SGI: Hardware

Just got hold of a few Indy's and powered them up, one of them had not been switched on for 2885 days, (nearly 8 years), and the PROM battery was still going..!

The hard drive was stuck and did not turn at all, it was on the floor so I literary gave the Indy a couple of rapid kicks to force the hard drive moving again (i.e. another definition for booting the system up).

In any case, my question is... to re-charge the PROM battery does the Indy need to be turned on, or will the PROM battery receive power with just the plug connected to the power supply with the Indy off? Does is actually re-charge at all?

Thanks...

The Dallas battery does not recharge itself. Search the forums for "Dallas battery" or even "indy battery" and you'll find plenty of topics regarding replacing it, either via a new Dallas chip or by dremeling the existing one to install external battery leads.

Kicking SGIs to boot them is usually a bad idea - while it works okay on the Indy, systems like the Octane have fragile compression connectors that are easily unseated, so kicking will do them more harm than good.

The battery won't recharge. It's a lithium battery potted inside the thick Dallas Watchdog chip near the hard drives. Either buy a new one, ask Dallas/Maxim(?) for 2 free samples of the current model, or solder a CR2032 (+socket) in the right place (there's a thread about this somewhere around here).

The DS1386 (used in the Indy) is out of production so you cannot request samples anymore. It's replacement , the DS1553 , is not pin compatible.

Several threads, but THIS is the most recent one. I you want to know where to open a DS1386 to attach a battery, look HERE .

Hey hey hey -- percussive maintenance has a long and distinguished history ! If somebody reading this lacks the professional skills and experience to safely administer PM, they may wish to consider purchasing a kit or bringing in a professional. I'd recommend contacting the System Administrators Guild, SAGE for a referral if you don't have somebody on staff or a reliable independent practioner on retainer.

(If you can't tell this is a facetious suggestion, you should step away from the machine...)

You forgot the price breakdown:

$1.25 hitting the machine
$95.00 Knowing where and how to hit the machine.