TDS7054 OScope Repair Project

[ObscureName37]

Hi All! I am new here, so apologies if I've posted in the wrong area. I've been in the process of repairing a Tektronix TDS7054 Oscilloscope, and have reached a new problem I did not expect. Here is some background.

Originally the scope would boot properly into Windows 2000, but the TekScope application would not ever start. After reading through the forums, I checked the diagnostic 7-seg display and found it getting stuck on .A. After finally getting the PPC console output to work, I was able to see the NVRAM walking 1 test was failing.

After replacing the NVRAM chip and powercap module, everything worked perfectly! My lcd was damaged as well, so I even made a makeshift replacement with a disassembled mini monitor.

Recently, I was adjusting and replacing the HDD and DVD drive, but after doing so neither IDE device is being recognized in bios or boot. I've tried switching the cables, the drives, and which one is primary/secondary, but nothing is getting recognized. I believe it's because I tried powering on with one of the cables incorrectly seated. Would anyone have any recommendations? Is this a riser board issue or a motherboard issue?

Lastly, I want to make a post documenting my repair process alongside pictures, as I think the pictures will really help everyone going through this NVRAM struggle, please let me know where would be best to do this! Sorry for the word vomit! Thank you!

[d37duck]

Hi,
I was changing the disk drive in a TDS7404 before shutting of power.  I killed IDE channel 0 on a RaydiSys SF810 NLX motherboard.  The interconnections for NLX hardware are not design for HOT SWAPPING.  The board still worked with IDE channel 1 only.  From your discription, you kill both IDE channels.  You can try booting DOS from a floppy disk and see if you can connect to IDE devices.  If you have one channel still working, you can use an single IDE cable to connect the hard drive as master and the CD driver as slave.
 
There are two versions of the aluminum chassis part connecting the motherboard and riser board.  Part number 441-2279-00 is used with the RaydiSys SF810 mother board in serial numbered instruments above B030100.  Part number 441-2184-00 is used with several Intel motherboards in serial numbered instruments below B040000.  This is what service manual 071-0711-02 lists, I don’t know how it worked for instruments in the overlapped serial numbers.

If you need a new motherboard and have the 441-2279-00 chassis part try to find a SF810 motherboard.  RaydiSys is out of business and they are rally seen for sale on eBay.  If you have the 441-2184-00 chassis part, an Intel SU810 motherboard fits.  I’ve seen them on eBay.  There are issues I’ve encountered using them caused by the BIOS.  The BIOS works fine but the boot up splash screen is not Tektronix.  Maybe you’ll be lucky and get Intel or you might get cows from Gateway.  A more serious issue is, some TEK’s OS Restore and software install disks use InstallShield and check the BIOS for a TEK ID tag.  I recall a post about this issue where the writer discovered the restore file was Arconis format so he booted Arconis and restored the OS manually.

If you are using Windows 2000 as your OS, use the SF810 or SU810 motherboards.  The other Intel motherboards were used with Windows 98. 
Regards,

[coromonadalix]

@op  i think its the mobo issue,  NLX  models means, the edge of the pcb get all the i/o's  like hdd usb floppy lan  ....  if you mess something on this riser, the mobo may suffer

for the TEK riser who connect the mobo and the power pc interface board, i think the riser for sure pass pci lines between them,  but moslty passive in nature,  unless you have an added lan connector on it (you will have an phy chip on the riser)

ill add this:   i had an tds7404, this one has an Radisys mobo, it was a pain in the @$ to restart it,  nvram failure and mobo cmos battery, had to read ton of threads to figure out some vxwork configs

no way to flash the bios

for the Radisys mobo,  very very picky on the hardware put on the ide ports, i tried at least 10  slim cd-rw and dvd -rw   nothing worked correctly, had a mix of hhd and some worked out ...  it would not accept the cd-rom as 1st boot device,  while the hdd on the second port worked fine

had to boot  "ol Dos"  with some usb cd-rom drivers,  connected an external usb DVD rom, and managed to get win2k on this sucker

and yes it as  TEK markers in it ...

and yes you may get win2k to work on it,  forget xp on theses, it will get into a continous reboot  ( in my case )

and yes for some os recovery,  you have some made with Acronis ...  and some cd's  will expand acronis in the memory and self install ...

i managed to put 512meg on this mobo,  even having the right memory type and speed, dont forget it need ic's on both sides, it would not accept 2x 256 megs at 100Mhz or 2x 256 megs at 133 Mhz, or standard memory

but strangely  1x 100Mhz and 1x 133Mhz of 256meg size  worked fine and i cranked up the cpu  for an celeron SL5XQ  1ghz, i had ordered an celeron 900Mhz too at 100 Mhz FSB

forget the tualatin, they will not work on theses, you can find up to 1.1 1.2 gig cpu at 100Mhz  Fsb

get the Intel one or the gateway  loll 


meanwhile i managed to find some NLX riser board, with standard ide connectors  not the 44 pins model,   to maybe help in the future some re-installation on the 7404, im still waiting for some ide ssd drive ...

just plug an standard atx psu connect the drives and redo the installation outside the scope

[d37duck]

Hi All,

I was hard up for a SU810 motherboard with TEK BIOS to replace an even older Intel Bali board (BL440ZX).  That's one of the old Intel motherboards used with Win98 OS.  I bought a very cheap CSA/TDS 8000 with SF810 motherboard and got all the parts to make the swap.  TEK has documents for upgrading CSA,TDS/6K,7K,8K scopes to Intel 810 family motherboards.  I don't know if they used SF810 only or a mix with some SU810 boards.  If anyone sees a SU810 with TEK BIOS, please make a dump file with UniFLASH (its attached) and post it.  There’s a ReadMe inside the zip that claims it's been tested with the Intel i810 chipset, it should work.

If you buy a junk CSA,TDS/6K,7K,8K scope for its motherboard, a quick why to discover if it has RaydiSys or Intel is to look at the back and check the pair of screws that attach the CD/DVD drive to the motherboard chassis.  The pair that are close together are RaydiSys the wider pair are Intel, see picture.

Sence, you replaced the NVRAM battery, are your factory calibration files OK?  If they are corrupted, there will miscellaneous errors listed in the power up diagnostics and there will be DC offset problems. Tiger might not work.  There are copies of these files on this website for your scope, I would like to have them for TDS7404 and TDS6604 scopes please, pretty please.

Thanks,

[coromonadalix]

thoses screws are for the cd-rom holder bracket,  there was some board with 2 usb connectors instead of 1   some hole machining was needed

and yes   for the radisys of the 7404 in my case i confirm its the narrowest distance space between the screws


for the cal files,  if the hdd was backed up, normally you have them in the calcon folder in the vxwork folder

but if you restart the scope a new,    when everything work,  do spc checks and you have another test you can do after a 20 minute warmup, it will rewrite some of the files

if you get an spc pass on all, i would not worry

BUT   i had an eeprom corruption on the power pc or the scope board, i had to reflash this one  with commands issued from the console port of the power pc

i had some errors in the spc checks  until i issued some commands (wich i need to find)  there is some scripts too attached

https://github.com/exit-failure/tds7000/blob/main/NVRAM/README.md       about nvram restore ...

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/boot-problem-on-tektronix-tds7404-scope/msg3416082/#msg3416082

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tds7254b-spc-fail-issue-and-but-pass-all-diagnostic/msg2746740/#msg2746740