System Hangs at Power-up

Product: Flyer

Platforms: 2000 3000 3000T 4000 4000T

The Flyer card may not be initializing upon startup of the system. You may need to check the LED's to diagnose if this is the actual problem. When the system powers up, the Flyer LEDs will be active briefly, then should settle with LED 3 (counting from top of card) lit. When the FlyerInit command is executed, the LEDs will be active again, then should settle into the rapid top-to-bottom-and-back scanning pattern ("Cylon warrior" scan) which repeats endlessly, if the card is working properly.

If you do find a problem, on a 4000 you may need to boot without the startup-sequence by holding down both mouse buttons upon startup of the machine. This should display a "Startup Control" screen after a few seconds, and at the bottom right of this screen you will find the button "Boot With No Startup-Sequence". Click the button, and the system will bypass the startup-sequence. On a 2000/3000 series system, you may have to boot up with a Workbench disk or break out of the boot up by pressing on the CTRL & D keys.

After successfully starting the computer, the user will need to comment out the FlyerInit command in the User-Startup file, by placing a semicolon in front of that line; the user should then attempt to boot the system to see if the system will do a complete boot if the Flyer is not initialized. If so, check the system power to be sure adequate power is reaching the Flyer.

Other points to check:

Check and clean Flyer contacts and the slot contacts, and reseat the card.

Check power check points on the Flyer. (Contact NewTek Tech Support for a schematic of the locations.)

Test with one Flyer drive at a time detached. Sometimes a faulty drive or cabling will cause this hang-up.

On an A4000 desktop, you may need to check and clean the daughtercard slot contacts.

If all possible system problems have been eliminated, then an RMA for the Flyer is most likely in order.