[SPARCbook] Reviving a Dead SparcBook 3GS - stuck booting

[Barry A. Dobyns]

When we last spoke, I had my dead 3GS in pieces all over the table.

No suprise, my pieces looked almost exactly like the ones in http://www.scottyelich.com/sparcbook/memsaq/  but I haven't yet made
the sort of extreme modifications that are outlined there.  Unlike the memsaq, I went ahead and pulled the main screen connectors
off the motherboard, and as I mentioned before, I had to pull the CPU card off to get at the M4T28-BR12SH1

Okay, I unplugged the M4T28-BR12SH1 which, after careful study of the spec sheets, is simply the battery for the NVRAM, and it
"forgot" some (but not all) of it's settings, for instance still knows it's ethernet address and host ID (unlike a Sparc 1 which
stores it in the NVRAM).

Now it boots more completely, the screen lights up, and it shows the tadpole splash screen, and the memory countdown.  It thinks
it's in diagnostic mode and wants to boot off the net (of course), and I'll have to cope with that, but at least the screen works
again.  I'm thinking that maybe it was just some connector madness.

However, the keyboard is completely non-responsive - don't know whether I did it during disassembly or if this was part of the
original problem.  Can I just plug in a sun Type 4 or Type 5 keyboard?  That would be good to finish checking out whether the rest
of it works.

Making some progress here, finally.

-b

----- Original Message -----
From: "Barry A. Dobyns" <barry at dobyns.com>
To: <sparcbook at sunhelp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 1999 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: [SPARCbook] Reviving a Dead SparcBook 3GS - stuck booting


> Okay, so I cracked it open - unscrewed the base, pulled off the display, disconnected the display cables, took off the keyboard,
and
> pulled off the CPU card.
>
> As long as I'm inside, does anyone have any experience "overclocking" a sparcbook?
>
> Anyhoo, I'm still trying to revive the dead 3GS, and still operating on the "dead NVRAM/PROM conjecture":
>
> Inside there's a (suprise!) a bunch of stuff, but the only thing that's socketed anywhere is a M4T28-BR12SH1 "Timekeeper" NVRAM
> lithium battery.  And when I pull it off, it looks like just a battery that snaps on the top of the clock chip/NVRAM, which is an
> M48T18.  Look up the parts at http://www.st.com, http://us.st.com/stonline/prodpres/memory/selector/mpge_a40.htm
>
> The PROMs are __soldered down__ on the main board. And they're the tiny little surface mount SMT types - there's no chance I'll
> replace them myself.
>
> -b
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <krakxl at fcmail.com>
> To: <sparcbook at sunhelp.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 1999 12:41 PM
> Subject: Re: Re: Re: [SPARCbook] Reviving a Dead SparcBook 3GS - stuck booting
>
>
> > Sorry to piss you off, just trying to help. I do feel your
> > pain though, a sparc book is an expensive piece of hardware,
> > and even I S*** a brick when my (slow assed, POS, balack and
> > ******* white) Cheap old IPC Goes AWOL. I was going to ask
> > if A sparc5 PROM would do the trick, but the answer is obviously
> > NO.
> >
> >
> > /*You are not expected to understand this*/
> > ______________________________________________________
> >
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> >
> >
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>
>
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