Yes, I know, it's ancient, but I like the little thing.

My sparcstation IPX had a problem the other day. I replaced the hard
disk, and when booting up it started making a clicking noise.

I assumed it was the drive, so I opened the box and turned it on again.
The clicking seemed to come from the power supply, not the hard drive. I
unplugged the drive, turned it back on, and sure enough, it clicked a bit,
then stopped.

Now it doesn't do anything - no LED, no fan, zip.

Before I start digging into the "non user serviceable" areas in this
thing, I'd like to know if there's a fuse or something inside that might
have blown. It's possible the drive had issues I wasn't aware of. I
don't have access to much in the way of electronic components (or
expertise beyond the simple basics and soldering) or spare sparcstations,
so if anyone has any suggestions on how I might get it back up and
running, I'd appreciate it.

I'm in the U.S., so it's standard ~110v power.

spauldo

In article <pan.2005.04.22.05.45.06.507308@real.com>,
Spauldo da Hippie <abuse@real.com> wrote:

> expertise beyond the simple basics and soldering) or spare sparcstations,

<snip>

> I'm in the U.S., so it's standard ~110v power.

If you're in the US, spare parts are just an ebay auction away ;-)

--
Matthew Weigel

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 01:56:15 -0500, Matthew Weigel wrote:

<snip>

> If you're in the US, spare parts are just an ebay auction away ;-)

Yes, I'm well aware (although I've figured IPX systems would probably be
too old to find on ebay by now), but if there's a fuse or some component I
can pick up at my local radio shack, I'd rather try that route first. My
computer budget is being spent on VAX parts this month. If it comes down
to getting another one on ebay, this thing is going to become trash.

spauldo

Spauldo da Hippie <abuse@real.com> writes:
>On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 01:56:15 -0500, Matthew Weigel wrote:
><snip>

>> If you're in the US, spare parts are just an ebay auction away ;-)

>Yes, I'm well aware (although I've figured IPX systems would probably be
>too old to find on ebay by now), but if there's a fuse or some component I
>can pick up at my local radio shack, I'd rather try that route first. My
>computer budget is being spent on VAX parts this month. If it comes down
>to getting another one on ebay, this thing is going to become trash.

Power supplies usually take alot of time to troubleshoot and fix.
Its rarely as simple as a fuse blowing. Much more likely is that some
of the electrolytic caps are drying out, and you need to replace the
bad ones. There's probably going to be dozens and dozens of them on
your power supply board. Ie. replacing the power supply with another
is going to save yourself lots of trips, soldering, troubleshooting,
etc, and almost always is the easiest course of action.

I was expecting many more up on eBay, but I guess there's only two IPXs up
for sale right now, first one for $1. Thats a pretty cheap repair
price (even counting the shipping which will be many times that

Spauldo da Hippie <abuse@real.com> writes:
> I unplugged the drive, turned it back on, and sure enough, it clicked a
> bit, then stopped.
>
> Now it doesn't do anything - no LED, no fan, zip.

The IPX power supply acts dead (and, IIRC, makes that clicking noise,
too) unless it has the expected load attached. If you *only* attached the
drive and not the motherboard, I don't think that'll work. Also, check
that the connectors were fully plugged in.

If that doesn't help, I think an LX power supply also fits and works
in an IPX. It's 70W vs. the IPX 65W, and it's got an extra wire, but I
believe I once determined that it would work.
-WBE

Spauldo da Hippie wrote:
> My sparcstation IPX had a problem the other day. I replaced the hard
> disk, and when booting up it started making a clicking noise.
Repeated clicking can ba a sign of short circuit (or overload)
on the socondary side of a switch mode power supply. As mentioned
this is often caused by old and defect electrolytics at the secondary
or a short rectifier.

> I assumed it was the drive, so I opened the box and turned it on again.
> The clicking seemed to come from the power supply, not the hard drive. I
> unplugged the drive, turned it back on, and sure enough, it clicked a bit,
> then stopped.
I suppost the now absent clicking now shows that something on the
primary high voltage side stopped working now, too! My only tip
is: Do not waste any time and get a replacement. IPX is not so rare
on eBay (for a PDP8 things would be different ;-) )

> have blown. It's possible the drive had issues I wasn't aware of. I
Sometimes there are resistors with integrated fuses (especially
in TVs).

Good luck,

Erik.