Hi all,
I managed to salvage form work an old Sun Sparc Ultra 30. I have had it stored (controlled storage) for a few years and decided to get it home and boot it up.
It starts up with a beep then I can hear disks spinning up, CDROM moving but nothing is displayed on the monitor.
Can anyone help me troubleshooting what is failing?
Many thanks.
---------- Post updated at 01:20 AM ---------- Previous update was at 12:13 AM ----------
right.. I've managed to get video. I unscrewed the PSU and disconnected the small connector on the motherboard in order to check the ram. But I could not work out how to remove the ram and clean it. I then booted again and now shows...
---------- Post updated at 01:21 AM ---------- Previous update was at 01:20 AM ----------
It asks for a firmware password which I don't have Any ideas?
Googling the NVRAM u2103 error seems to indicate your nvram battery is dead. The portion saying "nvram parameters to default values" backs that up. I'm not sure, but most systems have you start your RAM at slot 0 and increment. It may be that this machine had BIOS settings turning off those first RAM slots, but I'd start by looking for the battery on your motherboard, finding a new one and replacing it, and if you get issues with the RAM, try relocating them to slots 0-2 instead of 5-7.
As for the firmware password, Googling that problem indicates you can create a special boot disk if you have access to ANOTHER Sun Sparc 30 (which I'm guessing you don't) or you can replace the boot prom completely. it's Part #525-1669 and you may be able to find one online somewhere. I have zero experience and would be discouraged if I were in your shoes looking at this problem, sorry. I just did some quick Googling for you and have to deal with a couple older Sun machines at work (and wish I didn't have to... lol)
Any ideas?