No video on Octane

[j***@gmail.com]

Good Evening,

I'm extremely new to SGI hardware. I was given an old Octane that was
kicking around at work and I'd love to play with it. However I have
been unable to get any video working on this machine.

Basically when I start it up I can hear the disks being read fairly
steadily and then stop so I assume it's booting. The status light
starts off red and then turns white and stays white. Immediately after
powering it on I do hear a chime type sound effect through the
speakers. And finally when I press the power button while it's running
the indicator light starts alternating red/white and the disk works for
10-20sec and the machine shuts down. All of that seems to indicate the
machine is booting fine. However through out all of this I get
nothing on the display.

The obvious way to trouble shoot this is to swap cable, monitor and
failing in results on either of those, video hardware. Unfortunately I
don't have access to any of that equipment.

A little bit more information: Throughout the booting I can hear the
monitor click several times which sounds like what I'd expect during
bootup as it's changing display modes. The monitor does not go into
power-saver mode at any point.

I've tried increasing contrast and brightness with the remote built
into the monitor and nothing. I'm pretty sure the remote is working
because the LED on the monitor flickers as I hold down the buttons on
the remote.

Just curious if anyone has any ideas how best I might diagnose the
problem. I've seen on e-bay that for $30 or so I can buy a 13W3 -> VGA
adapter and then I could eliminate the cable and monitor from the
variables. Unfortunately I'd introduce this strange 3rd party adapter.


I've also removed the XIO sled, checked the contacts (looked clean and
undamaged to my untrained eye) and reseated. No effect.

As far as precise hardware I'm not sure what's in this machine. The
monitor itself is an SGI with a model number of GDM20-D11.

Thank you,
Jeff

[David Cantrell]

Post by j***@gmail.com
I'm extremely new to SGI hardware. I was given an old Octane that was
kicking around at work and I'd love to play with it. However I have
been unable to get any video working on this machine.

Welcome!

Post by j***@gmail.com
Basically when I start it up I can hear the disks being read fairly
steadily and then stop so I assume it's booting. The status light
starts off red and then turns white and stays white. Immediately after
powering it on I do hear a chime type sound effect through the
speakers. And finally when I press the power button while it's running
the indicator light starts alternating red/white and the disk works for
10-20sec and the machine shuts down. All of that seems to indicate the
machine is booting fine. However through out all of this I get
nothing on the display.
The obvious way to trouble shoot this is to swap cable, monitor and
failing in results on either of those, video hardware. Unfortunately I
don't have access to any of that equipment.
A little bit more information: Throughout the booting I can hear the
monitor click several times which sounds like what I'd expect during
bootup as it's changing display modes. The monitor does not go into
power-saver mode at any point.
I've tried increasing contrast and brightness with the remote built
into the monitor and nothing. I'm pretty sure the remote is working
because the LED on the monitor flickers as I hold down the buttons on
the remote.
Just curious if anyone has any ideas how best I might diagnose the
problem. I've seen on e-bay that for $30 or so I can buy a 13W3 -> VGA
adapter and then I could eliminate the cable and monitor from the
variables. Unfortunately I'd introduce this strange 3rd party adapter.
I've also removed the XIO sled, checked the contacts (looked clean and
undamaged to my untrained eye) and reseated. No effect.
As far as precise hardware I'm not sure what's in this machine. The
monitor itself is an SGI with a model number of GDM20-D11.

I'm not completely sure what you're using for a monitor. Are you using
a GDM20D11 sgi monitor or a VGA monitor for a PC? The gfx adapters in
SGI hardware tend to demand a lot from your monitor (high resolutions
and high or low refresh rates, usually out of range for a VGA monitor),
so the average desktop PC monitor won't work, even with an adapter.
This is generally the case for all makes except (sometimes) monitors
made by Sony and monitors marketed as a professional line by the company
(e.g., ViewSonic pro monitors work for me, but nothing else by them).

I suggest disconnecting the monitor, keyboard, and mouse and running a
null modem cable from serial port A on the Octane to a port on another
system (laptop, desktop, whatever). Use your favorite serial comm
program and open a direct connection (9600) and then power up the
Octane. Without the peripherals attached, it should boot up using the
serial console. From here you can interact with the PROM and check
hinv, run diagnostics, and modify firmware settings. It's entirely
possible that the Octane is configured to run headless.

Sometimes a simple 'resetenv' at the PROM prompt is enough to get things
back to normal.

One last note, in the SGI world, users make a distinction between
graphics and video. Graphics (gfx) is the subsystem that puts things on
your display. A text console, 4dwm, or a picture of a dog. Video
refers to adapters that are specifically built to handle video streams
(i.e., input from cameras or other video devices). Want the details,
see Lurker's Guide to Video: http://www.lurkertech.com/lg/

Specifically:
http://www.lurkertech.com/lg/fields/fields.html

It may seem like splitting hairs, but SGI graphics and video adapters
are numerous and confusing. So it's important to refer to a gfx adapter
as a gfx adapter and a video adapter as a video adapter.

[Benjamin Gawert]

Post by David Cantrell
I'm not completely sure what you're using for a monitor. Are you using
a GDM20D11 sgi monitor or a VGA monitor for a PC? The gfx adapters in
SGI hardware tend to demand a lot from your monitor (high resolutions
and high or low refresh rates, usually out of range for a VGA monitor),
so the average desktop PC monitor won't work, even with an adapter.

That's nonsense. Even older SGIs like the Octane use standard
resolutions (i.e. 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200) which are not really
very high by todays standards, and also the refresh rates (usually
around 60-76 Hz) are not very high and are doable even by most el-cheapo
crap PC monitor of the last >5 years or so.

The only speciality with SGI is that unlike VGA gfx which uses separate
sync SGI uses sync-on-green (composite sync signal on the green signal
line) which not all monitors out there are able to use. However, most
better PC CRT monitors have no problem with that, and there even are
TFTs that do SoG flawlessly (I'm using a Dell 2005FPW 20" Widescreen TFT)...

Benjamin

[Rainer Latka]

Post by Benjamin Gawert

Post by David Cantrell
I'm not completely sure what you're using for a monitor. Are you using
a GDM20D11 sgi monitor or a VGA monitor for a PC? The gfx adapters
in SGI hardware tend to demand a lot from your monitor (high
resolutions and high or low refresh rates, usually out of range for a
VGA monitor), so the average desktop PC monitor won't work, even with
an adapter.

That's nonsense. Even older SGIs like the Octane use standard
resolutions (i.e. 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200) which are not really
very high by todays standards, and also the refresh rates (usually
around 60-76 Hz) are not very high and are doable even by most
el-cheapo crap PC monitor of the last >5 years or so.

and also, the OP's GDM20D11 sgi monitor definitely works with Octanes

Post by Benjamin Gawert
The only speciality with SGI is that unlike VGA gfx which uses
separate sync SGI uses sync-on-green (composite sync signal on the
green signal line) which not all monitors out there are able to use.
However, most better PC CRT monitors have no problem with that, and
there even are TFTs that do SoG flawlessly (I'm using a Dell 2005FPW
20" Widescreen TFT)...
Benjamin