server?

We are running win2k3 on a HP Proliant ML150 G2 with win2k3 mirrored 80G
SATA drives.

On Sunday, September 16, 2007 6:23 AM
Pegasus \(MVP\) wrote:

Re: Windows 2003 Server hangs at splash screen / acpitabl.dat after SP
"GrantEllsworth" <GrantEllsworth@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:50F07909-B59A-45B2-99B3-5874AA90CB83@microsoft.com...

Your best bet is probably to restore the server from
your most recent backup. If you do not have one then
you may have to rebuild it. It would be a painful reminder
to adopt this procedure for significant upgrades:

1. Back up the server.
2. Restore it to a different disk.
3. Test it.
4. If successful, proceed with the upgrade.

Other than the native ntbackup tool (which makes restoration
to a new disk difficult) there are several third party tools
such as Acronis or Ghost. In your case you could even do
this:
1. Remove the primary disk from your mirror set.
2. Boot the machine with a floppy disk, using the
second half of the mirror.
3. If successful, upgrade the first half of the mirror.
4. If the upgrade is successful, rebuild the mirror.
5. If the upgrade fails, boot the machine as per Step 2
above, then rebuild the mirror from the second half.

On Sunday, September 16, 2007 11:12 AM
GrantEllswort wrote:

Your answer is a bit confusing.
Your answer is a bit confusing. On the one hand you're telling me "Sorry
that installing our updates hang your server so severely that you will need
to rebuild and restore"; then you write something about backups and using a
drive imaging tool like Ghost, etc., and then to use a separate system to
test an upgrade - was that for future reference? This is scarcely practical
for a one-server small business.

What constitutes an upgrade that would trigger such a complex procedure? MS
advises us to install updates they recommend.

Mr. Pegasus, your wings are getting burnt!

I need a better solution.

Does anybody in the august elite community of MS Tech experts have any
comments about a solution that involves restoring
%sysdir\system32\drivers\update.sys" from the recovery console?

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

On Sunday, September 16, 2007 11:59 AM
Mathieu CHATEAU wrote:

Pegasus is right,before every major update, you would do a backup.
Pegasus is right,

before every major update, you would do a backup. So if it's goes bad, you
can restore to the stable state.

He also indicated that you may test what will go on, by restoring the
production environnement to a test environnement (a big pc). So you can test
SP2 before applying it to the production system.
If you had done this way, you would had notice that the server hangs, and
now your production one would be still working in RTM (SP0).

You got the picture for the next SP ;)

Why do you involve restoring update.sys ? you do not mention any error about
it

--
Cordialement,
Mathieu CHATEAU
http://lordoftheping.blogspot.com


"GrantEllsworth" <GrantEllsworth@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E7902FCC-D3D2-42D8-B436-93C2A2DB44B7@microsoft.com...

On Sunday, September 16, 2007 12:46 PM
Pegasus \(MVP\) wrote:

Sorry, I should have placed my thoughts in a different order.
Sorry, I should have placed my thoughts in a different order. Here
they are again:

1. By far the best method to restore your server is to
perform a restoration from a tested backup.
2. If you failed to make a backup prior to ther upgrade, you're
stuck.
3. To create moderately useable backup, use ntbackup.exe.
4. To create a more useable backup, use an imaging product.
5. Alternatively, if your disks are mirrored, split the mirror prior
to the upgrade in order to retain your existing installation on
one of the disks.
6. If you believe that a restoration of update will solve your
problem, give it a try but make sure to back up the
original version first. If you cannot do this under the Recovery
Console, do it under a Bart PE boot.
7. When I did my most recent service pack installation, I did
not burn my wings. Instead I followed the stern warnings
I had received from my local user group about creating
and testing a full backup first. This was for a humble one-server
business with just 12 staff.


"GrantEllsworth" <GrantEllsworth@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E7902FCC-D3D2-42D8-B436-93C2A2DB44B7@microsoft.com...

On Sunday, September 16, 2007 12:50 PM
Mathieu CHATEAU wrote:

Step 5 is a bit risky, you know the murphy rules, if it can goes bad, it will
Step 5 is a bit risky, you know the murphy rules, if it can goes bad, it
will ;)

--
Cordialement,
Mathieu CHATEAU
http://lordoftheping.blogspot.com

On Sunday, September 16, 2007 12:55 PM
Pegasus \(MVP\) wrote:

I agree, but it's better than nothing.
I agree, but it is better than nothing. If the OP tests this method
first then he will be safe.

On Sunday, September 16, 2007 2:08 PM
GrantEllswort wrote:

OK - I got the point - find a way to test the SP before installing it on the
OK - I got the point - find a way to test the SP before installing it on the
production system. however, if the test machine and te production server are
not the same hardware, then some incompatibles can slip thru - that is -
nothing breaks the test machine but something breaks the target. Seems
impractcal - but, if we could afford the mirror machine, I'd do it that way
for sure. The downtime to restore a backup to a different disk might be a
little hard to take - but certainly means less hardware cost.

The idea about "restoring" update.sys to RTM(0) level came from some threads
I read about symptoms similar to what I experienced - that is, a hang a
loading acpitabl.dat when booting in safe mode while haning at splash screen
in normal boot up mode.

