Sun Blade 150

[Halford Johnson]

Hi everyone,

I have a Sun Blade 150 in unknown condition.  It came with no RAM and beeped
indicating it had no RAM.  I added 512mb of RAM from a Netra X1, this
eliminated the beep and it seemed to spin up. I have tried: hooking a VGA
monitor to it, hooking a serial cable to it; both to no avail.  It simply
refuses to speak/identify itself.  I am out of ideas.  I am beginning to
think it is the motherboard/processor.  Does anyone have any other ideas.
or does anyone have a spare SB100/150 motherboard/proc?

Any advice/help/tips will be appreciated.

---
Hal Johnson
Programmer
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[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Halford Johnson <halfordjohnson@...>
>Date: 2008/07/08 Tue PM 06:53:22 EDT
>To: The Rescue List <rescue@...>
>Subject: [rescue] Sun Blade 150

>Hi everyone,
>
>I have a Sun Blade 150 in unknown condition.  It came with no RAM and beeped
>indicating it had no RAM.  I added 512mb of RAM from a Netra X1, this
>eliminated the beep and it seemed to spin up. I have tried: hooking a VGA
>monitor to it, hooking a serial cable to it; both to no avail.  It simply
>refuses to speak/identify itself.  I am out of ideas.  I am beginning to
>think it is the motherboard/processor.  Does anyone have any other ideas.
>or does anyone have a spare SB100/150 motherboard/proc?
>
>Any advice/help/tips will be appreciated.

HAve you tried stop-N? That would reset the NVRAM to default values, that has
helped me revive a couple systems...

To review, you would power up the system, then immediately hold down "stop"
and "n" on a Sun keyboard, holding them down until the keyboard lights cycle
twice... (the first is power up, the second is the reset) then simply release
the keys and the systme *might* boot up.

You would do this with a Sun keyboard and VGA monitor attached, I'm sure you
can use serial console to do this, but I don't know the equivalent key
presses...

Lionel
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[Halford Johnson]

On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 10:12 PM, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287@...>
wrote:
HAve you tried stop-N? That would reset the NVRAM to default values, that
has

> helped me revive a couple systems...
>
> To review, you would power up the system, then immediately hold down "stop"
> and "n" on a Sun keyboard, holding them down until the keyboard lights
> cycle
> twice... (the first is power up, the second is the reset) then simply
> release
> the keys and the systme *might* boot up.
>
> You would do this with a Sun keyboard and VGA monitor attached, I'm sure
> you
> can use serial console to do this, but I don't know the equivalent key
> presses...

I received this machine in unknown condition.

Here is what I've tried:

I've tried using a serial cable 8n1 9600 with hardware flow control and
again with no flow control --- nothing.
I've tried hooking up a VGA monitor and generic USB keyboard, no display.
I've tried multiple single sticks of PC133 ECC RAM in multiple slots, no
display.

Seems pretty dead.  I am not sure what else to try.  I would like to repair
this machine, but I first must determine the problem.

I thought perhaps the motherboard might be dead, but I noted that when I
remove all the RAM, it gives the no RAM system beeping error.  When I insert
RAM, there is no noise, just fans running. (All LEDs turn on successfully)
This leads me to hypothesize that perhaps it is the CPU that is bad?

Any thoughts?

---
Hal Johnson
Programmer
_______________________________________________
rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

[Bill Bradford]

On Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 10:32:16PM -0400, Halford Johnson wrote:
> I've tried hooking up a VGA monitor and generic USB keyboard, no display.

Generic USB keyboard won't always work - try to get your hands on a genuine
Sun USB keyboard.  The Blade 100/150s were picky in this regard.

Bill

--
Bill Bradford
Houston, Texas
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[Curious George-2]

Hi,

--- On Tue, 7/8/08, Halford Johnson <halfordjohnson@...> wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 10:12 PM, Lionel Peterson
> <lionel4287@...>
> wrote:
> HAve you tried stop-N? That would reset the NVRAM to
> default values, that has helped me revive a couple systems...
> >
> > To review, you would power up the system, then
> immediately hold down "stop"
> > and "n" on a Sun keyboard, holding them down
> until the keyboard lights
> > cycle
> > twice... (the first is power up, the second is the
> reset) then simply
> > release
> > the keys and the systme *might* boot up.
> >
> > You would do this with a Sun keyboard and VGA monitor
> attached, I'm sure
> > you
> > can use serial console to do this, but I don't
> know the equivalent key
> > presses...
>
> I received this machine in unknown condition.
>
> Here is what I've tried:
>
> I've tried using a serial cable 8n1 9600 with hardware
> flow control and
> again with no flow control --- nothing.

With *nothing* plugged into the keyboard, right?
(note this still relies on NVRAM settings)

> I've tried hooking up a VGA monitor and generic USB
> keyboard, no display.

I'm not sure a generic USB keyboard will work.  I used
an SGI USB keyboard on my Tatung SB1000 without problems
but I am not sure just how closely the Tatung and Sun
designs are (were).

> I've tried multiple single sticks of PC133 ECC RAM in
> multiple slots, no display.
>
> Seems pretty dead.  I am not sure what else to try.  I
> would like to repair
> this machine, but I first must determine the problem.

Of course!  :>  That's the $64000 question!

> I thought perhaps the motherboard might be dead, but I
> noted that when I
> remove all the RAM, it gives the no RAM system beeping
> error.  When I insert
> RAM, there is no noise, just fans running. (All LEDs turn
> on successfully)

I would *think* the CPU has to be running in order to
- query the RAM (i.e., is it there and is it the right flavor)
- alert you to the problem (i.e., beep)

> This leads me to hypothesize that perhaps it is the CPU
> that is bad?

I would disagree, there!  I.e., the CPU is working well
enough to execute its POST out of ROM.  The fact that it
doesn't behave when there is RAM present could mean
bad/wrong RAM, bad memory controller, etc.  But, the
CPU doesn't seem to be *toast* (i.e., if you removed the
CPU chip itself, you would find the symptoms different)

> Any thoughts?

Different RAM.  I am not sure if the SB150 queries the
RAM devices to determine *exactly* what flavor they are
(there is usually a small, 8 pin SOIC on one corner of the
DIMM that has "configuration" information stored in it
that lets a processor determine the speed, size, etc.
of each individual stick of memory in the machine).

Also not sure just how smart the POST is in this regard.
I.e., if it sees something it doesn't like, can it *tell*
you that?  Or, does it just hang??

<shrug>

If you decide to EOL the machine, I'd be interested in it's
*skin* (assuming it is in good cosmetic shape) for my SB150.

Good luck!
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