Getting Started, Documentation, Tips & Tricks

uunix wrote: No sound.. do you have speakers plugged in?
Does the PSU 'CLICK' when you plug the kettle lead in? (Get your ear close).

If it's been transported by car or post, you may want to reseat everything. Your best bet.

Although yes.. it sounds like PSU gone to the great PSU pile along with a lot of my own. I doubt you will get anything from the serial, but it's worth a shot.

LarBob wrote: how much am I expecting to pay for a replacement anyway..?

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote: how much am I expecting to pay for a replacement anyway..?

There's a 747 watt Cherokee on Ebay right now for eighty five frogskins, seller refurbished with a 30 day warranty, I would say grab it because that's about the lowest price you'll ever see one for on the bay . Do you still need one of the 13W3 -> VGA converters? Sorry that sort of slipped off my to-do list but if you still need one I'll send it ASAP...

vishnu wrote: Yes, if you're good with a soldering iron (and a solder sucker) you can probably fix it. Have you taken it apart yet? Usually the failed part will give up it's identity by having scorched the board around it which alleviates you the necessity of having to blanket-replace parts (caps etc.). So try taking the cover off and get out your magnifying glass...

LarBob wrote:

vishnu wrote: Yes, if you're good with a soldering iron (and a solder sucker) you can probably fix it. Have you taken it apart yet? Usually the failed part will give up it's identity by having scorched the board around it which alleviates you the necessity of having to blanket-replace parts (caps etc.). So try taking the cover off and get out your magnifying glass...

I took it apart last night and everything looked fine really. Nothing I could see looked scorched and the caps looked fine.

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote:

vishnu wrote: Yes, if you're good with a soldering iron (and a solder sucker) you can probably fix it. Have you taken it apart yet? Usually the failed part will give up it's identity by having scorched the board around it which alleviates you the necessity of having to blanket-replace parts (caps etc.). So try taking the cover off and get out your magnifying glass...

I took it apart last night and everything looked fine really. Nothing I could see looked scorched and the caps looked fine.

If you've got a voltmeter you could try tracking the input AC to wherever the point of failure might be...

japes wrote: Try pulling the graphics and starting up without them. I have a SI board in my parts pile that when installed causes the same - well, almost...the PSU fan make about 1 turn before it shuts off with this bad card.

vishnu wrote: I don't think any of the Octane power supply circuit diagrams ever made it out into the wild, wasted quite a bit of time trying to find one on the gray market...

LarBob wrote:

vishnu wrote: I don't think any of the Octane power supply circuit diagrams ever made it out into the wild, wasted quite a bit of time trying to find one on the gray market...

It's okay lol, thanks. I bought the Cherokee PSU off of eBay, supposed to come Wednesday. Stay tuned I guess...

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote:

vishnu wrote: I don't think any of the Octane power supply circuit diagrams ever made it out into the wild, wasted quite a bit of time trying to find one on the gray market...

It's okay lol, thanks. I bought the Cherokee PSU off of eBay, supposed to come Wednesday. Stay tuned I guess...

If nothing else it will get you to the next failure level...

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote:

vishnu wrote: I don't think any of the Octane power supply circuit diagrams ever made it out into the wild, wasted quite a bit of time trying to find one on the gray market...

It's okay lol, thanks. I bought the Cherokee PSU off of eBay, supposed to come Wednesday. Stay tuned I guess...

If nothing else it will get you to the next failure level...

LarBob wrote:

uunix wrote: No sound.. do you have speakers plugged in?
Does the PSU 'CLICK' when you plug the kettle lead in? (Get your ear close).

If it's been transported by car or post, you may want to reseat everything. Your best bet.

Although yes.. it sounds like PSU gone to the great PSU pile along with a lot of my own. I doubt you will get anything from the serial, but it's worth a shot.

By no sound I meant there was no click from the psu, no fan whir, etc. sorry.
I also don't think the serial would do anything either as I don't hear anything at all from the machine.
Also, I reseated the cpu board and everything but there's no dice. I think the PSU is just borked. (how much am I expecting to pay for a replacement anyway..?)

Kotomo wrote:

LarBob wrote:

uunix wrote: No sound.. do you have speakers plugged in?
Does the PSU 'CLICK' when you plug the kettle lead in? (Get your ear close).

If it's been transported by car or post, you may want to reseat everything. Your best bet.

Although yes.. it sounds like PSU gone to the great PSU pile along with a lot of my own. I doubt you will get anything from the serial, but it's worth a shot.

By no sound I meant there was no click from the psu, no fan whir, etc. sorry.
I also don't think the serial would do anything either as I don't hear anything at all from the machine.
Also, I reseated the cpu board and everything but there's no dice. I think the PSU is just borked. (how much am I expecting to pay for a replacement anyway..?)

From my limited experience with Octanes and SGI's in general, I can offer three scenario's I have come across that could help.

I know this is an asinine question, but when you reseated "everything" did that include the memory modules?

I was gifted an Octane main board with a CPU module that supposedly did not work. When I went to try it out in one my systems, I noticed the backplane never seated quite flush and I felt the locking mechanisms were not moving correctly. I found the screws holding the locking mechanisms to be quite loose. Tightening things up got it to seat better and work, no prob.

The PROM password reset jumper, if set in the position to reset the password, will leave the screen blank for roughly 10 minutes before displaying anything when you first power it on. The same board I got for free also had a PROM password set on it, so I got to experience reseting it first hand.

I like learning through observing other people, so this guy's video points out right where the jumper is on the main board:

If any of these do the trick, the lightbar on the front should turn red shortly after powering on and stay red until it's done performing the hardware tests.

I have certainly come across the failed power supply problem with just the relay 'click' and nothing else with two of my Octanes. I also tore apart the PSU, but don't see any smoking gun in the components. This is definitely a common failure of the Lucent PSU's.

LarBob wrote: I have reseated pretty much everything as far as I know, I even tried a different CPU module to no avail. I can try reseating the memory again.. and also it's not set to reset the prom. I ordered a new PSU and the fans spin and a green light shows on the board, but nothing happens besides that. No output from serial or anything either.

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote: I have reseated pretty much everything as far as I know, I even tried a different CPU module to no avail. I can try reseating the memory again.. and also it's not set to reset the prom. I ordered a new PSU and the fans spin and a green light shows on the board, but nothing happens besides that. No output from serial or anything either.

And you're sure you're using a null modem cable on the serial port, right? Set to 9600 baud? A regular RS232 cable won't work. Very odd to have a bad PSU and then two bad CPUs. Now you have to take the whole thing completely apart, including the crossbow, look everything over closely and blow all the dust off. In particular, look the compression connectors over carefully, a couple of wrecked or missing pins could be the culprit...