[jan-jaap]

I'm sorry, but an Octane with IMPACT graphics crashing in the initialization of the VPro graphics? That looks exactly like a software problem.

There should be an ide.IP30 file in your installation media. It's a standalone program, like sash and fx, so you can netboot it, without a hard disk installed in the system even. It will test your CPUs, memory etc. If it finds something you know there's a problem rather than speculating about it, but most likely everything will be OK.

There's a problem with the miniroot installation or IRIX that can easily bite you: if there are remains of an earlier installation on the disk, the miniroot will not format (mkfs) the disk and try to integrate the new installation into whatever is on that disk. That's a recipe for unexpected surprises. Also, a hard disk is probably the most likely part to fail in any computer so you want to make sure it's still good before you go through the effort of a fresh IRIX installation.

That's why I usually do this:

1. Boot the standalone fx utility.
2. Run a write-only disk exercise to zero out the entire hard disk. (exe > seq > wr-o -> select all sectors > go). This will take a while.
3. If step two produces complaints about remapped or failed sectors: toss the disk. Get another disk, rinse and repeat.
4. Before you exit fx, create a new disk label. Default options are fine for a workstation.

If you get this far, the results of 'fx' and 'ide' have verified that everything works (only the graphics have not yet been exercised). Now it the time to do an IRIX installation. The miniroot will create a new filesystem. If this results in an installation that doesn't work, you know the graphics are suspect because it's the only part you haven't exercised. But since the system has an SE and an MXE head you can pull one and see where the problem is.

NB: if the MXE head produces artifacts in texture demos, it's a good idea to re-seat the texture modules. The texture modules themselves are pretty durable, but they are only attached with some nylon screws on the side so they can get loose if a system is moved around.