On Fri, 28 May 1999, Jay West wrote:
Since I have two 2117F's at home, I'll answer
this one...
You wrote...
F.E.M.
FEM or MEM? in a card cage, I would
expect it to be MEM, same as above.
Otherwise, an educated guess would be some type of firmware board.
F.E.M., really. It is in the bottom slot of the rear card cage (on each
machine), and is connected to the main logic board with a ribbon cable.
I did pull one out and look at it, it has a few EPROMS on it along with a
large number of other similar sized chips (24/28 pin). I did not check
numbers on the chips however... (bad me)
I noted that it appeard that something could be mounted beneath the main
logic board (threaded standoffs and such in view) but there is no
additional card mounted in either machine.
I still need to
find docs on this critter and the cards.
I have a virtually complete documentation
set for the above, sans a few of
the cards.
How massive are the docs? copyable by mortal man? (or precluded by
bindings and such)
After the usual
pre-launch checks, all of the (apparently) optional cards
were removed from the card cages and the units were powered up. Curiously,
they both act identically in that they seem to have some front panel
function, but the CPUs seem to be hung pretty
hard.
<minor snippage>
Other important notes for a checkout - upon powerup,
look at the very bottom
row of lights (a/b/m/t/p/s). Only one should be lit. If more of them are
lit, it indicates several different problems, the most likely of which is
memory configuration/parity error.
Ok, there is a check point! On both systems at power-up, that entire row
of indicators is on. No amount of punching of front panel switches would
change that.
If the machine has the power fail option,
deadness upon powerup can mean that the batteries are no longer sustaining
memory. The system disables some functions to alert you of this. There is a
way to clear this condition, but I need to check the manual when I get home.
Hmmmm... not recalling any card that suggested it to be a power fail
option, where would I look to determine if these are so equipped? There
is a connector on the rear of the units (on the power supply) which
refers to somehting about a battery...
(note that I only have the two CPU chassis and the listed cards at
present. No drives, peripherals, interface cables/boxes, etc... -sigh- >
Finally, the 2117F should go through a powerup POST
type test. Depending on
battery charge (if the power fail option is present) sometimes it can take
20 seconds sometimes 30 minutes or so, but eventually if the system is 100%
you should see the leftmost 5 bits or so on the display counting up as it
checks memory.
Hmmm... no such indications that I recall... But again, it appeared hung
(as per comments above) Sounds like that would be a good sign of initial
life tho...
Since I'm at work and not at home, I'm
reciting all this from memory. I
could have easily left something out or said something wrong. Feel free to
email me over the weekend on anything you have questions about.
No doubt I will B^} (already)
No odd sounds
or loss of magic smoke, so an initial suspicion is a
configuration error common to both units. The card cages only have
specific card notations on a couple of slots, so there is the obvious
question of proper card positioning. (no idea if the cages are a parallel
bus or not)
The machines in question are using HSM type memory, which had a slightly
strange setup compared to the memory subsystems in the other HP systems I
also have (2113B 2109B) and work with more often.
Interesting. Also, the 'Standard memories' cards I referred to in the
list are indeed 3rd party memory cards. A misconfiguration of the memory
is a very real possibility as there is no telling how many hands may have
diddled with these machines before I obtained them.
There are some real
specifics related to slots and ribbon cables in the front card cage. When I
get home I'll check how my 2117F's (which are running fine) are configured.
Cool. Greatly appreciated! BTW: what are you running on yours? (and can
I get a copy when I get some life into these critters? (assuming of
course that HP is not tense on the issue for a machine of this vintage)
Thanks!
-jim
---
jimw(a)computergarage.org
The Computer Garage -
http://www.computergarage.org
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
>> Coming soon to
www.computergarage.org - the
CBBS/NW on-line archives
>> Coming to VCF III (2-3 October 1999) - CBBS/NW
live!