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My Sun workstation (an Ultra 60) has started powering itself off after
about 20 minutes of use. There's no warning, no error messages, nothing
in the logs, it just powers down. If you switch it off and on again, it
comes straight back up, but does the same thing after a much shorter
time. On the third attempt, it didn't even have time to boot up before
doing it again.

I have a suspicion that it's temperature related, therefore. Any
suggestions as to where to look? I haven't had a chance to take it to
pieces yet (although I have downloaded the service manual (Ghod bless
the web)). I initially assumed it was a faulty power supply, but I
wonder if some of the fans have failed ...

I've bought a whole new machine on eBay - it was half the price of a
new power supply, so I should be able to assemble an entire working
machine out of the two, by a process of elimination, if all else fails.
(We also have three U60's in the "demise" pile at work, but it's a royal
pain getting them home. They're too heavy to carry on the train, and
driving into London is the pits.)

Huge wrote:
> My Sun workstation (an Ultra 60) has started powering itself off after
> about 20 minutes of use. There's no warning, no error messages, nothing
> in the logs, it just powers down. If you switch it off and on again, it
> comes straight back up, but does the same thing after a much shorter
> time. On the third attempt, it didn't even have time to boot up before
> doing it again.
> I have a suspicion that it's temperature related, therefore. Any
> suggestions as to where to look? I haven't had a chance to take it to
> pieces yet (although I have downloaded the service manual (Ghod bless
> the web)). I initially assumed it was a faulty power supply, but I
> wonder if some of the fans have failed ...

Probably not temperature problem.
I have an Ultra 2 that behaved in very similar fashion.
Found a PS on eBay, replaced the old one, and all was well after.
Just got a FC/AL switch from eBay and its doing the same thing!
Switching power supplys are on my grrr list : >

gerryt@ wrote:
> Huge wrote:
>> My Sun workstation (an Ultra 60) has started powering itself off after
>> about 20 minutes of use. There's no warning, no error messages, nothing
>> in the logs, it just powers down. If you switch it off and on again, it
>> comes straight back up, but does the same thing after a much shorter
>> time. On the third attempt, it didn't even have time to boot up before
>> doing it again.
>> I have a suspicion that it's temperature related, therefore. Any
>> suggestions as to where to look? I haven't had a chance to take it to
>> pieces yet (although I have downloaded the service manual (Ghod bless
>> the web)). I initially assumed it was a faulty power supply, but I
>> wonder if some of the fans have failed ...
>
> Probably not temperature problem.
> I have an Ultra 2 that behaved in very similar fashion.
> Found a PS on eBay, replaced the old one, and all was well after.
> Just got a FC/AL switch from eBay and its doing the same thing!
> Switching power supplys are on my grrr list : >
>

Gerry is probably correct in replacing the power supply, but I'd like to
add to another possible reason. It seems when the computer shuts down
suddenly and comes back up again right after recycling the power is
usually some short after the output stage of the power supply bringing
the power supply to use it's short circuit protection. Reseting the
power supply will bring it back up again. This could be caused by a
leaking capacitor on the output stage of the power supply or even on the
motherboard. Again as Gerry suspected, the first place to try is
replacing the power supply, as usually most computer problems are power
supply related.

Paul

> My Sun workstation (an Ultra 60) has started powering itself off after
> about 20 minutes of use. There's no warning, no error messages, nothing
> in the logs, it just powers down. If you switch it off and on again, it
> comes straight back up, but does the same thing after a much shorter
> time. On the third attempt, it didn't even have time to boot up before
> doing it again.

Are you actively using it when it powers off or perhaps after 20 minutes of
inactivity it powers off?

Just curious what your power save settings are configured or if this feature
is totally disabled.

Trinean

Huge <huge@huge.org.uk> writes:

>My Sun workstation (an Ultra 60) has started powering itself off after
>about 20 minutes of use. There's no warning, no error messages, nothing
>in the logs, it just powers down. If you switch it off and on again, it
>comes straight back up, but does the same thing after a much shorter
>time. On the third attempt, it didn't even have time to boot up before
>doing it again.

I had a T1125 (NEBS-ified telco version of a U-60) do that, and just last
week an Ultra 2 started doing it. I've now downgraded the system that was
running on the U2 to a Sparcstation 20 (still running Solaris 9 - just in 32
bit instead of 64 bit mode), and it's been rock-solid for a week.

>I have a suspicion that it's temperature related, therefore. Any
>suggestions as to where to look? I haven't had a chance to take it to
>pieces yet (although I have downloaded the service manual (Ghod bless
>the web)). I initially assumed it was a faulty power supply, but I
>wonder if some of the fans have failed ...

>I've bought a whole new machine on eBay - it was half the price of a
>new power supply, so I should be able to assemble an entire working
>machine out of the two, by a process of elimination, if all else fails.
>(We also have three U60's in the "demise" pile at work, but it's a royal
>pain getting them home. They're too heavy to carry on the train, and
>driving into London is the pits.)

I've got a U60 here which is an 'ugly duckling' variety but it works. Fried
system-board ethernet, no outer cover over the CD-ROM/floppy area of the
case, but with lots of disk and RAM and a PCI Sunswift card (to give it
working ether). Going to put it on Ebay for some paltry amount just to get
rid of it since Sun gear here in Oz sells for almost nothing now. I picked
up an E450 with 2 x 400 Mhz CPU's, 2 x 18GB disks and 2 GB of RAM for A$150
a couple of weeks ago from another Ebay trader just to have one as I've
never possessed any E250/450 class systems before (or had any to sell in the
past either!). It'll be my next coffee table when it stops working one day
or it's no longer useful.

