RS6k 7012/320H woes

[Patrick Finnegan]

On Tue, Nov 6, 2018, 17:30 Carlos E Murillo-Sanchez via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org wrote:

> The code 290 above is particularly worrysome, I think.  The NVRAM
> battery reads 2.85 volts even after all these years. I reseated all of
> the chips that are on bases, all of the cards, and connectors; there was
> no change.  Any ideas on how to proceed?
>
> carlos.
>

I wouldn't worry about any of the bad-sounding codes. How long have you
waited? A model 320 is REALLY slow for an RS/6000, and you should get more
codes as AIX boots up, and it should eventually clear the display once it's
finished booting.  Codes are only errors if the system doesn't advance past
the code after more than several minutes.  Also, the system won't send
anything to the console port until well into the boot process, so no output
doesn't mean that the serial port is dead.  That's what the LED display is
for. :)

If you've waited at least 10-15 minutes after the last code it displayed,
it sounds like you may need to reinstall, or maybe you have a failing or
missing hard drive.  I'd suggest finding a SCSI CDROM drive for it and get
a copy of AIX install media.  Note that you *need* install media or another
system to rescue a machine with a lost root password, so I'd recommend that
anyway.

Earlier machines like the 320H would have originally done this off of 8mm
tape, but I wouldn't recommend trying that since CD-ROMs are way easier.
10Mb Ethernet cards, compatible CD-ROM drives, and a copy of the media
shouldn't be too hard to find.  I'm sure someone here or over on the
Sunhelp rescue list will be able to help you.  If you're in the US, I know
a few people here could source you parts.

Pat

>