barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) (01/11/91)
Here's a little tip, learned the hard way: If the system tests fail when you power on, just try again a few times. It may ``catch'' eventually, and boot all the way up. (After the ``System Tests Failed'' window comes up, do Right_Command_Numeric_Pad_Key-Tilde_key to get into the monitor; that will tell you what test failed; then ignore this and just do Left_Command_Key-Alternate-Numeric_Pad_Star_Key to re-powerup.) Here's the story: I finally got my NeXT Printer to go with my old Cube at home. So, last night at 1 o'clock (``Come on dear, help me set up the printer before bed---it'll only take ten minutes...'') my wife and I set it up. But, not knowing when to leave well enough alone, I figured I may as well dust out my Cube since I had to power down to hook up the printer. So, I opened the cube, took out the board, blew/wiped out as much dust as I could---we're talkin' dustbowl here---and reassembled. But, when I powered up, the system tests failed---Uh Oh! (If its not broken don't fix it? Always true in retrospect). So, I figured I'd reseat the board. So I cracked it open again, blew out some more dust, reseated---still system tests failed. Then I figured I'd blown the dust from is safe resting place all over the interior onto some critical component---so maybe a more THOUROGH CLEANING might help (well,, at that point it couldn't hurt!). So, I climbed back into my grounding strap, and totally disassembled the cube (freedom's just another word for no warranty left to lose...). Then we really cleaned it. Man, you've never seen so much dust this side of oklahoma. We're talking caked on dirt, like in a FAB commercial. Especially in the screens on the bottom of the cube---when released, the grime expanded to cover the floor of my tub. Also, there were some pretty big dust rabbits (these weren't bunnies!) in between the various drive boards. So, finally we reassembled (its 3 o'clock now, and the wife is losing interest---but I'm on a mission from god at this point). Power up...Argghh! Still a system test failure. At this point, I'm starting to think dust is not the problem (I've never subscribed to the dust conspiracy theories anyway---hey, its all solid state!) Going to the montior, I found all drives and cpu in place, but it said there was a DRAM error, code -1 on SIMM 2 (sounds like a problem encountered on ``Adam-12''). So, once again I opened up the cube (at this point, I was no longer tightening the screws all the way on the backplane), and fiddled with SIMM2 a bit. Its in there pretty tight, so its not clear my tugging, pushing an wiggling had any effect. But I satisfied myself psychically, at least. Close, power on---Arrgh! At this point, I'm starting to visualize a sizable bill from Businessland, and wondering if maybe they have an 800 hotline. So I'll try anything. Facinated by the Command-Alt-* auto repower, I try it again a few times---and each time it got a bit farther along, past the system tests, then to a disk error, then past the disk error, til finally, at 4 o'clock my ship came in, er, my dock appeared! Then of course I had to spend 3 hours playing with the printer, printing evrything in sight. What a blast. But, at least my cube is real clean now, mentally and physically. Moral: If system tests fail, just try again (but use the special key sequences to be easier on the machine). Don't do two things at once (clean machine and attach the printer)---when things undoubtably don't work, you wont know what you broke. -- Barry Merriman UCLA Dept. of Math UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research barry@math.ucla.edu (Internet)
bb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Bartholomew) (01/14/91)
In article <939@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU> barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) writes: > Power up...Argghh! Still a system test failure. At this point, I'm > starting to think dust is not the problem (I've never subscribed to > the dust conspiracy theories anyway---hey, its all solid state!) Now just think of all that dust, made somewhat conductive by the high-ish humidity in most homes (as compared to climate-controlled machine rooms). Get the picture? -- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brian Bartholomew UUCP: ...gatech!uflorida!mathlab.math.ufl.edu!bb University of Florida Internet: bb@math.ufl.edu