[PleaseEatEggs]

Hi all, 
Have recently been trying to revive an O2. It hasn’t been going the best. First, I deduced that only the second drive bay actually works, and the original hard disk was scraping the platters when plugged into the working drive bay. 
Since finding this out, I have been trying to install IRIX 6.5.29 off of a bunch of CDs, burning whatever else I needed along the way. This morning, it was all going quite well, and then it ran into a kernel fault read address error about 23% through the installation. I removed and reseated all the DIMMs, ran diagnostics, and all the tests came back fine. However, whenever I try to begin the install, it hits an error after I choose f to fix the mini root. The error goes as follows:

ALERT: Soft ECC error in front side of DIMM slot __, check bit __.
MEMORY Error/Address 0x940000<SOFT ECC ERROR ON READ DURING CPU ACCESS>: ______

This error repeats so quickly throughout the entire page, and never stops. I’ve reseated the DIMMs, shuffled them around, tried different ones, but nothing. I’m honestly really stumped. Any help would be much appreciated

[robespierre]

You need to clean the DIMM socket contacts and look for any corrosion or scraped traces.
A single broken line will cause "soft ECC" errors. It is actually a hard but recoverable error, which is what they should have written.

[Mooseart]

Interresting. I have the exact same error showing on my O2 during install. It came up on slot 7 so I shuffled the DIMMs in hopes of better understanding the problem. I had expected the problem to either stay on a faulty slot or move with a faulty DIMM, but instead it came up on another unrelated slot. Seems a bit random to me. Guess I’ll try with half of the DIMMs next to see if I can narrow it down. Perhaps cleaning it too even though it looks alright.

Did you find a solution to this on your system? What’s the best way to clean the slots? IPA on a toothbrush or just compresssed air or?..

[wroteafaq]

India Pale Ale? New one to me...

[Mooseart]

Yeah that might work too but I was actually thinking of isopropyl alcohol, commonly used for cleaning electronics.
 

[wroteafaq]

Seriously, I've stopped using isopropanol. I buy big (1.75 litre) bottles of ethanol (aka "Everclear") duty-free when I visit the US. It's 95%, much cheaper, works just as well for cleaning, and has the added benefit that you can drink it when the idiots just get to be too much.

Also helpful in the cleaning department: Pink pencil erasers have always been the go-to for gold-plated edge connectors, though of late there's been discussion of whether modern ones (from China, of course) are as good as we used to get, and not too abrasive (talk about getting into the arcana...). And although I've never actually used it myself (probably because I'm too cheap), DeoxIT has an excellent reputation.

[Mooseart]

Thanks for the tip mate. Everclear is not available around here though but I’ll definitely try the eraser trick and then wipe it off with alcohol of some sort.

[wroteafaq]

Thanks for the tip mate. Everclear is not available around here though but I’ll definitely try the eraser trick and then wipe it off with alcohol of some sort.

In Sweden?  Aren't you the guys whose alcoholism rate is only behind the Russians and Fins (and maybe Iceland)?  And you're telling me you can't get high purity ethanol?  That's just weird.

[robespierre]

The prevalence of alcohol abuse may be a principal reason for not making high-test ethyl alcohol available without denaturants.
Freon TF was also an excellent solvent, but hard to get now, for related (regulatory) reasons.

[wroteafaq]

The prevalence of alcohol abuse may be a principal reason for not making high-test ethyl alcohol available without denaturants.

You're right - I'm probably confusing cause and effect.

Freon TF was also an excellent solvent, but hard to get now, for related (regulatory) reasons.

Dern tootin'.  I loved that stuff back when I could buy it off the shelf.