[rescue] First steps on "new" rs6000?

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Mon, 9 Jun 2003, Robert Novak wrote:

> What are good first steps on bringing one of the RS6000 small machines
> (i.e. desktop form factor/less than 100 pounds) up and finding out how
> well it's configured?

Well, if you have a diagnostics CD, you can do that.  I don't recall how
complete the built-in diagnostics are on a 390, but many systems will
give you the option to perform a full inventory/diagnosic output if you
start the system with the key in the "service" position.

If you don't have a key for the system, and it's NOT in the "service"
position, you're about to have a bad day.  You can't even get the case
open without the keyswitch in that position.  Well, you -can- get the
case open, but there are no guarantees that the lid will survive.

> I'm guessing I can pull the FB and run serial console, and I'm guessing I
> don't have a handy monitor that will work with the FB that's in it (does
> it use a SOGgy monitor?

It's Sync-on-Green.  It should work with any SGI-compatible multisync
monitor.

> I guess what I'm interested in are any obvious starting points,
> equivalents to show-devs/hinv in sunOBP/SGI, any diagnostics I should run
> (I'm not feeling well enough to take the machine apart to look up all the
> memory part #s, but I think I saw well over a dozen simms in there).

Whew.  If you got the case open, you either have a key, or it's in the
"service" position, so you can buy a new key+keyswitch assembly.

Unless you have two memory cards, you have 8 SIMMs, and a minimum of
64MB of memory.  I -think- you can have a maximum of 512MB per card.

> I also ended up with a metric decibuttload of Wordperfect 5.1 and 6.0 for
> DOS, full boxes in shrinkwrap, and some other neat stuff.

If you'd like to offload one of those 5.1 boxes, let me know what you'd
like to trade for it.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke   )  "Leave your lawsuits at home.  I have guns."
Elgin, TX          (                      --"Kountry" Mike Lundgren