O2 base attachment fix
#1
O2 base attachment fix
I have been busy with my O2 i bought from an auction some weeks ago. After fixing the Dallas chip i installed IRIX to make sure i can run IDE and since then i have been busy with repairing plastic and getting the system in a presentable state.

The base was cracked near the rubber feet positions and quite a lot of the plastic at the back is broken off and missing. No Power Supply grill, no black front assembly for the CDROM and a scalp with the tab missing. Fortunately the shell with Cube logo is not cracked, just a bit scuffy.
I fixed the cracks in the base initially with superglue and later i welded the gaps with acetone.
Three rubber feet were missing, so i got some black leather of suitable thickness, cut squares and fixed them with adhesive tape.

Annoyingly, the base could not secure the aluminum case: each time you press the power button it would shift position. The tabs on the base at the right when looking at the front were still there, so the case could slide from right to left, but the bottom locking clips were broken off and the left part of the base had all the tabs missing.

I needed some solution to prevent the case from sliding with the base, but luckily the base is from an old R10000 O2 with screw holes at the bottom to place or remove a divider for converting it into a R5000 mainboard carrier.

I came up with a set of M3 screws and washers to secure the case with the base.

[Image: O2base.jpg]

One problem was that the screws can prevent sliding-in the carrier if the screw head is too large. I fixed that by filing off the head down to a milimeter, see inside picture.

[Image: O2base_inside.jpg]

The screws do their job and secures the case, without having to drill or file into any original components.

Next problem will be the CDROM.
dexter1
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08-12-2019, 10:09 AM
#2
RE: O2 base attachment fix
Very nicely done! It's awesome to see new life breathed into a machine like this! Smile
Irinikus
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08-12-2019, 10:44 AM
#3
RE: O2 base attachment fix
I see you closed the deal (no hard feelings Wink ), but did you figure out what's keeping the system from booting?
jan-jaap
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08-12-2019, 11:17 AM
#4
RE: O2 base attachment fix
(08-12-2019, 11:17 AM)jan-jaap Wrote:  I see you closed the deal (no hard feelings Wink ), but did you figure out what's keeping the system from booting?

Hi Jan-Jaap,

Indeed, i saw you making an offer the day after i contacted him directly via PM.
There were several major issues:

- Stuck power/reset button and/or warped case. It only started chiming when i applied pressure to the front-right of the shell, and i had to keep pressure otherwise it would go solid red, so that was either a jammed button and/or a warped carrier.
- After removing the shell and base, stripped all memory and the scsi disk, i went through all sorts of led codes until i replaced the Dallas RTC chip and jumper-powering it on, see: https://forums.irixnet.org/thread-39-pos...ml#pid9014 . From that moment on the system started to behave and i could install IRIX and run IDE's
- After reassembly and testing i discovered some broken memory: one 256 MB set had one capacitor knocked off on each of the two PCB's at different locations. If you put this in the O2 as the only memory dimms, you would get blinking amber led, which indicates a mainboard failure. This needs repairing but requires a reflow soldering station.
- Also the systems does not accept anything after 256MB in banks 3-4, 5-6 or 7-8, it must be some other component failure on the mainboard or maybe a short somewhere.
- Other minor issues are missing plastic and the fact that the CPU fan sounds like its sleeve bearing is giving up, it produces a "hissss" sound once every 2-3 minutes.

For now it is running fine with 256 MB of memory and it's compiling glib at the moment. The other memory is put in my main build O2 and he seems to be happy with it.
(This post was last modified: 08-12-2019, 03:07 PM by dexter1.)
dexter1
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08-12-2019, 03:07 PM


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