[gmcenroe]

Because of the hot weather and no air conditioning, I had not booted up my Indigo 2 High Impact computer for 3 months. When it got hot in the office, the computer would shut down. Now when I boot up I get the initial bootup page then monitor goes black and 20 sec later login screen comes on. I can login but if I start a process even opening a console screen, the monitor again goes black, then comes back on a few seconds later. This problem seems persistent. If I do anything that causes the image to change on the screen it goes black, then moments later comes back on again. I was able to initiate the screen saver with the whales and it seems to be running continuously but within 20 minutes the screen went black. I could test the monitor on another computer to determine if that is the problem next.

The monitor indiacates no VGA signal and wants to go into sleep mode.

Is this a power supply or graphics card problem?

Any suggestions would be welcome. 

Thanks,
Glenn

[vishnu]

Well, first of all, you need to tell us what monitor this is, I'm assuming it's an SGI CRT from the mid-ninties? And just for way of information, I don't have any air conditioning either, and yes, that's harsh, but I don't use any CRT's on my SGI's all my monitors are flat screens. Just gotta drag ourselves kicking and screaming into the new millennium.😁😎

[gmcenroe]

Well, first of all, you need to tell us what monitor this is, I'm assuming it's an SGI CRT from the mid-ninties? And just for way of information, I don't have any air conditioning either, and yes, that's harsh, but I don't use any CRT's on my SGI's all my monitors are flat screens. Just gotta drag ourselves kicking and screaming into the new millennium.😁😎

I am using a Dell flat screen monitor (sync on green) I put that monitor on a PC last night and it is working well.

[robespierre]

The Indigo2 has no environment monitoring, so it "shutting down" was just overheating to the point of failure. Yes, it could have been a power supply failure.
The symptoms you describe are more consistent with a power supply problem although bad graphics can't be ruled out.
What does the standalone diagnostics tell you? You can run the diagnostics without any monitor if you connect a terminal to the first serial port.

[vishnu]

I am using a Dell flat screen monitor (sync on green) I put that monitor on a PC last night and it is working well.

Okay, so then your monitor is good, that means you don't have a workable vfo file, I'm a bit decrepit about indigo2 files (it's been a while!), so this might not make too much sense, but let's hope, what does ls /usr/gfx/ucode/ show?

[gmcenroe]

I am using a Dell flat screen monitor (sync on green) I put that monitor on a PC last night and it is working well.

Okay, so then your monitor is good, that means you don't have a workable vfo file, I'm a bit decrepit about indigo2 files (it's been a while!), so this might not make too much sense, but let's hope, what does ls /usr/gfx/ucode/ show?

OK here is a hinv file and ls of /usr/gfx/ucode below. I also removed the CDROM and tape drive sled in hopes that reduces power requirements for power supply. It is flickering on and off but staying on longer.

[gmcenroe]

Did some more investigating this problem. First disconnected everything, opened up the beast and did a thorough dust removal with compressed air, put the CDROM and Tape drive back in, reconnected all of the wires and booted up. I ran a stopgfx command so I could work in the simplified grey terminal mode. I ran gfxinit -v and the screen went dead. I rebooted from the grey terminal screen and ran gfxstart and the graphics came back on and was much more stable, no wavering of the image in the corners as before. I ran gfxinfo before and after and screenshots are below. I also went into system info and looked at graphics back end control gui. After an hour everything seems to be working as long ago, no more glitches on the monitor. 

Keeping my fingers crossed that the glitch does not return.

Glenn

[vishnu]

Great that you got it working! It actually should be much less of a burden for MGRAS to drive a Dell flatscreen as opposed to an SGI CRT, which demands much more power. It's important to keep these beauties clear of dust, I clean mine out with compressed air every summer, it's not a good idea to let these workstations run 24/7 without cleaning them out at least once a year.

[mc68k]

So, what exactly caused the flickering and which step fixed it?

I have 3 LG Flatron 19" LCD's; all of them are flickering at boot, until the visual login screen is not reached. After that everything is fine. The machine is IP22 R4400 250 MHz, Solid Impact.

All my other LCDs work *perfectly* with the same machine. I think this is some sort of video signal timing issue. LG cannot handle it, but Dell has no problems with it.