If I undrstand you both (Mr. Pegasus and Mr. Chateau), I get the message
that the only way out of this pickle is to find some way to restore from
backups (which we do have). However, to restore, I need to (re-)install the
opsys, install the backup program, re-catog or locate and reuse the catalogs
of the backup media, and then restore the system folders from the backups.

"Mathieu CHATEAU" wrote:

On Sunday, September 16, 2007 2:10 PM
GrantEllswort wrote:

I've got a backup, but I would need to install the opsys and the backup
I have got a backup, but I would need to install the opsys and the backup
program in order to restore the original opsys, would not I?

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

On Sunday, September 16, 2007 2:26 PM
Pegasus \(MVP\) wrote:

Re: Windows 2003 Server hangs at splash screen / acpitabl.dat afte
A general comment: I have a number of server systems under
management and I am painfully aware how the productivity of
my clients would be affected if their server fell over. Servers
can fail for a number of reasons, e.g. hardware failure, OS
corruption, an update gone wrong, human error (which is the
most likely cause). It is for this reason that I always maintain
a system backup. I test it twice each year so that I can tell my
client with confidence that the worst system outage he could
expect would be half a day.

See below for further comments.


"GrantEllsworth" <GrantEllsworth@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B7344A0D-35F7-42BC-9268-A54565E0A65B@microsoft.com...

You already had the means with your mirrored disks. The downtime
to test this method would have been minimal.


Yes, that's the drawback of ntbackup.exe. This is why I use
different backup methods. They let me restore a system onto
a blank disk without first loading an auxiliary version of Windows.

On Sunday, September 16, 2007 2:53 PM
Mathieu CHATEAU wrote:

Would be better to go back to a stable state, and test further impact of SP2
Would be better to go back to a stable state, and test further impact of SP2
on your system with a test system

--
Cordialement,
Mathieu CHATEAU
http://lordoftheping.blogspot.com

On Saturday, September 29, 2007 4:30 PM
GrantEllswort wrote:

We resolved the issue.
We resolved the issue. turns out that the HP-supplied driver for the embedded
RAID controller ws not compatible with MS Win2k3 SP2 when detecting and
handling a disk error. When I installed a parallel win2k3 on the system
using the most recent SATA RAID driver, the system came up and reported the
hitherto unknown disk error (bad blocks). After I replaced the original
driver with the updated driver in the original Win2k3 installation, the
server booted into the original installation and I confirmed the disk errors
in the event viewer. I found a thread elswhere that reported a problem with
the RTM-level HP Embedded SATA RAID driver. So, when I noted that the current
RAID driver at HP was a later date than the one we had originally installed,
i concluded it was worth a try. Side note: The mirror-drive was defective
to the point where we could not write to the partition in console recovery.
Ultimately, the mirror-drive had to be reformatted and resynch'ed.

"Mathieu CHATEAU" wrote:

On Saturday, January 10, 2009 6:26 PM
Secure Vizion wrote:

All, this person's issue was that they could not boot past the splashscreen,
All, this person's issue was that they could not boot past the splash
screen, and they were looking for a way to bring up the server WITHOUT
reloading. For all of your chastising about not following proper
testing proceedures before performing an upgrade, none of you answered
their question.

In the event your server will not boot past the splash after a software
update (or failed one), and safe mode and last known good do not work,
you have but two options:

1) EASIEST WITH NO RELOAD - Boot to a windows Server 2003 disk and
perform a repair on the OS (not the recovery console, but rather the one
that you have the option to perform in lieue of overwriting the windows
installation. Not gonna provide instructions here. If you need them at
this point you should probably call in qualified help
(www.securevizion.com). After performing the repair, you will need to
reinstall ALL Windows OS and OS add-on applications, but your server
will boot.

2) HARDER - Reinstall the OS and recover using your backup
proceedures.


In the event this happened after a hardware change, remove the
offending hardware and try to boot. If no luck perform the first
option.

Hope this helps someone...the original poster has probably already
resolved their issue. For all others, chastising a person in need when
they post a request for help in a forum is non-productive and uncalled
for. It helps not the original person requesting help nor anyone else,
and it clutters the post making searching for an answer harder. My two
cents.. Ray


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On Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:11 PM
Macesr1 wrote:

The information in this thread is outstanding...all of it!
The information in this thread is outstanding...all of it! I learned a
great deal of proper testing procedures and a possible fix for the same
problem on an HP DL380 G4 with an HP Storage Works Msa20 disk arrary 12
500gb drives.

The situation is that the server was rock solid until a weekend that a
possible power outage occured. Yes there is a UPS that is out of date
and the replacement is in a box on the server floor. No new software was
installed and no new hardware was installed. I have upgraded the driver
for the controller card to no avail.

HELP!!


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On Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:24 PM
Isaac Oben [MCITP,MCSE] wrote:

Hello Macesr1, what is your question?
Hello Macesr1, what is your question?

--
Isaac Oben [MCTIP, MCSE]

On Tuesday, February 24, 2009 6:24 PM
Macesr1 wrote:

My server is still not booting when the RAID array is attached.
My server is still not booting when the RAID array is attached. Symptoms
are blank screen after splash screen and Safe mode hangs at
acpitabl.dat. When I power off server and array and power on server only
it boots just fine. I have upgraded drivers for the arrray, HP MSA20
attached to HP 6400 controller installed in server, and that did not
change the problem.


--
Macesr1
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View this thread: Windows 2003 Server hangs at splash screen / acpitabl.dat after SP

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