SGI Personal Iris General Maintenance
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Routine care for the SGI Personal Iris (4D/20, 4D/25, 4D/30 and 4D/35). The notes below come from SGI's IP10 board documentation and 1989 brochure, the sgistuff.net reference pages, and owners' reports on the IRIX Network forum.[1][2][3] The parts that most often need attention on a machine of this age are the power supply, the NVRAM battery and, on the 4D/30 and 4D/35, the CPU fan.[4][5][3]
Opening the tower
[edit | edit source]- Unplug the power cord.[6]
- Remove the plastic skins from both sides. The E-module, which holds the system boards, has its connector panel under the right-hand skin (seen from the front) and comes out of the chassis as a unit.[6][3]
- On the other side of the E-module, the sheet metal comes off in two parts: a large panel and a smaller cover over the power supply.[6]
- To take the supply out, remove the E-module first, then the four screws, reached from the E-module side, that hold the supply bracket to the chassis. The screws on the supply board itself only hold it to its bracket. The bracket fits through the opening, but only just.[5]
SGI's brochure says either of the two system boards can be swapped in about ten minutes, and that tape and disk upgrades need no tools.[2]
Fuses
[edit | edit source]The supply has two replaceable fuses: one on its small daughtercard, the other next to that card under a blue plastic cap. Check both, and the cabling, before condemning the supply.[6]
Memory
[edit | edit source]| Models | SIMMs | Sockets | Minimum | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4D/20, 4D/25 | 30-pin with parity, 80-100 ns | 16 (4 × 4) | 8 MB | 32 MB |
| 4D/30, 4D/35 | SGI proprietary, as in the R3000 Indigo | 16 (4 × 4) | 8 MB | 128 MB |
- On the 4D/20 and 4D/25, 1 MB SIMMs have to fill two banks to reach the 8 MB minimum; 2 MB SIMMs go in the first banks.[3]
- On the 4D/30 and 4D/35, only one set of 4 MB SIMMs may be fitted.[3]
CPU fan (4D/30 and 4D/35)
[edit | edit source]The IP14 and IP12 boards need a CPU fan, mounted on the E-module cover and powered from the connector at H14, which a daughtercard may cover. sgistuff.net warns that without it running the processor will overheat and fail. Check that it is connected and spinning whenever the E-module has been opened.[3]
NVRAM battery
[edit | edit source]The IP10 board's bill of materials lists a 3 V lithium battery (SGI part 9340800) in a socket (SGI part 9341801).[7] jan-jaap found the NVRAM battery dead in his 4D/35 when he opened it to repair the supply.[5] Note the PROM settings (printenv at the command monitor) before changing the battery; see SGI Personal Iris Troubleshooting Guide for the boot settings.
Drives
[edit | edit source]- The internal drives and the external Centronics-style SCSI port share one narrow SCSI bus on a Western Digital WD33C93A controller.[3]
- The 4D/35 shipped with full-height 5.25-inch disks; jan-jaap notes that 3.5-inch disks fit with an adapter.[5]
- In the later TFLU chassis the system drive is on a sled reachable from the front.[3]
Keyboard, monitor and console
[edit | edit source]- Use only an SGI keyboard and mouse of the right type. The 4D/20 and 4D/25 have a DE-9 keyboard connector, and the 4D/30 and 4D/35 a 6-pin mini-DIN that looks like PS/2 but is not compatible with it; plugging the wrong device in can damage the keyboard, the computer or both.[8]
- jan-jaap describes two video outputs on a 4D/25: RGB on BNC connectors with sync on green, for up to 1280 × 1024, and a VGA-style port marked COMPOSITE (composite sync), for up to about 1024 × 768. Both carry sync on green, so the monitor has to accept it.[9]
- A serial terminal works at 9600 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, with XON/XOFF; one owner used a straight-through cable.[10]
Power
[edit | edit source]The supply is rated 350 W from 115 or 230 V, and SGI's brochure says the machine runs from a standard socket.[6][2] jan-jaap measured 172 W from the wall for a fully loaded 4D/35 without its disk.[5] Supplies, their failures and the replacement options are covered on SGI Personal Iris Capacitor Replacement Guide.
Related pages
[edit | edit source]- SGI Personal Iris
- SGI Personal Iris Troubleshooting Guide
- SGI Personal Iris Capacitor Replacement Guide
- SGI Personal Iris Documentation
- SGI IRIS 4D
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ Silicon Graphics, IP10 CPU board schematic 032-8029-001 and bill of materials 300-8029-001, 1989 (File:SGI Personal IRIS IP10 CPU Board Schematic and Bill of Materials (032-8029-001).pdf).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Silicon Graphics, The Personal IRIS 3D Workstation, brochure, 1989 (File:SGI Personal IRIS brochure (1989).pdf).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Gerhard Lenerz, "Personal Iris", sgistuff.net, sgistuff.net (retrieved 22 October 2026). Memory, CPU fan, SCSI, chassis.
- ↑ jan-jaap, in "Proactive maintainability of SGI Power Supplies, thoughts?", IRIX Network forum, 17 January 2019, forums.irixnet.org/thread-865.html.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "Introducing: my Personal IRIS 4D/35", IRIX Network forum, posts by jan-jaap, September to December 2019, forums.irixnet.org/thread-1468.html. Supply and NVRAM battery, removing the supply bracket, drives, power consumption.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Gerhard Lenerz, "Personal Iris PSU replacement", sgistuff.net, sgistuff.net (retrieved 22 October 2026). Opening the case, fuses, supply rating.
- ↑ SGI, IP10 bill of materials 300-8029-001, effective 20 June 1989, PDF pp. 34 and 38, items 0047 and 0097.
- ↑ "SGI IRIS", Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org (retrieved 22 October 2026). Keyboard and mouse connectors.
- ↑ jan-jaap, in "New Box- Personal Iris 4D/25 - Prom Password?", IRIX Network forum, 3 December 2018, forums.irixnet.org/thread-740.html. Video outputs.
- ↑ Xav101, in "Personal IRIS 4D/20 error LED meanings", IRIX Network forum, 28 July 2022, forums.irixnet.org/thread-3618.html. Serial console settings.