Craig.
--
SUN RIPENED KERNELS - Surplus Sun Microsystems Equipment, Parts + Accessories
Location: Sydney, Australia - Phone: 02-9520-2547 - Fax: 02-9520-2557
Web: http://www.sunrk.com.au - Ebay: http://stores.ebay.com.au/id=19975645
Forums: http://www.sunshack.org/phpBB2/portal.php - Mobile: 04-2163-0547

Kralizec Craig wrote:
> Huge <huge@huge.org.uk> writes:
[...]
>> I've bought a whole new machine on eBay - it was half the price of a
>> new power supply, so I should be able to assemble an entire working
>> machine out of the two, by a process of elimination, if all else
>> fails. (We also have three U60's in the "demise" pile at work, but
>> it's a royal pain getting them home. They're too heavy to carry on
>> the train, and driving into London is the pits.)
>
> I've got a U60 here which is an 'ugly duckling' variety but it works.
> Fried system-board ethernet, no outer cover over the CD-ROM/floppy
> area of the case, but with lots of disk and RAM and a PCI Sunswift
> card (to give it working ether). Going to put it on Ebay for some
> paltry amount just to get rid of it since Sun gear here in Oz sells
> for almost nothing now.

Maybe, but it also seems quite hard to get hold of, at least for "mid range"
stuff (Ultra 2/60/etc)

Although I'm not constantly checking the site, I've noticed only a few Ultra
60 machines go through in the last year, and have yet to find a pair of
400MHz modules or an Elite3D for my Ultra 2 (though it does a pretty decent
job already with it's 2GB of RAM plus two 73GB 10K drives ). There's
lively-ish trade in U5's and U10's, the odd SB100, and some of the new stuff
with 4 figures or more, but almost nothing in between.

[...]

--
Michael Brown
Add michael@ to emboss.co.nz ---+--- My inbox is always open

According to Huge <huge@huge.org.uk>:
> My Sun workstation (an Ultra 60) has started powering itself off after
> about 20 minutes of use. There's no warning, no error messages, nothing
> in the logs, it just powers down. If you switch it off and on again, it
> comes straight back up, but does the same thing after a much shorter
> time. On the third attempt, it didn't even have time to boot up before
> doing it again.
>
> I have a suspicion that it's temperature related, therefore. Any
> suggestions as to where to look? I haven't had a chance to take it to
> pieces yet (although I have downloaded the service manual (Ghod bless
> the web)). I initially assumed it was a faulty power supply, but I
> wonder if some of the fans have failed ...

This is in the home, not in a specially controlled machine room?

If so, it is possibly an accumulation of housedust -- and in
*my* house, cat fur as well. Shut it down, take it outdoors, and hit it
with compressed air to blast the dust out of various places --
especially the power supply air cooling paths. This is probably better
done in humid times, as it decreases the chance of static discharge from
the airflow damaging the system. And -- it presumes the availability
of compressed air at home. Though I have used dusters made with CO2
cylinders, though they tend to be more expensive as the refills cost a
lot more than they should.

If you do it *indoors*, be sure that you, and anyone else
around, wears a dust mask, because the room will fill with a cloud of
dust, which will hasten the development of problems in other machines
already in service.

The SS5 tends to accumulate dust between the left side and the
power supply. Other systems in other locations.

Also -- I've had a 140 MHz Ultra-1 fail in similar mode because
the fan mounted over the CPU was dead. I was able to bring it back to
life for a short time by disassembling and re-lubing the fan, but the
final cure was to get a replacement fan of the same dimensions and
voltage, but ball bearings instead of sleeve bearings. Take out the old
fan, measure its dimensions (note dimensions both in inches and in mm,
to help finding ones in catalogs like Mouser, Newark, or Digi-key.)

> I've bought a whole new machine on eBay - it was half the price of a
> new power supply, so I should be able to assemble an entire working
> machine out of the two, by a process of elimination, if all else fails.
> (We also have three U60's in the "demise" pile at work, but it's a royal
> pain getting them home. They're too heavy to carry on the train, and
> driving into London is the pits.)

Perhaps bring home selected parts, like power supplies and
fans?

Good Luck,
DoN.

--
Email: <dnichols@d-and-d.com> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 2006-05-30, Michael Brown <see@signature.below> wrote:
> Kralizec Craig wrote:
>> Huge <huge@huge.org.uk> writes:
> [...]
>>> I've bought a whole new machine on eBay - it was half the price of a
>>> new power supply, so I should be able to assemble an entire working
>>> machine out of the two, by a process of elimination, if all else
>>> fails. (We also have three U60's in the "demise" pile at work, but
>>> it's a royal pain getting them home. They're too heavy to carry on
>>> the train, and driving into London is the pits.)
>>
>> I've got a U60 here which is an 'ugly duckling' variety but it works.
>> Fried system-board ethernet, no outer cover over the CD-ROM/floppy
>> area of the case, but with lots of disk and RAM and a PCI Sunswift
>> card (to give it working ether). Going to put it on Ebay for some
>> paltry amount just to get rid of it since Sun gear here in Oz sells
>> for almost nothing now.

Sun stuff's bloody good value second-hand in the UK (there was a loaded
E10K on eBay the other day for GBP3K!) I paid GBP200 for one U60 with
twin 450MHz processors, twin 35Gb disks, 2Gb of memory and it's jammed
full of SCSI and network interfaces.

The scrapper cost me GBP85 with twin 350Hz, 256Mb & 36Gb. It's available
for a few quid if anyone wants to pay the carriage/collect it...

Anyhow, I've swapped the power supplies, so we'll see what happens.



--
"Other people are not your property."
[email me at huge [at] huge [dot] org [dot] uk]