[SPARCbook] Error Codes Sparcbook 3xs

[Ian Spray]

On 10 Apr, 2005, at 09:58, J Tingle wrote:

> I took the battery out and just got the B4 code and a white screen.  I
> tried a different battery I have and got the F02 again.
>
Looks like you have two dead batteries, or a problem with the unit: to 
be honest I don't have a working battery for my S3 anymore (hence my 
comment in the FAQ a couple of years ago about using a 12v lead acid 
cell into the external input).

> Yeah I think you are right.  I don't have much hope for this one.  I
> bought 3 sparcbooks off ebay.  The first 3gx I bought was perfect,
> 128mb of ram, working battery, hdd caddy, clear scratch free screen.
> So I bought 2 more sparcbooks from the same guy thinking they would be
> of similar quality.  That was a mistake.  One is the dead 3sx and the
> other is a 3gx that has a bad screen(very dim) and a slight burnt
> plastic smell like it is overheating.  Anyone need some a couple
> sparcbooks for parts :).
>
The dim one probably just needs new tubes in the backlight, so if 
you're adventurous you could try taking apart the other dead machine 
and either:

a) opening up the LCD on each (and I mean right inside, into the white 
plastic casing within the headshell) and swapping tubes, which is a 
risky operation even with enough bench space and practice

b) if the screen resolutions are the same, simply take the headshell 
off the unknown unit and swap it for the dim one - you might get lucky 
!

To take the headshell off have a google - there were some pretty good 
pictorial guides, but basically remove the single screw on the 
underside in the middle and towards the rear of the unit.  This is the 
main release for the headshell and you ought to find that the whole 
assembly can be lifted vertically from the unit a small amount.  The 
whole area above the keyboard to the rear of the machine will also lift 
up, and you should see two armoured cables running from the screen down 
onto the main board.

Note which cables goes to which socket (they might not cover all of the 
available pins) and lever them off.  Repeat on the other unit, and then 
put the new screen onto the other base board, and put the plugs back, 
but boy, is that a fiddly step.  Take your time.  Don't have pets or 
small children around to help - I've found it is often easier to have a 
long (4" or so) thin flat head screwdriver handy, as well as the 
thinnest longest nosed pair of pliers you can find.  Hold the cable in 
the pliers (above the plug at about the point where all of the wire can 
fit into the pliers one wire deep - ie: not in a circular bunch), keep 
the LCD assembly propped at an angle behind the machine with some 
books, and place the cable onto the pins.  I then used the screwdriver 
to lever the plug downwards, with some help pushing the plug down with 
the pliers to.

Sorry - it's been years since I did this, and I can't recall _exactly_ 
the procedure.  This is also not the way we repaired them, but I never 
got to read the official documents so made this up for the odd times I 
needed to do it.

Needless to say, all of this advice is to be used with caution, and if 
you're not comfortable then don't start the job !  I may be confusing 
this with one of the other laptops and nothing above works, in which 
case you're really on your own ;)

Oh, and it's worth scaring up a Sun 8-pin Mini-DIN serial cable and 
putting that into the serial socket (middle one, I recall) just to see 
if the dead unit really is dead.  If you can get to where you think OBP 
might be active, hit Pause+A and then type:

   ttya io

on the internal keyboard.  If it's alive, then you ought to be a 
9600,8n1 datastream out of it, and all I/O will be taken from the 
external port.  You then know it's worth trying to fix the display, or 
perhaps fixing the I/O to be ttya all the time and using it as a low 
power server.

HTH,
-- 
Ian Spray             | Software Engineer     | Tadpole Computer Ltd.
ian_spray at tadpole.com | http://hw.tadpole.com | +44 (0) 870 432 4161
GPG Fingerprint:  B579 CB8D A4F4 84EA FAEE  A87A A3CC 28E7 7ADC F47C