Re: Problems with NVRAM replacement



christopher.tidy@xxxxxxxxx wrote: 
Dave wrote:

It's a null modem cable you want, but there are some reports of not all
null modem cables working. I built my own from a site that reports them
working with Suns - stokely being one obvious one.

I assume you are in the UK. Maplin should have the plugs and a bit of
wire. I forget what Sun this is on, but I guess it is a fairly old one,
so probably has 25-pin serial connectors. So you are likely to need 25
one end and 9 the other.



Thought so. A null modem cable is wired straight through, so that the
wires are all parallel, as opposed to having the wires cross to go pin
1 -> pin 1, pin 2 -> pin 2, etc. - is that right? I've made a serial
cable for this machine before (to connect it to a US Robotics modem),
so if I can find the connectors I'd be happy to do it again. This
machine does indeed have 25-pin connectors.


I don't know if you are anywhere near Essex, but if you are, and want to
drop in, I'll connect it with my serial cable to my Sun and see if there
are any messages during power up. Drop me a private email if you want to
do that - the reply address is valid.



Thanks very much for the offer. I'm in Shropshire, which would be a way
to travel!

I've also had a little success now. I held down <Stop-N> when I
switched on the power with the old chip, and got a message saying that
the NVRAM parameters were being reset to the defaults. Then it said
"Can't open deblocker package". I tried the same with the new chip.
This time I got an output on the monitor, which confirmed that the
NVRAM parameters were being reset to the defaults, and then said "The
IDPROM contents are invalid" followed by "Can't open deblocker
package". It is just possible that the monitor lead was loose before,
which meant that I wasn't getting a display on the monitor. I tried
resetting the IDPROM contents at the "ok" prompt, but got the same
message when I switched on the machine again. What do you think about
messages? Any thoughts?

Best wishes,

Chris 

The next step is to program your hostid into the new chip:

http://www.squirrel.com/squirrel/sun-nvram-hostid.faq.html

Sunny
.