[SunRescue] What could be wrong?

[MikeHebeldruaga at pmail.net]

>>> > I have a SparcStation2 here. It used to work. Now
>>> when you turn it on it
>>> > starts out on a blank black screen, after sitting
>>> for a few it blinks
>>
>>> help. The keyboard lights
>>> > don't blink on at all during "boot" (or whatever
>>> it's doing) either.
>>
>>Like he said - check the cable.  The keyboard will
>>always 'beep' and flash it's light on power up - it is
>>it's way of saying
>>
>>"i'm alive.  Don't know about what i'm connected
>>to...but i've got power"

Is there some way to disable that beep?  It's more than a little
ear-shocking if you're not ready for it.

>>Make sure you haven't knackered the delicate little
>>pins in the plug (on either end) it's easy to do, and
>>infuriating.

Been there - bent that.

>>Recently I was getting bizarre scsi behaviour when
>>trying a disk pack with different boxes - turned out
>>the (so-called) scsi2 connector had a bent pin :-/

This is more than a little common.  Not only did this happen on my boxen but
it happened with the HD 68pin SCSI-3 connector on one of the RAID boxes
where I worked.  It seems that a cleaning person accidentally unplugged it
and then just jammed it back in.  Took us a few days to find the problem.

>>If the cable is OK (try another if you can)

You can find the whole keyboard on E-Bay as well as a lot of other places.
www.sunhelp.org has links I'm sure.  I personally have never seen the cables
separately sold.

>>Did you spill coffee in the keyboard recently?

*LOL*  One of my first jobs at my current place of employment was recovering
a Type 5 keyboard that someone had spilled coffee with sugar into and let
sit overnight.  The whole keyboard acted as if it was glued down.  I took it
apart, cleaned it with alcohol and it's in use as we speak. :-)

>>You haven't stood on it have you?  Not speaking from experience,
>>*at all* Nope.

If I did that I'd hear quite a bit of crackling sounds. ;-)  I did that to a
PC keyboard one when I put it out for the trash. (Chip was bad.)

>>Keyboards do die, even suns ones.
>>It's sad, but true.  It deserves a good burrial in
>>sacred earth :)

Yeah otherwise you get a zombie keyboard.
It starts typing "Where do you want to go today?" over and over and over...


Mike Hebel