Indy not powering on
#1
Question  Indy not powering on
G'day everyone, I'm fairly new to the SGI scene so I have next to no knowledge about this.

TL;DR My PC doesn't boot anymore and I'm not sure why.

I'm from New Zealand I got my mate from America to order me an SGI Indy. We ordered the PC back in Sep 2021 and while the cover top shattered in shipping apparently the PC was fine as they had sent me photos of it powered on. When I visited them in Aug/Sep 2022 the computer turned on fine with no issues besides a password locking us out of the main account letting us only toy with the guest account.

Fast forward to when I get back home, I tried turning it on and with a little bit of luck, it did, however after what felt like 2-3 minutes it powered itself off without any warning. It did this a few more times with me trying different things like leaving it on the home screen, not touching it, etc. I thought maybe it was because the harddrives are getting old so I got a SCSI2SD V5.2 hoping it would resolve the issue but after doing this it now no longer turns on. I've bought a step-down converter but that doesn't seem to do anything.

I'm pretty stuck right now and I hope don't have a dead machine. Any advice or pointers would be very much appreciated.
itsWilli
Indy

Trade Count: (0)
Posts: 2
Threads: 1
Joined: Mar 2023
Location: New Zealand
Find Reply
03-07-2023, 08:56 AM
#2
RE: Indy not powering on
Just like any other 30-year old electronics, you should expect that such a computer will require repair and maintenance by an expert. Perhaps more so, since as a workstation made for professionals, it assumes the presence of a professional system administrator to configure it, quite unlike a "PC".

I'm curious why you bought a voltage converter. Was the stamping indicating worldwide voltage compatibility (100–120/220–240) next to the power socket not easily visible?

Personaliris O2 Indigo2 R10000/IMPACT Indigo2 R10000/IMPACT Indigo2 Indy   (past: 4D70GT)
robespierre
refector peritus

Trade Count: (0)
Posts: 640
Threads: 3
Joined: Nov 2020
Location: Massholium
Find Reply
03-07-2023, 05:07 PM
#3
RE: Indy not powering on
Probably the power supply broke. You should have contacted Weblacky for a rebuild before sending it from the US to NZ. Now, you need a replacement PSU. They're kind of expensive, so expect to pay a decent amount and you should still have that PSU rebuilt.

As Robespierre says, you don't need a step down transformer.

I'm the system admin of this site. Private security technician, licensed locksmith, hack of a c developer and vintage computer enthusiast. 

https://contrib.irixnet.org/raion/ -- contributions and pieces that I'm working on currently. 

https://codeberg.org/SolusRaion -- Code repos I control

Technical problems should be sent my way.
Raion
Chief IRIX Officer

Trade Count: (9)
Posts: 4,240
Threads: 533
Joined: Nov 2017
Location: Eastern Virginia
Website Find Reply
03-07-2023, 05:12 PM
#4
RE: Indy not powering on
Howdy,
As Raion mentioned, I have rebuilt Indy PSUs, ready to go, NIDEC Brand.

https://forums.irixnet.org/thread-3332.html

Now the big issue, I'm in Seattle, Washington State, USA and you're in another country. As Raion has advertised (due to the mouse pad project) shipping internationally became an expensive task.

In terms of ruining your Indy, I've not yet SEEN an Indy ruined by an aged-out PSU that didn't literally start smoking itself, if you didn't see smoke/smell...you're probably fine. I cannot speak to hard drives, but the Indy Mainboard runs mostly on 3.3v and that's normally not a big issue in failures (that' I've seen). Since you're on 220V, I cannot test on 220V, but there's no switch or selection - so it should just work. 220V switching PSUs often have to have a higher filter cap voltage then the systems running off 120VAC. We've certainly seen a few systems (namely Indigo2) be shipped (claimed working) from US to EUR only to have them smoke on first boot due to not being tolerant enough (anymore) to handle high voltage input. So you're not the first, nor will you be the last.



