Christoph Gartmann wrote:
> Hello,
>
> today one of our AlphaStations 255 just crashed and refuses to boot anymore.
> It powers up, the disks spin up but the monitor remains dark. There is no
> beeping sound, just a green LED on the mainboard. We replaced the graphics card
> with no luck, so what else could we try?
>
> Regards,
> Christoph Gartmann
>

Did you replace the monitor?

Have you tried talking to it via a serial port?

In article <47E92708.8060003@comcast.net>, "Richard B. Gilbert" writes:
>Christoph Gartmann wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> today one of our AlphaStations 255 just crashed and refuses to boot anymore.
>> It powers up, the disks spin up but the monitor remains dark. There is no
>> beeping sound, just a green LED on the mainboard. We replaced the graphics card
>> with no luck, so what else could we try?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Christoph Gartmann
>>
>
>Did you replace the monitor?

Yes, I did.

>Have you tried talking to it via a serial port?

Via both ports, nothing.

Meanwhile I noticed that the battery is empty. Could this cause such a problem?

Regards,
Christoph Gartmann

--
Max-Planck-Institut fuer Phone : +49-761-5108-464 Fax: -452
Immunbiologie
Postfach 1169 Internet: gartmann@immunbio dot mpg dot de
D-79011 Freiburg, Germany
http://www.immunbio.mpg.de/home/menue.html

Christoph Gartmann wrote:
> In article <47E92708.8060003@comcast.net>, "Richard B. Gilbert" writes:
>
>>Christoph Gartmann wrote:
>>
>>>Hello,
>>>
>>>today one of our AlphaStations 255 just crashed and refuses to boot anymore.
>>>It powers up, the disks spin up but the monitor remains dark. There is no
>>>beeping sound, just a green LED on the mainboard. We replaced the graphics card
>>>with no luck, so what else could we try?
>>>
>>>Regards,
>>> Christoph Gartmann
>>>
>>
>>Did you replace the monitor?
>
>
> Yes, I did.
>
>
>>Have you tried talking to it via a serial port?
>
>
> Via both ports, nothing.
>
> Meanwhile I noticed that the battery is empty. Could this cause such a problem?
>
> Regards,
> Christoph Gartmann
>

If your battery is dead, it will affect your TOY clock but I don't think
it should keep you from booting. It would not, however, hurt to replace it.

On Mar 25, 3:28 pm, gartm...@nonsense.immunbio.mpg.de (Christoph
Gartmann) wrote:
> In article <47E92708.8060...@comcast.net>, "Richard B. Gilbert" writes:
>
> >Christoph Gartmann wrote:
> >> Hello,
>
> >> today one of our AlphaStations 255 just crashed and refuses to boot anymore.
> >> It powers up, the disks spin up but the monitor remains dark. There is no
> >> beeping sound, just a green LED on the mainboard. We replaced the graphics card
> >> with no luck, so what else could we try?
>
> >> Regards,
> >> Christoph Gartmann
>
> >Did you replace the monitor?
>
> Yes, I did.
>
> >Have you tried talking to it via a serial port?
>
> Via both ports, nothing.
>
> Meanwhile I noticed that the battery is empty. Could this cause such a problem?
>
> Regards,
> Christoph Gartmann
>
> --
> Max-Planck-Institut fuer Phone : +49-761-5108-464 Fax: -452
> Immunbiologie
> Postfach 1169 Internet: gartmann@immunbio dot mpg dot de
> D-79011 Freiburg, Germany
> http://www.immunbio.mpg.de/home/menue.html

Some Alpha models were extremely sensitive to a dead battery; UDB/
Multia would often not even work at console level with a dead
battery. Its certainly worth a try.

If you have the service guide or if the user guide covers it you can
check to see if there's a 'last chance' jumper on the motherboard. On
some models (AS200 I think) you can get into the SROM and actually
boot to console using a firmware floppy disk; its used if the SRM/Arc
firmware get corrupted. I really don't remember what its called
though.

In article ,
gartmann@nonsense.immunbio.mpg.de (Christoph Gartmann) writes:

> today one of our AlphaStations 255 just crashed and refuses to boot anymore.
> It powers up, the disks spin up but the monitor remains dark. There is no
> beeping sound, just a green LED on the mainboard. We replaced the graphics card
> with no luck, so what else could we try?

Before I saw it was you, I was going to suggest checking the capacitor
between mouse and SCSI connections on the motherboard. :-)

In article , helbig@astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply) writes:
>In article ,
>gartmann@nonsense.immunbio.mpg.de (Christoph Gartmann) writes:
>
>> today one of our AlphaStations 255 just crashed and refuses to boot anymore.
>> It powers up, the disks spin up but the monitor remains dark. There is no
>> beeping sound, just a green LED on the mainboard. We replaced the graphics card
>> with no luck, so what else could we try?
>
>Before I saw it was you, I was going to suggest checking the capacitor
>between mouse and SCSI connections on the motherboard. :-)

This is not the problem as the phenomenon is completely different. Meanwhile we
know that it is the motherboard itself :-(

Regards,
Christoph Gartmann

--
Max-Planck-Institut fuer Phone : +49-761-5108-464 Fax: -452
Immunbiologie
Postfach 1169 Internet: gartmann@immunbio dot mpg dot de
D-79011 Freiburg, Germany
http://www.immunbio.mpg.de/home/menue.html