Sadanand Pathre
612-733-6453
"Hsin Wang" <WANG@POSTBOX.CSI.CUNY.EDU> on 04/13/99 01:20:37 PM
To: ammrl@wwitch.unl.edu
lew cary <lcary@rotor.chem.unr.edu>
cc: (bcc: Sadanand V. Pathre/US-Corporate/3M/US)
Subject: Re: SGI computer crash (fwd)
I think it is a good idea to call SGI. I did not think that I had
anything to say about this matter, but Lew Cary's note reminded me of
an incident with our Octane that may be relevant. The
system would not respond to anything including the power button. I
did too had to yank the power cord. I do not remember the "dah dah
dah ding" tone that Karen Ann described in her note when I plug it
back in (no response then). This happened within a few days from the
warranty expiration date, so we had it covered.
The tech support asked me to look at the LED's inside the front panel
of the computer and was able to diagnose right away and pointed out
it was due to a design flaw of the mother board. It turns out that
they had two bridge chips covered by one heat sink (ventilation) device.
One of the chips produce so much heat that destroys the other. He
sent me a new motherboard and we were back right away.
I did ask him, had the motherboard failed a few days later after the
warranty, whether SGI would repair it without charge, knowing that it is
due
to a design flaw. It was a difficult question and I did not get an
answer.
Hsin
> Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 14:05:54 -0700 (PDT)
> From: lew cary <lcary@rotor.chem.unr.edu>
> To: ammrl@wwitch.unl.edu
> Subject: Re: SGI computer crash (fwd)
> Here is one answer :) Cheers, Lew
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 11:16:40 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Paul Forman <forman@chem.unr.edu>
> To: lew cary <lcary@rotor.chem.unr.edu>
> Subject: Re: SGI computer crash (fwd)
>
> On Mon, 12 Apr 1999, lew cary wrote:
>
> > ? Lew
>
> Call SGI. It's very likely this O2 has retired itself.
>
> Power-cycling an O2, while not advised, is not lethal. An O2 is like all
> other SGI's, the power button is *not* a circuit breaker. It signals the
> OS to shut down, and the OS shuts down at its leisure.
>
> If the O2 was fully screwed when the student shut it down, the power
> button wouldn't do anything... I've had to yank the power cord out of
> the back of an O2 to shut it down once (all my fault).
>
> If she isn't getting to a maintenance screen, there's something seriously
> wrong with that box. All of the booting stuff is in ROM, and effectively
> uncorruptable. It should be at *trying* to start, at least.
>
> Call SGI. They may have some bright idea, but the brightest idea is
> probably to replace it.
>
> It *is* under service contract, right???
>
>
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Date: Fri, 09 Apr 1999 16:12:31 -0600
> > From: Karen Ann Smith <karenann@unm.edu>
> > To: ammrl <ammrl@wwitch.unl.edu>
> > Subject: SGI computer crash
> >
> > Happy Friday afternoon (or monday morning)!
> >
> > "This afternoon a student logged onto the Bruker DRX 500. After
> > Xwinnmr had started he could not move the mouse so he turned off the
> > power to the SGI O2 and turned it back on. Nothing happened." This
> > is what he told me when I returned to the lab from teaching class.
> >
> > After giving the standard lecture on never power cycling Unix
> > computers, I telnettted to it from another system. Nothing
> > happened.
> >
> > I power cycled the SGI. It makes the "dah dah dah ding" tones, and
> > the monitor changes from black to hazy purple but nothing happens.
> >
> > The monitor is OK. I checked it on another system and it is fine.
> > I even swapped cables. The network is fine. All my other systems
> > are talking and I swapped ethernet cables with this one.
> >
> > So, nothing on the screen. No apparent response to mouse or
> > keyboard (how could I tell?). It won't answer telnet. It is not
> > exporting its data disk (NFS mount on another system gives a port
> > mapper failure). Judging by the lack of lights on the ccu when I
> > push the reboot light, the second ethernet port is not talking
> > either.
> >
> > If I can't get the "stop for maintenance" screen, how do I boot off
> > CD-ROM, another disk, etc.????
> >
> > Ideas? (Other than uses for a pretty blue doorstop?)
> >
> > (I do have another O2 that could be used to run the system (after I
> > put in a second ethernet card, install software, etc. so I am not
> > completely up the creek, but the water sure is dark)
> >
> > thanks,
> >
> > Karen Ann
> >
> >
> > -
> > Karen Ann Smith karenann@unm.edu
> > Manager, NMR Facility Adj. Asst. Prof.
> > Dept. of Chemistry Clark Hall
> > University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131
> > 505.277.4031 url: http://www.unm.edu/~karenann
> > Fight Spam! Join CAUCE! == http://www.cauce.org/
> > "Chemistry is easy. It's a lot like witchcraft, only... less
> > newt."
> > Willow Rosenberg (Buffy)
> >
>
> --
> Paul Forman
> forman@chem.unr.edu Office CB 006A, x4523
>
>
>
____________________________________________________________________
Hsin Wang, Ph.D.
Manager, NMR Facility (718)-982-3809 (O)
Department of Chemistry (718)-982-3910 (FAX)
The College of Staten Island Email: WANG@postbox.csi.cuny.edu
2800 Victory Boulevard
Staten Island, NY 10314