5 Jun
2025
5 Jun
'25
11:53 p.m.
Hi Andreas,
great that there are still some people looking into the
old SPARCbooks from Tadpole. I have got a 3GX up and running.
Sadly there seems to be almost no documentation
available
in the net for a Sparcbook 2
Yeah, that is really sad. Also do not have got any information!
Just to report from my work on the 3 series ones (which are
probably not to different from the earlier ones):
Mine works without battery pack, so there is some intelligence
in the battery pack (for power management), but using a power
supply it is working even without that pack!
- after trying to reboot the unit will be almost dead.
While pressing the power on button the LEDs on the left
upper side of the display will
be lit shortly, but nothing else will happen.
Hmm, that sounds strange and I never observed this due to
lost NVram values. But what I observed is the yellow/orange
Tantalum caps going bad in the small power supply piggy back
PCB inside the unit. A short prevents the notebook from
working (and sometimes even some inductors release smoke and
completely destroyong the PCB depending on which cap went
short).
After a longer time powered off, the faulty cap can recover
explaining your observation. Fortunately I had some spare
PCBs and replaced all caps in my live one which works nicely
now...
Good luck,
Erik.