Hello Josh,
Monday, September 18, 2006, 9:33:11 AM, you wrote:
Thanks for the tips. This morning the machine
actually booted to the
IRIX login screen but crashed to a black screen as soon as I tried to do
anything graphics-intensive, so it looks like your assessments are
correct, it's definitely a sporadic hardware failure.
that sounds like a step forward from your last description.
I went through and cleaned out the machine before
I powered it on the
first time (it was quite dirty); and I reseated everything that was
socketed. I'll try running diagnostics on it sometime this week and see
if it tells me anything.
Probably the key is *not* reseating *everything*. Most of my 10-20
year old machines (esp. the SGIs) are plugged in the way they are
(after taking care of transportation "bugs"). Sometimes I come to
think that after 10 years the dirt is part of the "whole" and has
grown to some kind of function. ;-)
Seeing that it works in general you should probably try reseat-magic
with the bare minimum of hardware and see if the thing can stay stable
at PROM level and proceed from that point on. And remember... if it is
really a 4D/35 cooling is a BIG issiue... do NOT run the system
without a working "cardcage" fan for the CPU and without the whole
cage installed into the larger chassis. Did I mention cooling is
essential on these systems?
So... is proper cooling important on these systems, or what?
Per yours (and others') suggestions, I've run the system without the
Turbo expansion and it runs without issue; with the Turbo installed it
crashes as soon as something graphic-intensive happens. The PROM
monitor and single user works fine. So, I think I've found the culprit.
Thanks,
Josh