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SGI Visual Workstation 540 General Maintenance

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SGI Visual Workstation 540 interior (Owner's Guide Figure 2-6)
Inside the 540 with the side cover off (Owner's Guide Figure 2-6)

The SGI Visual Workstation 540 is a deskside machine of 51 to 65 lb with four processor slots, 24 DIMM sockets, three SCSI drive bays and an 838 W supply.[1] SGI's maintenance information for the 540 is in its owner's guide, which covers opening the case and replacing the memory, drives, option cards, processors, voltage regulators, power supply, battery and fans. It sets no service intervals.

Before opening the case

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  1. Shut Windows NT down from the Start menu, then press the power button behind the sliding front panel. Unplug the mains lead.[2]
  2. The side cover works a safety interlock that switches the machine off when the cover comes off.[2] Unplug the machine as well; every one of SGI's procedures starts by pulling the power cable from the outlet.[3]
  3. Touch a metal part at the back, such as the frame around the PCI slots, before handling anything inside, and wear an earthed wrist strap if you have one.[4]
  4. Lift with two people. Turn the four feet under the case and hold the metal frame along the bottom edge, not the plastic.[5]
  5. To work on the processors, regulators, memory or power supply, lay the machine on its side on fabric or paper padding with two feet turned towards the floor to steady it.[6]

With the machine running, SGI allows only audio, IEEE 1394 and USB cables to be plugged in.[4]

Opening and closing the case

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Side cover

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  1. If a Kensington lock is fitted, unlock it and take it out.
  2. Turn the latch button clockwise to the unlocked position (the curve on the button points left).
  3. Press the latch button until it is fully recessed. The side cover springs out about half an inch.
  4. Pull the cover away from the chassis and lift it off.[6]

To refit it, stand the machine upright, put the bottom edge of the cover in the groove at the bottom of the chassis, tilt it in, support the back of the machine with your free hand and press firmly in the middle of the top edge until it snaps home.[7]

Front cover

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The front cover only needs to come off for the removable media drives and the front fans. Open the sliding panel, press the latch inside the top edge of the cover, pull it forward and lift it off. Refit it by putting its tabs in the slots in the groove at the bottom of the chassis and tilting it in until it locks.[6][7] The sliding panel opens with a light press on its lower half and closes by lifting the tab at its top; SGI warns that forcing it down can damage it.[8]

Cleaning and airflow

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SGI's maintenance tips are to vacuum dust and lint from the vents from time to time, more often where the air is not filtered, keep the vents clear and keep liquids away from the keyboard and the machine.[4]

Three internal fans and the power supply fan cool the 540.[1] The internal fans blow into the upper chamber of the case and the air leaves through the power supply.[9] The flat IDE cable runs across the memory area, and SGI says to refit it in the same orientation as it was found to keep the airflow right.[10][11]

Replacing a fan

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The fans are held to the chassis by four push pins each and plug into three-pin headers on the system board. The horizontal fan comes out without removing anything else. The two vertical fans beside the processor cage need processors out first: the primary processor for the lower fan, and the processors or terminator cards in slots 1 and 2 for the upper fan.[9]

  1. Note where the fan cable plugs into the system board, then pull the connector off.
  2. Prise or push out the four push pins and lift the fan out.
  3. Fit the new fan with the arrow printed on its frame pointing into the upper chamber, and with the cable leaving on the side away from the system board. SGI warns that a fan fitted the wrong way round can let the system overheat and be damaged.
  4. Fit the hollow push pin casings from the new fan, push the pins fully home and connect the cable. Needle-nose pliers and the rubber end of a pencil help with the headers behind the vertical fans.
  5. Tuck the cable round the middle of the fan so that it cannot pull off, and refit any processors or terminator cards that were removed.[9]

Battery

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The real-time clock and the firmware settings run from a Renata CR2032 lithium coin cell just above the voltage regulators at the top right of the system board. SGI's sign that it needs replacing is file dates that are wrong even after the clock has been set.[12]

  1. Remove the side cover.
  2. Put a thumbnail behind the cell and pull it towards you to release it.
  3. Fit a new CR2032, printed side up, until it snaps in.
  4. Refit the cover and start the machine. Set the clock in the firmware or the Windows NT control panel.[12]

The settings may be lost when the cell comes out, and SGI notes that the first start after a battery change may report false POST failures.[12] Record the firmware boot settings (below) before taking the cell out. For leaking cells and corrosion in general see Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage.

