Anyone in the computer parts refurbishing business ? [SUN Hardware]

[resistance]

I would very much appreciate any help on refurbishing a SUN 25K CPU board (part number 540-6834-02).
Any schematics, procedures will be invaluable.

The board is already refurbished (alas unsuccessfully. == DOA) and gives out the following error on post:

FAIL Proc SB4/P0: Serial number of CPU (########.########) doesn't match data in board SEEPROM (########.########)
(Serial numbers omitted on purpose)

Thanks in advance.

[Whales]

I don't have schematics, but I assume the eeprom chip will be something obvious and separate.  If so, you could try removing it (or accessing it in-circuit) and searching for the ID string + replacing it.

Good luck

[resistance]

Hello Whales, and thank you for taking the time to answer.

You are correct, and this is my last resort.
However, I strongly believe that refurbishers (!?) follow a more higher level technique.
Like plugging the board  somewhere and running some little application...

Anyway thanks mate.

Cheers

[Whales]

That would be more advisable, as more than just the serial may be off. 

Are you refurbishing for personal pleasure, or is it needed for operation?

[n45048]

I may be able to find you a replacement board if that helps? I'm not familiar with SUN gear myself but know someone who might have parts stashed away. Can you upload photos?

[idpromnut]

Years ago I remember recovering a SparcStation 2 's idprom (guess where the nickname came from   These were stored in a Dallas timekeeper-style NVRAM. Perhaps the CPU serial number on your board is stored in a similar device.

[wagon]

Years ago I remember recovering a SparcStation 2 's idprom (guess where the nickname came from   These were stored in a Dallas timekeeper-style NVRAM. Perhaps the CPU serial number on your board is stored in a similar device.

IIRC think those Dallas NVRAMs have a life of around 10years. 

[resistance]

Hello again guys.
Sorry for the delayed response (as opposed to yours ).

@Whales: I am trying to repair this just for personal pleasure. The "refurbisher" has already sent a replacement unit, which works OK. This should answer n45048's question as well.

@idpromnut: I am familiar with what you're saying. I am in the UNIX/Solaris admin profession for more years than I'd like to admit Back in the day, there used to be a lot of chip swapping on SUN machines (for hostid bound apps mostly).
Obviously there is some sort of serial EEPROM on the board. My last resort is to either in serial reprogram it or take it off and reprogram it. It would just be great if there was something like # eepromupdate -cpu0 XXXX -cpu1 YYYY -cpu2 .....

@wagon IDK if there were actually Dallas chips or other brand, but those old beasts still work to this day.

Anyway, a big thanks to you all guys.

Cheers.

[resistance]

Good news!
I finally found it.
It's on the bottom side and it's an Atmel AT24C64BN.

 

[notsob]

From my faded memory of years ago, there is a key sequence to bring up a service program. I dont know if it will help - i did a quick google and here's the manual
docs.oracle.com/cd/E19127-01/sparc2.ws/800...10/800-5166-10.pdf

looks like L1 + A keys to get into the menu

cheers

[resistance]

Men that is really old 

The manual refers to:

Whereas my board is from this:

I'm sure there must be some SUN internal tool, but I don't have it.
Anyway, I'll proceed with the traditional way