Sun

I have an Ultra 1 that I got from a swap meet a few years ago, and have just now gotten around to actually working on it. Here is my problem: no video. From the time I turn the machine on to a good while after (all the keyboard lights have stopped flashing) I get no video. At least on one of my monitors (a Compaq S710). The other monitor (an ancient CTX) will eventually show video but it's horribly garbled. Now, I am using a 13w3 to VGA adapter, and I'm not entirely sure if either of these monitors support sync on green, which I understand the Sun requires. Is this the kind of thing I would be getting if they don't? I've no idea if the machine actually works, so it could also be the video card, but I'd like to rule out something as simple as the monitors not being supported. Any help would be appreciated as I know next to nothing about Sun hardware (all of my experience has been on x86 boxes, usually Linux or Windows).

Is the 13W3 adapter a Sun compatible adapter?

Also, does the machine work, have you connected it to the serial port?(remember to unplug the keyboard before PON)

What graphic adapter is it?

I think so. As I understand it the SGI version is much harder to find, and I just grabbed a cheap one on eBay. The seller said it was equivalent to Sun part #X3872A.


Don't know. Unfortunately, I don't have a serial cable with a 25 pin connector anywhere. I'll see if I can snag one from work on Friday. That said I think it does work. One time when I started it up, with the monitor that shows garbled video, it was clear enough that I could make out the boot screen. The white one with the little sun logo in the top left. Sorry, don't know the technical name for this screen. Here's a picture of what it looks like usually.



I believe it's a TurboGX, it looks like this:

The good news is that TGXes are very available (I have many if needed).

Try putting a serial terminal on it and checking functionality and PROM settings. I can't recall now what the graphics show if the console is set to TTY, but it can and does happen that P.O.s used boxes such as this headless. Note also that if the NVRAM battery dies it goes into heavy diagnostics and can take many minutes for memory tests.

Other thing to check - it's easy to bend pins on Sun pin-type connectors (SBUS, horiz UPA, pin-type processor connectors). Pull it and double check the pins.

Pulled the card, pins are fine. As soon as I get my hands on a serial cable I'll try to check the PROM settings, etc.

Thanks for the help.

For the n-th time, Suns don't output composite sync on green. They output composite (H+V) sync, on a separate sync pin. Your Compaq monitor doesn't know how to handle anything but separate sync (pin for each of H and V) and I'm guessing it's showing nothing because it's smart enough to not light the tube unless it is receiving (what it considers to be) a valid sync signal.

Are you sure your CTX monitor can even display an 1152x900 pixel raster?

Well, that explains that then. I guess I'm going to have to find a monitor capable of using composite sync. Do Sun's LCDs support it? No way I'm paying for the shipping on a CRT. Either that or I need to find an affordable sync separator. Any ideas where I can find one? Google didn't turn up anything affordable.



Good point, doubt it. I don't remember ever using it above 800x600, thought it might do 1024x768. I presume the Sun won't output such a low resolution.

Well I don't know about that monitor but in my eyes it look like some cheap old display, depending on the 13W3 plug(i is strapped for a certain resolution) but for that time it was a pretty high freq(>90MHz) pixelclock and that monitor ...

I could be wrong.

Dont you have any modern TFT monitor, anyone today should work and like said Sun dont use sync on green.

Why not unplug the keyboard and connect a serial cable to computer, 9600 baud and see what it says, if you get into the OPENBOOT then continue with a better display.

Michael

I do have a better CRT I was only using that one becasue it's the only one I was getting any output from.



Again, I do but I was just trying the two CRTs I had at my workbench. I've got an LCD on my main rig, but I didn't want to take everything apart and drag the display downstairs.



As I said earlier, I don't have a serial cable on hand to try this with, not to mention neither my desktop nor my laptop have a serial port. The only machine I have that has a serial port (and works) is a 486 laptop running Windows 3.1. It should work, I just need to get a cable.

Sorry for being a bit of a dunce, I'm not very familiar with non-x86 hardware.

Connect pin 2-3, 3-2 and 7-7 on a DSUB25, use 9600 baud, first try connect pin 2-3 on the PC and check that your terminal software echo what you write "hello".

Michael

I found a null modem cable. I assume this means the NVRAM is bad?

It does. It's nothing catastrophic, but you're not going to get any further until you reprogram it. And, you'll have to reprogram it every power on until you replace the NVRAM (or hack the battery).

BTW, not "any TFT today" will work on this. More TFT displays support composite sync than composite sync on green, but still many more accept only fully separate sync.

Hi,

Yes, you should start with replacing the IDPROM which is a CMOS RAM with a battery.

Start by reading this, I have only used this on old Suns but start here and get back to us with feedback.

I have a full house of Suns and actually have a my first U170E Creator 3D(bought brand now for alot of$$) with the same issues, so we could work it it together.

let me know!


Michael

Well, I've ordered a new NVRAM chip. I shall followup as soon as it comes in and I've installed it.

Cool, and hopefully it will be fine. But if it's New Old Stock (NOS), or a used pull, the built-in battery might be near death or dead. Even if it's relatively new and in good condition, eventually that battery will fail, so you might consider taking a shot at modifying the old part according to this thread and others it links to (or can be found via search) to use an external coin cell battery.

I've performed the same hack on a SUN NVRAM too: http://www.vdheijden-messerli.net/sgist ... sun-nvram/
That was for an IPX, the Ultra1 might be different. I have an Ultra1 Enterprise so I might get to that eventually... if I don't get rid of the Ultra before that. The trick is to figure out where to dremel the original timekeeper to expose (and cut!) the battery leads. Datasheets and google are your friends.

JJ has produced great guides for this work. The canonical reference for Sun is the Sun NVRAM/hostid FAQ - but it lacks JJ's excellent illustrations. There's a YouTube video here that Firefox refuses to play for me, hopefully a good supplement.

This particular reply is interesting, as an explanation of why some replacement parts might not work in some machines. As JJ said, "Datasheets and google are your friends."

It lives!



I still need to find a monitor, and I've no idea what the password would be, so I'll need to reinstall the OS. Also, I love that the machine is called "Stimpy".

It's a NOS chip, so that's definitely a concern. Hopefully, I can get a bit of life out of the new one, and I can worry about modding it, or the old one, later.

Great.

S10 is available for download from Oracle, there should be a new version comming so also with some ZFS enhancements and more.

You have a old OPENBOOT version.

Michael