Memory and processors

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The 24 DIMM sockets sit in the middle of the system board under the IDE cable.[10] To reseat or change memory:

  1. Lay the machine on its side, note which way the IDE cable runs, and unplug it from the system board, taking care not to pull the horizontal fan cable with it.
  2. Work from the right-hand row of a slot group to the left. Line each DIMM up with its socket before pressing; the DIMM is notched, and the ribbed latch should end up parallel with the side of the socket without force.
  3. To remove a DIMM, press the ribbed latch at the left of the socket and pull the module straight out, not at an angle.
  4. Refit the IDE cable with the red stripe (pin 1) to the left.[11]

A slot group holds six DIMMs; if one is taken out and not replaced, the rest of that group must come out too.[11] After any change of memory, the first boot shows the message [53] Configuration - ** FAILED: Configuration changes once, which is expected.[13]

Processors are held in their bracket by two screws and need a handle fitted the same way round as the card they replace. Press the middle of the handle with the palm of your hand; SGI says three sounds are heard as the processor seats. Regulator cards go in with their components facing up in the brackets above the top processor and facing down in the brackets below the primary processor; when a card is fully home there is an empty rectangular space under each locking tab.[14] Which cards go with which processors is shown on SGI Visual Workstation 540 Troubleshooting Guide.

Power supply

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The power supply sits at the top left of the case.[10] SGI's procedure replaces it as a unit:[3]

  1. Lay the machine on its side and unplug the IDE cable from its connector behind the fan, taking care not to pull the fan cable.
  2. Unplug the power leads from the IDE drives (press the locking tab) and the floppy drive, and lay the IDE cable over the top of the machine.
  3. Separate the two halves of the power interlock switch cable.
  4. Press the tab on top of each of the two system board power connectors and work them off; they fit tightly.
  5. Remove the four screws at the back. The supply rests on a ledge and two metal tabs, so it does not drop when the screws come out.
  6. Slide it towards the drives until it clears the ledge and the tabs, and lift it out.

Fit the new supply along the ledge, slide it until it is flush with the left side of the chassis so that the tabs engage, and refit the four screws. The two system board connectors are different sizes and go on with their tabs facing up. Refit the floppy cable with the red stripe next to the drive's power connector and the IDE cable with its red stripe to the left, then reconnect the drive power and the interlock cable. SGI warns against knocking the DIMMs with the supply.[3]

The supply runs from the mains and its primary side can hold a charge after the plug is pulled. SGI gives no information on its inside. If you open one, read SGI Visual Workstation 540 Capacitor Replacement Guide first.

Drives

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  • The system disk must be in bay 1, the top internal bay, at SCSI ID 0. The option bays below it take IDs 1 and 2. Replacement disks must be Ultra2 SCSI with SCA connectors.[15]
  • Check the jumpers on the back of a replacement SCSI disk; SGI notes that some drives can be jumpered, in error, to an ID the system already uses.[16]
  • IDE devices in the option bay and the CD-ROM bay need correct master and slave settings; a single preinstalled IDE drive is set as master.[17]

For drive faults in general see Hard Drive Maintenance and Repair and Floppy Drive Repair.

