XServe 2006 RAID Card Issues

Basically, I was gifted (some gift!) a Late 2006 XServe 2.0GHz Dual QX, with 4 GB RAM, and basically was told 'It does not boot. We give up.'
So heres what I have found so far..
It has an Apple Raid Card (don't ask me much more than that, or ill have to tear it apart again). But the 10.4.10 Install disk doesnt show the Raid card or drives (SATA Apple Drive Module 80.0). So is my card toast? Not supported by 10.4? Need a direction to run at because this thing is starting really get under my skin.
If I use a SATA Drive bay via USB (WD 80GB Drive), the disk appears, but the Server won't last long before it Kernel Panics, but it works during Installation Media Verification..
In the meantime, Ill tear apart the server again (Only a few minutes) and get the Raid Card ID.

An easy way to see if it's a raid card is on the part of the RAID/Backplane you can see when you slide the top cover off, if it has 2 chips with silver heatsinks on it's a RAID card if it's 1 chip it's a backplane. The RAID Card also has a small connection for a RAID battery..
as for why it doesn't work.. Have a look at the following
1) Do the drives light up when you start the machine.. You should see a green light (always on) and a blue activity light which should flash.
2) If it doesn't then there is an orange ribbon cable that goes from the RAID/Backplane to the logic board. Make sure this is properly connected and doesn't have any breaks in it.
The RAID card will work in a non raid configuration so you don't need to get rid of it if you don't want to. An easy option to check the server would be to install 10.6 or Lion on a USB stick and start the server up for it by plugging it in and holding down the ALT key when you power on the server. From the system profiler you should be able to see if it recognises the RAID card (Hardware RAID) and also if it passes it's diagnostics test.
There are of course a lot of things that could be wrong with it.. You can remove the RAID/Backplane board and start the server up from USB/Firewire to narrow down your testing.. One thing the 2006/2008 servers are pretty cheap on eBay in working form so you might find it better to get one from there. The 2009's hold their value a lot more as you can still install the current OS on them..
Hope that helps
Beatle

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