XServe with no video but services and SSH still work. Help!

After a reboot you say that the local monitor is fine. You are saying that the monitor will go into standby after a while or that the display is set to sleep? After the monitor goes into standby hit a key or move the mouse will it come back up? It almost sounds like the display is going to sleep and will not come back up.

I agree with Classic2,

Do you have sleep settings for the screen configured on your computers? What are kind of monitor/KVM are the attached to when this happens? Have you tried changing the resolutions (or other video things) from the command line via ssh?

=Tod

Oops - forgot also the style of connection - VGA, DVI etc.

=Tod

I'm kind of at a loss except for general troubleshooting. This behavior (at least on the monitor side) usually happens when a video card gets miscommunication from a monitor about what "acceptable resolutions" are if displays something crazy, but you don't have monitors connected in this case.

1) Does this happen if you leave a monitor or KVM attached to the mini-DV connector?

2) Does it happen if you remove the connector?

2a) Or if the VGA is always connected to the DVI remove that.

3) Can you check the resolution via ssh to sanity check it? (I haven't ever done this - it should be possible without programming but maybe not. You might have to invoke a program from the command line to do this.)

3a) Can you change or reset the video from the command line and does it help?

4) Is there anything in logs about video or resolution or display changes?

Wish I had more to offer but this is what I would check if I was trying to track this down,

=Tod

Almost identical symptoms here, with G5 Xserve running Leopard Server (10.5).

Similarities and differences as follows:

1. Screen Sharing authenticates but fails to open a screen-hosting window.

2. If I'm connected to the Xserve via LogMeIn at the time the video services fail, the server connection terminates.

3. If I reconnect via LogMeIn, after being disconnected, it will authenticate but give a black screen.

4. If I connect a display directly to the Xserve (via DVI or VGA) I get a blue desktop screen, but nothing else.

5. The Xserve appears greyed-out in Server Admin, with no services listed, but the 'disconnected' icon disappears.

6. Server Monitor continues to connect to the server and reports properly on all categories.

7. All services continue otherwise intact, and the server will continue to accept an SSH connection.

It may be the video card going out. I worked with a Mac Pro yesterday running OS X Server 10.4.11 and I had very similar symptoms. First the screen would work for a couple minutes and then it was impossible to use, either locally or via Remote Desktop, yet SSH DID work.

When I removed the video card, I was able to connect via Remote Desktop and resume services. I am currently ordering a replacement video card and managing the server via Remote Desktop.

Identical symptoms here, using intel xserve and OS Server 10.5

One of our xserves has been showing some graphical glitching for a while. I have been assuming there is an issue with the onboard graphics card. More recently, the graphics have been freezing at various points during startup or shortly thereafter. After graphics freeze, all services are still operating. Remote desktop software connects but only displays a black screen. Same behavior ensues when starting up from the Install CD.

After replacing the mini DVI adapter, there is still some graphical glitching, but the actual freezing seems to have stopped. I'm guessing I was right about the video card being on its way out, but perhaps the freezing is a separate issue? An issue centered around the DVI port and its relationship with onboard video?

Thickening the plot, today I noticed our OTHER xserve exhibiting similar behavior. Not the glitching, but a hard video crash. I realized that the mini-dvi cable may have been slightly unseated (thank you screwless monitor plug). I am used to graphics operating independently of the plug being in or out. I'm normally able to hot-swap vga cables with no problem.

I also didn't realize that graphical remote desktop solutions are dependent on the video card working, but that part makes sense, at least.

What doesnt make sense to me is why the actual video chip quits functioning when there is a problem with the output. As with others in this thread, it takes a full reboot in order to get the graphics card outputting again.

Is this expected behavior? You can normally hotswap a mini-dvi cable, right? This issue is a stumper.

Has anybody ever seen a situation where a faulty mini-dvi connection can crash a graphics card? The idea is foreign to me.

I too have this issue with a macpro server running sl server, although I only mange it remotley, I do not have any monitor or keyboads/mice hooked up to it. Has anyone found an answer to this? All my services are working perfectly, I would prefer not having to reboot my server when this happens....

After waiting all day I rebooted the server after business hours and all works perfectly. My only problem with rebooting the system is that I have to wait until the close of business.