[SPARCbook] Dead 3TX...

[Helena Soderholm]

On Sun, 5 Oct 2003 rjh at earthlink.net wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I just found a SPARCbook 3TX at the swap meet. 
> Brought it home, did not have a power supply so 
> plugged it into a 12V battery.
> 
> It booted just fine, thought it was attached to a network
> and kept looking for some site to bind to... No problem.
> 
> I ran it until the battery died, but now the problem; it will
> not restart.
> 
> All it will do now is, at power on, flash the green light 
> 2 seconds, pause 4 seconds, 2 seconds on,  ad nauseam...
> 
> With the battery removed it does not even do this. Also
> if I press the power button while the green led is on, the
> system will beep as if it wants to start.
> 
> I have tried reseating the RAM, removing the drive, to no
> avail.
> 
> One more thing, at power on the green led blinks twice
> in quick succession before falling into the on/off cycle.
> 
> Any thoughts would be appreciated.
> 
> Thank you
> Robert J. Hutchins
> _______________________________________________
> Sparcbook mailing list  -  Sparcbook at sunhelp.org
> http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook
> 

Hello Robert!

It sounds as if your 12V hookup might not have worked at all. The laptop
just ran until the battery died. The good news is you seem to have a
somewhat healthy battery. 1 hour on these beast is good and 0.5 h is what 
I get from mine, but it is a 3GX, maybe the XT is better. 

I think the pinout for the connector is in the Sparcbook manual. It should
be possible to download in pdf format from rdi/tadpoles homepage. Radio
Shack sells a universal laptop power supply which is portable and nice. It
has all sorts of different plugs for different laptops. Since the one on
the Sparcbook is not unusual this should work. Just check the power
rating, but I think it should work (but I don't remember exactly so best
check it).

Best regards,
Peter