[rescue] sparc trouble (yet again)...

[Frank Van Damme]

On Monday 17 March 2003 22:09, David Holland wrote:
> Not being familiar w/ most of the SparcBooks, pardon me if this is a
> little vague, but this is my 0.002$ (american, extra zero intentional)
>
> Is there a 'test esp' command in the OBP?

No, but "help test" tells me there's a test net, scsi, floppy and so forth.

Running
ok help scsi
gives:
Dma register test -- succeeded.
Esp register test -- succeeded.
Dma read test -- succeeded.
Dma write test -- succeeded.

> There should at least be a test-all (or is it 'test all' - I forget -
> sorry)
>
> If there's a external SCSI port, and you have the drive/media available,
> you could plug in a external CDROM, and try booting from it.   That
> would at least narrow it down to SCSI controller vs. drive failure.

I have no scsi cdrom drive. Only internal ide stuff.

> I'd also try listening very carefully to see if the drive is spinning
> up.  You can (usually) hear the heads seeking when the drive gets up to
> speed.

It runs. You should know that there is a large hole on the left of the laptop
that probably contained something useful in the 'books former life. I can put
my hand inside and feel the disk vibrate.

> I'm guessing the drive died on you.  (Mebbe it overheated?)

Overheating is unlikely. The air coming out of the case is always cool and
there is a hole under the hd, a hole in the place where the 2nd hd could sit
if I had any, and that huge hole of previous paragraph :)

> I remember vague rumors of some of the sparcbooks using "regular" laptop
> IDE drives w/ a IDE/SCSI translator board plugged into the back of them,
> if your lucky, and its just the drive, IDE laptop drives aren't terribly
> difficult to come by (at least here in the states)

No, they aren't. But those convertors alone cost 150$/$ or something.

Conclusion: probably some electrics on the drive fried. But I don't see any
brown spots on the bottom (there are some nude green parts there).

--
Frank Van Damme
http://www.openstandaarden.be