SUMMARY: PCI problems on DS20

From: Marko Havu <Marko.Havu_at_havutuote.fi>
Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2003 19:15:39 +0200

Thanks for everyone who replied. I upgraded the firmware to the newest
version as Peter Gergen and Robert Willis adviced. I hadn't done this
already, because I couldn't get the SCSI controller working. The floppy
drive, however, was functional all the time. Apparently it is also
possible to upload the firmware from the serial console (which I believe
was Mr. Gergen's suggestion). It is hard to believe that the problems
could have been due to an old firmware version, but rather to a damaged
firmware image. After all, the DS20 couldn't tolerate any PCI cards before
the upgrade.

After upgrading the firmware the PCI bus scan completed successfully with
any of the cards installed (with the exception of the KZPCC RAID
controller which after a thorough examination seemed to have suffered
physical damage). I can't install the operating system until I get another
SCSI controller, but at the SRM console prompt level everything seems to
work fine. There are two things worth noting, however: Instead of
"AlphaServer DS20" the diagnostics display now says "sc60" after the
power-up cycle has finished. Is there a meaning to this? Another thing is
that on the "show fru" output the two first lines (SMB0 and SMB0.CPU0) are
full of question marks.

-- 
Marko Havu          + <Marko.Havu_at_     + "Against stupidity,
Keskustie 24 B 27   +    havutuote.fi> +  the Gods themselves
FIN-40100 Jyväskylä +                  +  contend in vain"
Finland             + +358 40 7435 380 +  - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-----Original Message-----
From: Marko Havu [mailto:Marko.Havu_at_havutuote.fi]
Sent: Friday, 7 February 2003 11:13 AM
To: tru64-unix-managers_at_ornl.gov
Subject: PCI problems on DS20
I'm having a peculiar problem on an AlphaServer DS20. Without any PCI cards
installed, the system starts up to SRM console. If there are any PCI cards
installed, however, it is likely that the unit will hang at power-up with
"Probe I/O subsys" on the diagnostics display. Console output varies
inconsistently. Sometimes all I get is:
os_type: UNIX - console CIPCA driver not started
Testing the System
Testing the Memory
Sometimes the machine hangs after:
probing hose 1, PCI
probing PCI-to-PCI bridge, bus 2
And sometimes I can install a PowerStorm 4D20 and get the machine all the
way to the SRM console prompt. None of the other cards work, though, and
"test -lb" tells me "No VGA/TGA available for testing". Disabling PCI parity
had no effect. Is the motherboard defective or what? Does anyone know how
much a replacement motherboard to DS20 costs?
Thanks,
  Marko Havu

Received on Fri Feb 07 2003 - 17:12:52 NZDT