[kaigan]

Hey, folks,

I've managed to acquire and mostly rebuild what appears to have been an Onyx 350 prototype of some kind. The system was gutted to just the 2U Interface board and a bunch of associated fans and other such pieces. I've been obtaining the necessary parts to rebuild it and I've even had it up and running for a little bit. I was very hopeful that I'd be able to snap some pictures and get a post up on the forums all about it.

However, the system is now, quite sadly, not functioning at all. The L1 controller started to get flaky, not responding to commands. As of now, it doesn't respond at all and there is no message on the front LCD. The two amber lights on the node board come on and do not turn off, as they should when the controller activates. No other lights are lit on any other boards. I've also tried removing everything down to just the power assembly and the 2U Interface. Still no L1 communication.

As a bit of additional background: during shipping, one of the capacitors on the board was sheared off, including the majority of the underlying pads. I've replaced that capacitor since and managed to get it to attach to those remaining pads. I have replaced it again since the failure, thinking that maybe I didn't get it in place well enough. I'm fairly confident that it's okay as of now, though, as I do get voltage across it while the system is plugged in.

I'm also pretty confident that the Dallas chip is okay, as I've tested it in other systems, and also tried known-good ones in it.

With all of that out of the way, I'm hoping that someone might have some advice on what to even start testing. There are a *ton* of components on this board and I don't really know where to even start. I have access to a good number of electronics tools, including a multimeter, oscilloscope, logic probe, and others.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. If I can't repair it, I'll probably have to source a replacement through one of our friendly neighborhood SGI vendors. I'm already asking for prices just in case. I'd like that to be a last effort, though, as this is really the only remaining original hardware from the prototype. It's very likely that this system was just a demo unit or a qualifying sample, so it's not totally unique. Still, I want to save what I can. (Also, don't worry, even if I can't fix it, the board will be saved and kept safe for someone more knowledgeable to try to fix in the future.)