Brand new Thinkstation D10 server fails to boot, no beeps or screen display

Question

This server had been working fine for several weeks and today I needed to reboot it. It has been rebooted several times before so so I wasn't trying something new.   I hit the Vista Start button and it immediately shut down.  I couldn't recall if Vista prompts you to Stand-by/restart/shutdown but I think it does - this time it didn't. :/   Afterwards, it would not boot.  
I tried: 
Unplugging and replugging it in: it then attempted to boot but shut itself down again after about 30s. 
a Power Supply Reset 
Reseating the memory cards
Removing one of the 4GB memory cards
Trying the other memory card
Swapping the two memory cards 
Inserting a bootable disk (it never gets to the point of reading anything although the drive spins up)
Checking that everything in the system board was plugged in
Making sure none of the wires were hitting anything else (shorting out)
When replacing that annoying cover from over the memory cards, made sure again I was not pinching any wires
The server does not beep and the (directly connected) monitor never comes alive to display anything when I attempt to reboot. 
Per the docs, I observed the power supply Diagnostic LEDs and front panel Power LED while attempting to boot and only the green Diagnostic LED on the power supply is ever activated.  The table indicated this means replace the system board.   
Aack!
Before I head for the support # and an eventual shipment back to Lenovo, would it be worth my while to try and replace the CMOS battery?  Or would a failure of that battery still have resulted in some indication of the problem (beeping and/or screen display)?  Can anyone think of something else to check?
Just thought I'd ask around before assuming that I'm stuck with the system board diagnosis).
Thanks

Answer 1

The list of things that will make a computer power down on it's own before it can ever get into the OS or initiate a video feed is a short list.
A CPU thermal trip usually occurs within 30 seconds.  This can be cause by a loose or improperly seated heat sink or a failure in the thermal grease coverage.  If your D10 arrived with one CPU and you recently installed a second CPU, try taking the second CPU out.  Should this work, verify the second CPU is the exact match to the first CPU and that the thermal grease is properly applied to the heat sink and the heat sink is securely mounted. 
Ambient temperature thermal trip usually takes longer, but can be significantly shorten if the air baffle for the memory is not installed.  Computers with high Front Side Bus frequencies result in memory DIMMS that get very hot.
DC power trip.  This can happen if too much power is being drawn through any of the PCI ports or through the power supply itself. 
When you are using a highend video card, check to see if the video card has it's own power connector(a small six lead box).  If it does, there is a power connector, from the power supply, to plug into it.  Without that power plugged in, the video card may appear to hum, and the it will draw too much power through the PCI slot. 
Should you have added any additional PCI adapters, try removing these for a test. If that works, add one card back in at a time to isolate the offending PCI card.
Disconnect any USB or Firewire devices you may have attached, including the mouse and keyboard.  If it comes back up and you have video, power down and reconnect the keyboard and mouse only and try again.
If you have the memory card reader option and kids, check to make certain no one has inserted something into the memory card readers.  My kid inserted a quarter into one of the slots on my reader.  My workstation powered down pretty fast.   Consider moving the workstation to higher ground.
Last by not least, disconnect any additional optical drives you may have added.  Some SATA devices have both the standard PC power connector and the SATA power connector.  Do not connect both of these power sources to the same drive.  The drive will be damaged and your computer will not stay powered on for very long.
Should this all fail to resolve the issue, contact Lenovo support.  To make your support experience faster and more pleasurable, send them this list of things you tried.  If this list of possible fixes fails, it's probably a power supply or system board issue, and I would start with the power supply.
If an electronic device has a defect it will fail within the first 90 days.  Once you get it past the first 90 days, it is generally good for years.
I hope this helps!!!
Digitaloz