# Quad workstation won’t boot after long disuse

## post by ivogeorg on Feb 20, 2022

Hi there guys,

I was abroad for many months and my QUAD no longer boots. I check if the UPS had a problem by bypassing it but no. I opened the box to clean it but that did fix anything. It’s just dark screen. Only once did it get to setup but I didn’t have a procedure to follow and exited, and now I can’t go back. The QUAD was connected to the UPS during the hiatus but the UPS was turned off.

What are my options with Lambda? I am probably long after any service but I would be willing to buy it if available. I am afraid I have thrown away the box and packaging so I might need to buy that, too. Some online conference might work for troubleshooting but you can’t remote to the machine if it won’t boot. Please, advise!

Thanks in advance,

Ivo

## post by markd on Feb 23, 2022

Ivo,

The things I would do to check:

1. Check that you have lights on the motherboard and it is starting up.
   - If no lights on the motherboard I would recheck the power and power supply.
2. Are you seeing BIOS or anything on your display?
   - Of course, check the obvious - monitor is on, plugged in.
     - If there is still no monitor showing up for the BIOS level
       - Re-seat the HDMI/DP cable.
       - Perhaps re-seat the GPU.
       - Clear the CMOS/BIOS - Power down/unplug the machine, then either press the ‘clear CMOS’ button or pull the battery on the motherboard. And put the battery back in, plug in and power up.
   - If there is BIOS seen on the monitor
     - Hit ‘Control-alt-F3’ to see if you can get a terminal screen.
       - This is most common if there was an issue with X11 or updates.
     - If this works I would remove if it exists:
       ```bash
       sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
       ```
     - or re-run the driver install at least the grub step.
       ```bash
       sudo update-initramfs -u -k all &&
       sudo update-grub
       ```
3. Check the motherboard. Depending on the motherboard (and if you can see)
   - There is a LED display with ‘88’ which will show different values as the BIOS starts up. That can tell us where in the BIOS the system is.
   - These Postcode/Q-Code/Motherboard codes I then lookup in the motherboard manual (or google) to find the meaning. Normally starts with 00 and ends with AA or similar.

That should give you a start on what to check.

mark