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Author Topic: GDC server won't boot with USB drive inserted Steven J Hart Master Film Handler Posts: 282 From: WALES, ND, USA Registered: Mar 2004 posted 09-24-2012 10:08 AM                        Just a heads up for those of you with GDC servers: We had an extended power outage at our location early Sunday morning. The battery on our UPS backup was depleted so the server lost power. When my staff went to restart the server it wouldn't boot up. When I got to the theater, I noted that I'd forgotten a USB drive in the server. It booted right up after pulling out the USB drive. Steve  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 09-24-2012 12:16 PM                     Bet one can go into the BIOS and change the boot priority to eliminate this.  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 09-25-2012 09:58 AM                        Not unless you have the BIOS password.....  |  IP: Logged Chad Souder Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 962 From: Waterloo, IA, USA Registered: Feb 2000 posted 09-25-2012 07:36 PM                     This is the common boot sequence for most PCs. Leaving an ipod plugged in can cause the same problem. It's done that way for a reason - something to do with software upgrades I think. A computer guy could tell you better why.  |  IP: Logged Brian Shull Film Handler Posts: 6 From: Buhler, KS USA Registered: Dec 2007 posted 09-26-2012 12:23 AM                     It was a built in safety for years on computers. If your operating system fails you could in theory load a operating system on the USB and boot the computer to try to fix the problem without loosing data. As said you could change the boot sequence in the BIOS if you can access it, and password. Brian  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 09-26-2012 09:01 AM                     What theory? That's exactly why PC's are designed this way. Back in the days of DOS and floppy disk drives, if the operating system on your C: drive failed (or if the hard drive itself failed) and you could not boot your PC, you'd insert a boot disk in the A: drive and reboot the system. The boot priority was such that it would first look to the A: drive for a bootable OS. If no disk was loaded in the A: drive, it would then look to the C: drive. If a disk that was not bootable was in the A: drive, you would receive an error message along the lines of "Non system disk or disk error. Replace and strike any key when ready." This tells the user that there is no bootable OS loaded on the drive, therefore the system cannot boot. You would receive the same error message if there was no disk in the A: drive but your C: drive, or the OS on it, was bad. Booting from the A: drive was also how a new OS was installed to a blank (therefore non-bootable) HDD. A disk containing just enough files to booth the system and get to a command prompt would be loaded in the A: drive; the system would be booted up, and the user would then install the new OS from the A: drive, or even the CD-ROM drive if CD-ROM drivers were loaded onto the boot disk. The BIOS on modern systems looks at the USB ports for a bootable system drive the same way older machines looked at the A: drive before the C: drive. Having no first-hand experience with GDC, I cannot tell you whether they have the boot priority set that way for a specific reason; you most certainly should check with them before changing it.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 09-26-2012 01:12 PM                     There is no reason to have the boot priority look to the USB. With digital cinema, there are too many instances of when people NEED to ingest via USB, and that means people WILL leave a USB drive plugged in from time to time. The designers should've thought about this. Having the boot priority look to the CD makes sense for such necessary situations should they arise, but not USB. What's more foolish is not having a server wake-up upon seeing AC power. Servers can be configured most any way possible, but in some instances you are at the mercy of the designer understanding the market that the product is being used in.  |  IP: Logged Tony Bandiera Jr Film God Posts: 3067 From: Moreland Idaho Registered: Apr 2004 posted 09-26-2012 03:38 PM                     Seems that GDC has missed the mark in many ways..and I heard a rumor that it is (was?) possible to revive an expired key by changing the BIOS date and time...oops. I get the impression that the designers at GDC have never been in, much less operated, a cinema.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-26-2012 04:36 PM                     From there web site "Dr. Chong Man Nang is the founder and the CEO of GDC Technology. Some of his accolades includes: Leading the team that won the first prize of the worldwide Texas Instruments' Digital Signal Processing Solutions Challenge US$100,000 award (1996) Spearheading the architecture, design, and successful commercial release of Nirvana’s award-winning REVIVAL DIGITAL® product lines used by Hollywood studios for the digital restoration of classic feature films. Serving as the chief consultant of Da Vinci Technologies (2000-2002) Establishing GDC Technology in 1999 and developing it into a world leading digital cinema solution provider." Also I know that currently you need a key to alter the time on the server  |  IP: Logged Tony Bandiera Jr Film God Posts: 3067 From: Moreland Idaho Registered: Apr 2004 posted 09-26-2012 04:55 PM                     Gordon, those appear to all be pre- and post-production credentials so I stand by my original statement that they haven't a clue about real-world, exhibition operations.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-26-2012 05:01 PM                     All I know we have had no complaints yet with GDC servers we have been installing  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 09-26-2012 06:29 PM                     Is your phone working?  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 09-26-2012 09:34 PM                     Marketing babble Gordon. So Gordon, what version of the software are you running?  |  IP: Logged Steven J Hart Master Film Handler Posts: 282 From: WALES, ND, USA Registered: Mar 2004 posted 09-26-2012 10:38 PM                        I had "No Major Complaints" about the GDC until last weekend when we MISSED A SHOW because the server would not reboot after a power outage  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 09-26-2012 11:27 PM                     Well Steven, maybe. What version of software are you running? GDC has been touting that their servers are DCI-approved since the first of the year, but come to find out they are just now releasing the actual DCI-approved software. (Highly misleading marketing and sales efforts there, because without this software the servers are NOT DCI-approved.) The deadline for upgrading to this software is October 31st or VPFs are forfeited. Here's the kicker...when you power cycle the server, expect a 20 MINUTE reboot time now! I've timed this and it was 22 minutes before I could play content again. It's an absolute showstopper. Time to stock up on emergency passes. Could it be you are upgraded to the DCI compliant software and that was all it was, and the server worked fine the next show? The amusing part of this is there were a few people that would always complain that Dolby servers took a few extra minutes to reboot over GDC and Doremi. Now that everyone is on the same level playing field with DCI-compliance, Dolby servers boot the fastest...still at their typical 7 minute reboot time. Doremi is somewhere around 10 minutes and GDC drags it up the end at 20 minutes.  |  IP: Logged

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