Nekonomicon - Octane playing up

competentcompton
Who joined Aug. 2, 2006, 2:06 a.m.
and authored 240 notes

Wrote the following at May 4, 2013, 2:36 a.m...

Hi,

My main octane is a dual 600 Mhz with V6 and 2.5GB of RAM.

It has a Xbox 1.3 and I also replaced the NVRAM chip recently.

Thing has problems booting from cold. I always seem to get a flashing red bar (which from the doco is RAM/CPU).

Changed the CPU back to dual 400Mhz and problem still persists.
Swapped the RAM many times and still the problem.

The only fix seems to be - remove the mobo and push it back in.

Doesn't always work but after a few attempts it seems to. Once the machine boots and I have used it for a while I can shut it down and reboot it without problem.

My question is

is this a problem with the mobo, Xbox (possibly being overloaded by the configuration) or just bad connectors ?

Best solution?

New Xbow, mobo or any other ideas?

Cheers

Stoo
Who joined July 26, 2010, 8:13 a.m.
and authored 139 notes

Wrote the following at May 4, 2013, 5:10 a.m...

Could just need the compression connectors cleaning *very* carefully?

_________________
:Octane2:

Octane2 Dual R14K 600Mhz, 4GB RAM, VPro V12, DCD, PCI Card Cage, GBit Ethernet
:Indigo2IMP:

Indigo2 R10K 195MHz, 1GB RAM, Maximum Impact, I2V
The boxen are breeding... help!

guardian452
Who joined Aug. 21, 2007, 9:12 p.m.
and authored 2601 notes

Wrote the following at May 8, 2013, 4:28 a.m...

Cleaning the compression connectors is a good idea, I would start by pulling off the frontplane and wiping the contacts clean with isopropyl alcohol. Blow off the other side of the connection with compressed air.

Have you tried reseating the CPU?

_________________
:Onyx:

(Maradona) :Octane:

(DavidVilla) A1186 (Xavi) d800 (Pique) d820 (Neymar)
A1370 (Messi) dp43tf (Puyol) A1387 (Abidal) A1408 (Guardiola)

recondas
Moderator
Who joined June 6, 2004, 4:55 p.m.
and authored 4968 notes

Wrote the following at May 8, 2013, 4:33 a.m...

Using a serial terminal to capture the output of the power on diagnostics session would probably give you a better idea of exactly which part(s) are failing diagnostics.

_________________
***********************************************************************
Welcome to ARMLand - 0/0x0d00
running...(sherwood-root 0607201829)
* InfiniteReality/Reality Software, IRIX 6.5 Release *
***********************************************************************

competentcompton
Who joined Aug. 2, 2006, 2:06 a.m.
and authored 240 notes

Wrote the following at May 15, 2013, 2:48 a.m...

I have tried blowing the connectors with compressed air and will see how it goes from here.

If this does not work I'll try component swapping. Probably starting with the mobo.

Cheers

Vanne
Who joined June 9, 2009, 2:07 a.m.
and authored 11 notes

Wrote the following at June 9, 2013, 4:14 p.m...

I wouldn't blow the compression connectors directly with compressed air, that's how I lost my first octane.

_________________
Boxen: Indy, Indigo2 Impact, O2, Octane, and building......

ruckusman
Who joined Jan. 11, 2004, 7:15 a.m.
and authored 399 notes

Wrote the following at July 24, 2013, 7:40 a.m...

I had an old R10K 195 that did that, though got worse till it wouldn't boot.

Removing and re-inserting the Mobo will work for a while.

The actual fix is the hook components of the compression connector which will be partially bent out of shape giving you less than perfect contact.

Thus your intermittent success removing and re-inserting the Mobo.

Only real fix is to tear it down and bend the metal parts gently to get good connections.

Sorry I can't give explicit instructions as my Octane is buried in storage and I did this repair years ago.

Observation of how the mechanism works will get you to where you need to be easily enough

peace out

Glenn

SGI: Hardware

Octane playing up