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SGI IRIS 2000 Troubleshooting Guide

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SGI IRIS 2400 Turbo cabinet back panel (68020 course workbook)
Back panel of the IRIS 2400 Turbo: status display, reset and halt, configuration switch, ports 1 to 4, Ethernet, video outputs, power inlet and the 3 A monitor outlet (SGI 68020 course workbook)

Fault-finding on the SGI IRIS 2000 series. The start-up sequence, keyboard power checks, status display, boot failures and error messages are the same as on the SGI IRIS 3000 and are on SGI IRIS 3000 Troubleshooting Guide; Turbo models also take the 3000's stand-alone diagnostics, since they use the same IP2, IM1 and FP1 boards.[1][2] The faults below are ones SGI's field engineering group recorded for 2000-series machines in its technical aids of 1985 to 1988.[3]

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  • On the 2000, 2200 and 2400, many field failures in 1985 came from GF2 boards whose GA chips needed a higher +5 V than the supply was set to; the symptom was no display on the monitor. SGI's fix is to measure across +S1 and −S1 of the supply and set V1 to +5.17 V, then tag the supply. Boards with these chips carry Deviation Authorization #002.[4]
  • Blank screens, tape errors and disk errors after a 2400 Turbo upgrade: SGI traced these to the +12 V output sagging and becoming noisy on a fully configured system with two 170 MB disks and a tape drive. Check V2 at the supply and at the drives; the upgrade document sets it to 12.10 V with the load board, and SGI's interim fix was 12.14 V. SGI adds that the same symptoms can come from a bad tape, tape drive, disk, disk format or controller.[5]
  • For video modes, termination, genlock and European video on the DC4 board, see SGI IRIS 3000 Troubleshooting Guide#Video; SGI's technical aid on the European-video DC4 PROMs covers 2x00 and 30x0 models alike.[6]

Disks

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  • A read or write hard error gives the bad block as cylinder/head/sector at the end of the message. A bad block on track 0 or 1 that is not part of a pattern of random errors means the drive should be replaced.[7]
  • Bad blocks are mapped out with mapbad in mdfex (called fex before software release 2.3). SGI's procedure for updating the bad block list for the first time is to back the system up to a bootable tape, update the list and restore from the tape, because the list written at the factory may be wrong.[7][8]
  • Repeated or random bad blocks: check the DSD controller board and its cables first, then reseat the chips on the DSD board and all cables and boards. Before formatting, SGI suggests running the mdfex exercise test (the complete test) for 12 hours to find other bad blocks.[7]
  • SGI's figures for shock are 2 g with the power on and 20 g with it off; a knock against a running machine can cause a head slap and a bad block.[7]
  • When fsck cannot correct file system errors and disk errors continue, SGI's procedure (GEN-030, models 1400, 1500, 2400 and 2500) is to boot mdfex from the bootable tape, reformat the disk and restore it.[8]
  • Non-Turbo machines need a boot partition that the default fex tables lack; see SGI IRIS 2000 General Maintenance#Disks.[1]

Tape

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On GL1 and GL2 systems from release 2.1, if the tape drive's access LED stays lit after a tape operation, a further access may hang the system with a tape error. SGI's workaround is to eject the tape (which turns the LED off), type smt rew, ignore the error message, and carry on.[9]

Serial devices

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A device on an RS-232 port can hang the system during boot because IRIS raises RTS before the port's getty has started. Connect and switch on the device before booting, or use a three-wire null modem cable, which SGI preferred; for the 2000 series SGI points to Appendix F of the IRIS Workstation Guide.[10]

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jonathan Levine, "Silicon Graphics IRIS 2000/3000 FAQ", revisions of May 1993 to June 1994, sections 2.2, 4.1 and 4.2.3, bitsavers.org/pdf/sgi/iris/IRIS_FAQ.txt.
  2. ↑ Silicon Graphics, IRIS Series 3000 Owner's Guide, version 3.0, 007-5220-030, 1987, section 1.2, p. 1-2 (File:SGI IRIS Series 3000 Owner's Guide (007-5220-030).pdf).
  3. ↑ Silicon Graphics, IRIS Workstation Course, 68020 Based, Student Workbook part 2, lesson 7 technical aids (File:SGI IRIS Workstation Course 68020 Based Student Workbook Part 2.pdf).
  4. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-027, "GF2 Boards", models 2000, 2200 and 2400, 6 March 1985, in Student Workbook part 2.
  5. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-036, "Tape and Disk errors after upgrade", models 2400 and 2400T, 9 May 1988, in Student Workbook part 2.
  6. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid IO-017, "Euro Video Display Problem", models 2x00 and 30x0, in Student Workbook part 2.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-031 R1, "Hard Disk Bad Blocks", all workstations, 10 October 1985, in Student Workbook part 2.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-030 R1, "Disk Drive Restoration Procedure", models 1400, 1500, 2400 and 2500, 10 October 1985, in Student Workbook part 2.
  9. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-029, "Tape drive errors", GL1-W2.1 and GL2-W2.1, 29 March 1985, in Student Workbook part 2.
  10. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid IO-019, "RS-232 devices are hanging the system during boot", 14 May 1986, in Student Workbook part 2.


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