[weblacky]

Hi Weblacky,

really good point:
"Well POD IS POWER ON DIAGNOSTICS...the CPU hasn't started yet.  Am I wrong?  The L1 doesn't use the Main MIPS CPU, so change in POD are real as POD is before boot, yes?  So is there really a problem here?  Aren't we already before CPU boot?"

My answer is I don't know... ;-)

But I think we are getting closer to be able to test and see....

Can you get POD mode with no CPU installed ?

If my 800 MHz Module was not in such a fragile state I would just pull it out and put back the 600 MHz and see what happened, but I would hate to break it :-(

Cheers from Oz,

jwhat/John.

I read on Neko-archive that someone DID manage to get into L1 once without a PIMM...But you won't want to...as you don't LIVE-connect a PIMM.  I still believe these are in-memory representations...NOT presisient (given the implication). You'd have to power-off to install the PIMM, thereby losing all your work.  Didn't someone on this thread prove that you can start L1 with an incorrect PIMM (somewhat)?  I mean wasn't there a post very recently when we were talking about the "flash" technique and all that user showed was a "MISMATCH" of CPU values as an L1 alert...but nothing happened (granted he was underclocked so he could still boot to OS). But it was my gut feeling you just get that error and either CRASH on OS boot or the L1 refuses to boot you to OS, due to mismatch?  One of the two..I didn't think having an incorrect PIMM config prevented you from getting to L1?

I will be in a position to try this (if my Fuel works) as I have a VRM to inspect on a 600 Mhz PIMM I got as a research project from user:Noguri, last year (or more ago).  The PIMM was claiming to suffer a low voltage rail on PIMM via ENV Monitoring, he swapped out the PIMM and claimed the error went away, so blamed PIMM.  I was wondering if perhaps it was the VRM components on the PIMM (like the Buck converter output cap being bad).  Once mine is working, I was going to check it out...as I can also replace the ENV chip if I want, no probs.  If I can get things to work.. I'd have a 700Mhz and a 600Mhz PIMM for use.

The hope was to replace ALL the SMD polyCaps and MAYBE the DS1780 (that reads this stuff) and see what the PIMM did.  Given SGI used the same Buck converter chip in many places in this series of SGI, it's all kind of templated.  So I was hoping to find a fairly easy answer (likely cooking the Poly SMD caps was my first thought as high ESR or bad output caps will LOWER buck converter output...slowly as cap changes or heats, unless very bad..then just immediately).

This is also my hope for our dreaded 1.8v AUX Tezro/Origin issue we both share...I think it's the SMD Polycap ESR dragging down the voltage converter...I also ready bought the cap for that!