[rescue] RS/6000 250 problems

[vance at neurotica.com]

On Fri, 9 May 2003, Dan Williams wrote:

> > Oh.  It's a 13w3.  You should probably know that the pinout on the IBM
> > 13w3 is compatible with neither the Sun nor the SGI 13w3.  If you're
> > running an IBM monitor, you can run a straight-through cable, but if
> > you're running any other brand of monitor, you'll need an adapter.
> > Ok... let me go look up the FRU.
> >
> > Are you sure that FRU is valid?  It's usually two numerical digits, a
> > letter, and four more numerical digits.  Not always, mind you, but
> > most of the time.
>
> The actual cable I have is a 13w3-->vga connector, sync convertor, vga
> lead and another 12w3--> vga connector. Would this work or would it need
> some other kind of adaptor. I have also tried a 13w3-->3 bnc connector
> with no joy. It is nice to see so many different variations of the 13w3
> connector are there any more ?

What machines are the 13w3 -> VGA adapters designed for?  If they aren't
designed *specifically* for RS/6000's, they won't work.  The Sun and SGI
pinouts are different from each other and also different from the IBM
pinout.  It is indeed a pain.  Most RS/6000's will not provide
sync-on-green if they are providing separate sync, so RS/6000 monitors
tend to have support for both.  For example, the 6091 has five BNC's, but
will work if only three are connected.  What you need to do is to either
use a serial console, or get an IBM-compatible adapter.  If you decide to
go looking for a new cable or something, you might have better luck
finding an IBM-compatible 13w3 -> 5BNC if your monitor will accept 5BNC's,
that is.

As far as your question as to how many 13w3 pinouts there are, I know of
at least five.  Two of them are quite obscure, and IBM rarely puts 13w3's
on their equipment anyway (they prefer 3w3's -- much easier to deal with
-- but the pinout between the DEC 3w3 and IBM 3w3 are different, so you
have to swap the red and blue BNC's.  *sigh*), so the two major ones I
know of are Sun's and SGI's.

Peace...  Sridhar