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SGI Fuel MoBo repair - Printable Version

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SGI Fuel MoBo repair - Mark_G - 05-14-2020

Hello,

Some years ago, my house got a lighting strike. The power-lines where well secured, but not the network lines.
Due to this, one of my SGI Fuels got a broken network. I couldn't investigate what item was actually broken on the motherboard.
(I already mentioned this on Neko website)
All the rest of the Fuel is still working fine.

SO, I want to (let) repair this motherboard.
For that I'm looking to someone who can check the mobo and repair it.
If someone can make it, please make a PM to me.
I'm living in Belgium.

Kind regards,

Mark
---------------------
PS Off topic to the site admins:
Thanks for the continuation of a SGI forum/website and all the work you've put in.

RE: SGI Fuel MoBo repair - Trippynet - 05-14-2020

If I were you and everything else still works, I'd just get a network card. Fuel has 100Mb network and there are gigabit cards for the Fuel, so one of those would both fix the problem and be an upgrade. Probably cheaper and less risky than trying to repair the board.

RE: SGI Fuel MoBo repair - Mark_G - 05-14-2020

Yes, I know, That's a solution.
At the other end, I like to have a full working system. And as original as possible.

RE: SGI Fuel MoBo repair - kirikoo - 05-15-2020

As TrippyNet says it's very risky to try to fix the motherboard, that's also my opinion.
Also if a custom chip is defective you will never find another one to replace it.
Not to mention the fact that desoldering and resoldering a surface-mounted 100-pin chip without doing any damage can be excluded without special equipment.
In the end, it is better to have an almost original machine that works than nothing at all.

RE: SGI Fuel MoBo repair - Trippynet - 05-15-2020

Another option would be to buy a replacement motherboard and sell your existing one if having a fully original board is that important to you. This is likely to be cheaper and less risky than replacing components on your existing board.

RE: SGI Fuel MoBo repair - jan-jaap - 05-15-2020

(05-15-2020, 10:46 AM)Trippynet Wrote:  Another option would be to buy a replacement motherboard and sell your existing one

Be careful: you cannot simply install any compatible CPU on a Fuel mainboard and expect it to work. Some CPU parameters have to be flashed into the mainboard. If the mainboard is set for a 900MHz CPU, a 500MHz CPU won't work (and you won't be able to recover the mainboard until you get  a 900MHz CPU). This makes flashing a Fuel mainboard a tricky business: flash the wrong values in you'll probably brick it.

So if you want to avoid all of this you'd have to swap mainboards with someone with the same CPU speed.

RE: SGI Fuel MoBo repair - hamei - 05-16-2020

(05-15-2020, 11:35 AM)jan-jaap Wrote:  This makes flashing a Fuel mainboard a tricky business: flash the wrong values in you'll probably brick it.

Luckily, that's a little bit of an overstatement.  What you have to do in that case is round up the faster cpu card, install, use that to downlevel the processor speed, then you're back in business.

This was easier to do when there were a lot of Fuels in the wild :(

btw, there's a ton of little shops here with chip-replacement equipment -- an x-y table, magnifier and resoldering equipment -- I guess repairing old boards is common here. But that doesn't help you much ....

RE: SGI Fuel MoBo repair - kubatyszko - 05-16-2020

Oh Hey guys Smile so this is where the action is at Tongue

I'd second what was said, repairing Fuel's is very tricky (but not impossible),
the most common repair is to replace the failing DS1780 monitoring chips and even that is not easy due to proximity of the chips to other parts such as PCI slots.
I haven't seen mentions of any other repairs.

As far as my knowledge of Ethernet faults goes ( I used to run an Internet Provider for 13 years and my users had dealt with A LOT of lightnings ), there are two common things you'd want to start with:

1) transformer in the Ethernet jack - if applicable (some jacks have built-in transformer, some don't)
2) transceiver chip (hasn't been identified on Fuel to my knowledge), there's a high chance it an off-the-self chip and *could* be replaced.

NOTE - DO NOT de-solder stuff yourself if you're not comfortable with SMD rework on a insane-multi-layer board (Fuel has more copper layers than Windows 7 Whopper), leave it to someone else.

Over the weekend I'm going to pull out my fuel mobo from my closet (need to check something regarding ATX adapter redesign I'm working on), might take a peek at the chips, who knows maybe I'll figure out which one is the Ethernet.

Cheers

RE: SGI Fuel MoBo repair - Mark_G - 05-16-2020

Thanks everybody for all the advice.
It's not my intention to replace the chip myself. I don't have the equipment and the skill for that.
I hope that some-one can give me an address from a company which could examine the board, and possible replace the items for a reasonable price.
At the other end, I'll check he regular sites for spare Mobo's.

Kind regards,

Mark

RE: SGI Fuel MoBo repair - kubatyszko - 05-16-2020

(05-16-2020, 03:53 PM)Mark_G Wrote:  Thanks everybody for all the advice.
It's not my intention to replace the chip myself. I don't have the equipment and the skill for that.
I hope that some-one can give me an address from a company which could examine the board, and possible replace the items for a reasonable price.
At the other end, I'll check he regular sites for spare Mobo's.

Kind regards,

Mark


There are plenty of users from all over Europe, jan-jaap is in Netherlands, I recall some from France etc. you shouldn’t have issues reaching out for information on repair shops.
It may be a good idea to ask around on Electronic forums, find a TV repairman or even HAM radio operator - these groups will either have the skills and tools or know someone who does.