Likely the PSU is shutting off due to low-output voltage (dips) or swinging voltage (high ripple). Given the cost of SGIs, I NEVER RECOMMEND people keep playing with the power and multimeter checks, every boot with bad power could be your last. I'm unaware of any instance where the mainboard was doing this by itself, likely it or the PSU's own systems, are noticing a voltage out of tolerance and issue a shutdown as an uncorrectable voltage output. It's more likely your mainboard voltage is sagging when the PSUs heats up. This nearly always due to filtering components being too weak.

I will say that used Indy PSUs may be cheaper, but poor power regulation makes the mainboard work very hard and I've seen tantalum cap failures on the Indy mainboard due to poorly regulated Indy PSUs (but they were fixable, thank goodness). I cannot make any real-life guarantees but my expectation, with the quality of the components I used and the thoroughness of the job, there is no reason (stored in normally heated home) that these rebuild won't last just as long as the original parts did.

If you want to PM me with your address, I can do a shipping rate calculation. I can also suggest that perhaps you can amortize your costs by buying more than one rebuilt PSU.

Since you've recently done some shipping between USA->NZ, perhaps you have your own recommendations on that. The PSUs will be packed in an expanded foam shell and boxed. I can pack two PSUs per box I use (I believe they are 8"x8"x22", I'll recheck that). Due to Indy PSUs being so long, there is no flat rate box (even domestically) for cheap USA shipping. So the situation is what it is.

I'm flexible and obviously once we know the shipping rate, there is likely a deal to be made here. Believe me, I don't like shipping costs any more than you do! It sucks, but these PSUs are like 25+ years old, they were never designed for this long a lifespan and really, held up well over time, considering.

Feel free to PM me with questions or inquiries regarding Power supplies. But yeah, due to it's long size, shipping will be oversized.

Also, if you plan to be visiting the USA again (you alluded to doing so in your post), remind yourself and you can contact me and I can ship to you then to a friend/family member to hold shortly before your arrival? So if it works better to just revisiting this during a holiday visit to the USA or something, you can definitely pack them back in a suit case and their declarative value is pretty low, I'd think you'd be fine that way as well.
weblacky
I play an SGI Doctor, on daytime TV.

Trade Count: (10)
Posts: 1,716
Threads: 88
Joined: Jan 2019
Location: Seattle, WA
Find Reply
03-08-2023, 12:09 AM
#5
RE: Indy not powering on
Hey everyone, thank you all so much for the replies and insight.

I unfortunately don't have the funds and time right now, so I might have to throw this on the back burner for now. Thanks for the offer Weblacky I'll send you through a dm just to have a chat about it.

Thanks everyone again
itsWilli
Indy

Trade Count: (0)
Posts: 2
Threads: 1
Joined: Mar 2023
Location: New Zealand
Find Reply
03-20-2023, 08:29 AM
#6
RE: Indy not powering on
(03-20-2023, 08:29 AM)itsWilli Wrote:  Hey everyone, thank you all so much for the replies and insight.

I unfortunately don't have the funds and time right now, so I might have to throw this on the back burner for now. Thanks for the offer Weblacky I'll send you through a dm just to have a chat about it.

Thanks everyone again

No Problem and understood.  I likely won't be running out of Indy PSUs any time soon (at least at this rate).
weblacky
I play an SGI Doctor, on daytime TV.

Trade Count: (10)
Posts: 1,716
Threads: 88
Joined: Jan 2019
Location: Seattle, WA
Find Reply
03-20-2023, 08:48 AM
#7
RE: Indy not powering on
you can try replacing the caps on the psu.
the indy psu is not hard to work on.

Octane Octane2 O2 O2plus  Indigo2 Indigo2 R10000/IMPACT  Indy Indy
soviet
Octane

Trade Count: (0)
Posts: 192
Threads: 22
Joined: Apr 2019
Location: Uruguay
Find Reply
03-20-2023, 07:27 PM


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)