[Sunhelp] [Summary] SPARCstation 1+ serial/terminal problem and whats this?

[James Lockwood]

On Wed, 12 Jan 2000, Parris B. Wood wrote:

> 	Also as James pointed out there is a serial # on the back of the
> card at the SBus (I hope I'm using the right bus here) connector. Sorry
> about that folks, I must have scoured the card so hard I missed the
> obvious. For the curious the number is:
> 
> 	5011419019838 -07REV50

ECL mono framebuffer.  Monitors for these are basically free if you can
find them, and the video quality isn't too bad for mono.

> 	I took the cable into work today to verify it was wired correctly
> and everything seemed to pass. I also did the varying keyboard keys, only
> L1+D got any results. They culminated with a blinking of the three leds
> and a beep and then no more. Having only a Type 4 keyboard I was not able
> to use Pauls suggestion of getting info from the leds on the condition of
> the ram. The machine appears to be almost maxed out with one bank
> completely filled with original Sun memory and the next four simms filled
> with Clearpoint memory. I'd love to pull the chips to find out their size
> but they are in the slots good. 

The LEDs on the type-4 and type-5 are the same (caps lock, num lock,
scroll lock and compose).  Which ones light?

Which slots are the SIMMs in?  There should be a number of the form Uxxxx
next to each slot.

Each bank is 4 SIMMs, it sounds like you have 12 slots filled.

> 	The SS1+ has the places for drives, one is taken by the flopp, the
> next spot is open but missing the mounting sled/bracket and the third has
> a bracket and this wierd little board with what looks like a resistor. All
> I can tell is when powered on that little resistor throws off alot of
> heat, basicly untouchable. What is it? If I put a drive in the machine can
> I remove this little board? Sorry, just that kind of heat worries me.

Load board.  Used in machines without drives and sbus cards, usually.  It
is designed to put enough load on the powersupply to make it work.  A hard
drive will be a perfect replacement.

The NVRAM will not lose its contents if removed, the battery is inside the
chip package.  As long as you replace it in the correct orientation there
should be no problem.

With all this said, you may have a defective board.  Given what you've
said, I'd say this is more likely than not.  By all means keep
experimenting but keep in mind that fully functional machines of this
class are very affordable now (free or close to it).

-James