Firmware settings to record

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Write down the firmware's boot entry before changing the battery, the disks or the processors. The firmware opens with Esc at start-up; the boot entry is under Startup Settings.[18] SGI's defaults are:

Default boot entry (Software Installation Guide p. 41)
Field SCSI boot drive (540 standard) IDE boot drive
OSLoader \os\winnt40\arcldr.exe \os\winnt40\arcldr.exe
OSLoad Filename \WINNT \WINNT
OSLoad Partition SCSI 2 Disk 0 Partition 1 IDE 0 Disk 0 Partition 1
System Partition SCSI 2 Disk 0 Partition 2 IDE 0 Disk 0 Partition 2
OSLoad Options Blank Blank

The system partition holding arcldr.exe and hal.dll must be FAT, at least 20 MB, because the firmware cannot read NTFS.[19] Also note the Power On Diagnostics level (Quick Boot by default) and the Recovery from Electrical Power Loss setting, which decides whether the machine restarts by itself after a power cut.[18][20]

Maintenance checklist

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  1. Shut down, unplug and earth yourself before opening the case.
  2. Vacuum the vents and the fan intakes.
  3. Check that all three internal fans and the power supply fan turn at start-up.
  4. Check the clock. If it has drifted or the firmware settings have been lost, replace the CR2032.
  5. Check that the IDE cable is routed as SGI fitted it and that the power and interlock connectors are fully home.
  6. Record the firmware boot entry.
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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), Appendix A, pp. 155–157: weight, cooling, power.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Silicon Graphics, Inc., Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide, 007-3882-001, 1999, "Shutting Down the System", p. 14: shutdown sequence and the side-cover safety interlock. Hosted as File:SGI Visual Workstation 540 Owner's Guide (007-3882-001).pdf.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "Replacing the Power Supply", pp. 120–128.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "Maintenance Tips", p. 140.
  5. ↑ Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "Checking Your Shipment", pp. 2–3: two-person lift, feet, grip on the metal frame.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "Removing the Covers" and "Laying the System on Its Side", pp. 18–22.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "Replacing the Covers", pp. 24–25.
  8. ↑ Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "Opening and Closing the Sliding Front Panel", pp. 11–12.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "Replacing a Fan", pp. 131–137: fan locations, processor removal for the vertical fans, push pins, airflow direction and the overheating warning, three-pin connectors.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), Figure 2-6, "Interior View of the Silicon Graphics 540 Workstation", p. 23.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "Installing DIMMs", pp. 32–37, and "Removing DIMMs", pp. 40–42: IDE cable orientation and airflow, insertion order, latch, six DIMMs per slot group.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "Replacing the Battery", pp. 129–130.
  13. ↑ Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "Verifying and Troubleshooting the DIMM Installation", p. 38.
  14. ↑ Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "Installing Processors and Voltage Regulators" and "Inserting Voltage Regulators", pp. 104–109.
  15. ↑ Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "About Internal Hard Drives", p. 61, and Figure 4-14, p. 62: bays and SCSI IDs 0 to 2.
  16. ↑ Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), Table 8-1, "Troubleshooting", p. 144: internal SCSI drive not recognised.
  17. ↑ Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3882-001), "About Removable Media Drives", p. 46.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Silicon Graphics 320 and Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Software Installation Guide (007-3703-002), "Configuring System Firmware Options", pp. 35–45: Esc at start-up, Startup Settings, the boot entry table (p. 41), Power On Diagnostics Level (p. 45).
  19. ↑ Silicon Graphics, Inc., Silicon Graphics 320 and Silicon Graphics 540 Visual Workstation Software Installation Guide, 007-3703-002, 1999, "Partitioning the System Disk", pp. 26–28. Hosted as File:SGI Visual Workstation 320 and 540 Software Installation Guide (007-3703-002).pdf.
  20. ↑ Silicon Graphics, Inc., Silicon Graphics Visual Workstations System Firmware User's Guide for Windows NT, 007-4225-001, 1999, "Recovery from Electrical Power Loss", p. 8. Hosted as File:SGI Visual Workstations System Firmware User's Guide (007-4225-001).pdf.


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