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Sgi Fuel. - Printable Version

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Sgi Fuel. - dancingfools - 10-18-2020

        Hello everybody. I have a problem with an SGI Fuel. In practice I can not see the presentation screen of the workstation, much less the maintenance menu, the only thing I can see is the mouse pointer, visible without problems and white lines on a black background as in the photo I am attaching. Once irix loads, no problem. I tried to reverse the odyssey and the ram as well, having another Fuel, but nothing. What could it depend on? I had a third odyssey that didn't give any problems with that, but I had to replace it because now it doesn't work anymore unfortunately. Maybe the prom to be updated?

RE: Sgi Fuel. - Raion - 10-18-2020

Edited to fix the formatting.

Sounds like that Fuel has an issue with its XIO card is my guess. Does the card mess up if you change your resolution drastically?

RE: Sgi Fuel. - dancingfools - 10-18-2020

I tried to change video settings, everything works fine when the operating system loads, but the maintenance menu nothing. Even when I shot down the system the same screen. One thing I noticed though. When starting the Fuel, the led bar flashes white for a very long time unlike the other Fuel I own. And when the striped screen comes out the led bar flashes white for a long time.

RE: Sgi Fuel. - Dylanear - 10-21-2020

Sure is an odd issue. I suspect the graphics is in a simple framebuffer mode at start up and starting the full X server somehow gets around this issue. I can't offer any advice really, but good luck, let us know how this goes.

RE: Sgi Fuel. - weblacky - 10-21-2020

Wait? When you say "I tried to reverse the odyssey and the ram as well, having another Fuel, but nothing." do you mean you took the video card and RAM from a WORKING fuel and put them in the problematic fuel and you have EXACTLY the same video issue?

Please clarify, because if that's the case...I'd assume either software or Power issue. May I ask if you've tried the opposite? Placing the "bad" graphics card in the "good" fuel.


If that works, I think it's either a mainboard issue (power or like a cracked solder joint). I'd believe before the driver loads that the graphics board might use full power during the time in the PROM and once an OS driver is loaded it can throttle down and use less power or cut-off parts of its pipeline that aren't needed right now.

I'll also ask about PROM versions/settings...perhaps in issue with the PROM? Are both your stations using the same PROM version at least?

RE: Sgi Fuel. - dancingfools - 10-21-2020

Yes, I tried to reverse the odyssey but same problem. At this point I too suspect that it may be due to the Prom. How can I see the firmware version?
I have a third Odissy that this made this Fuel work perfectly, but unfortunately it doesn't work anymore. This was in fact mounted on this Fuel. Maybe I should compare them to the other two, look at the review?

RE: Sgi Fuel. - weblacky - 10-21-2020

To get PROM version you should see it if you execute command: hinv -v -m

The word prom and a number after it should be listed. Just compare both machines’ listings to see if the number given after the PROM is the same.

I’d they are, assuming you don’t mind fiddling with the problematic fuel, I’d do resetenv to try to put defaults back into the PROM.

This MIGHT cause it to have trouble booting the current software install if it was specialized or configured weird. But it wouldn’t affect a new OS install using the defaults.
Since you mentioned a third display controller worked for a time. I’ll still say a power issue is the most likely problem.

RE: Sgi Fuel. - dancingfools - 11-01-2020

Guys, sorry for my absence, but due to work problems I could not try with the Fuel. With the command "hinv - v - m" here is the result in the picture. I don't understand a thing about active and inactive ram banks. Maybe that's where the problem lies? Then, by installing irix to the latest version from scratch, does the Prom automatically update too? And from serial how can I monitor the system? The serial port on the motherboard or the external one with a null modem cable?

Thanks

RE: Sgi Fuel. - Raion - 11-01-2020

Try not to set font-size and color, it breaks it for people on dark theme. Just paste without formatting if you're copy/pasting from a document

RE: Sgi Fuel. - weblacky - 11-01-2020

Yes, your PROM is supposed to be auto updated when installing IRIX. L1 port is serial on motherboard. No cannot use serial for firmware updates (to my knowledge). I don’t know what the last PROM version is but you don’t have last number I could find. So there are higher versions.

Yes, you RAM layout is incorrect, interleaving is done every other slot from the top. See: http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/fuel.html

I believe you need (from highest slot to start): 512,256,512,256. If you get into trouble, ditch the 256 and just put the two 512 in the first and third slots.

You may still get inactive ram messages, if you do, look to the link to reenable slots. I think it’s considered normal that empty ram slots are in fact disabled instead of empty.

Thanks