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SUN SparcStation 2 memory issue?

Denniske1976

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
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480
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The Netherlands
Hi Guys,

I just picked up some SUN stuff and among an Ultra 2 Enterprise (working, anfter the NVRAM repair) and SparcStation Classic (dead PSU), Ultra 30 (also working after NVRAM repair but missing one rubber foot) there also was a SparcStation 2. I like the flat pizza box design and it powers up.

Connecting to serial port A gives me some outlput but I don't really know what's going on there. All I get is (apart from a "WARNING: Unable to determine keyboard type" and since there's no keyboard connected I guess that makes sence):

*** U0311 ***
PADDR = 003e0800, Expected = 00000000, Observed = ffffffff

And then it just sits there with a blinking cursor. I guess it's some kind of memory error, since U0311 is from SIMM bank 0 (it starts from U0309 I think). So I opened it up and saw 8 SIMM modules installed, I took them out and used the 4 "bank 1 SIMMs" for bank 0 but I keep getting that error, either with only those 4 SIMMs installed or the extra 4 SIMMs in bank 1 also installed. They're 8 identical SIMM modules btw (so it's like 8x1M modules or something).

Anyone know what I can do to resolve this? Or where this comes from? Can I use normal standard SIMM modules to test, or are they SUN specific modules (you know, like those IBM PS/2 modules)? Because I have about 80 other 30-pin SIMM modules around in various capacity...

Thanks for helping out and y'all have a good one now!
 
I don't recall if the SparcStation 2 has some RAM soldered to the board or not, but they should use standard SIMM modules, I think.
 
SS2 uses standard 30 pin parity (9 chip) SIMMs. 1 or 4 MB, 80ns. Make sure you have installed the SIMMs in the correct slots and that they're not from e.g. a 3/60 (100ns). See p.28 of https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19127-01/sparc2.ws/800-5166-10/800-5166-10.pdf

It's also possible that you have a damaged SIMM socket. I have seen pins pulled out from careless SIMM extraction. 0x003e0800 is an odd location (4 MB + nearly 64k) for such a fault... unless the diagnostic routines don't test every address, or something.
 
Thanks for the answers guys, I'll check on that... but I did remove all the SIMMs and cleaned the slots, didn't notice any bent or missing pins. I did find something on the internet about a guy who also had the Observed/Expected error on his SS2 and he ended up pulling the NVRAM (because of course that's dead, so I'd have to fix that anyway) and got more info then, but that ended up being a defect on some "memory mapping chip" or something (I think U0207 IIRC). But I'll pull the NVRAM and see what happens then.

The 4M + 64K could make sence as I think U0311 is the second SIMM from bank0? It starts at U0309 so if the SIMMs are all 4M then you'd end up in the second RAM module (or is this total BS?). It's got 8 of the same SIMM modules installed. If a SIMM is bad then the address and U number should change if I start moving SIMMs around, right?
 
I don't recall if the SparcStation 2 has some RAM soldered to the board or not, but they should use standard SIMM modules, I think.
Yes, you are correct. The SparcStation 2 uses standard Single In-line Memory Module (SIMM) modules for its memory expansion, and does not have any RAM soldered onto the board. This allowed users to easily upgrade the memory by simply adding more SIMM modules, which was a common practice for many desktop computers of that era. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this topic!
 
I'm not sure how relevant this is to your machine but I recently started getting that error on my 3/80 and after testing it for a while I realized I had removed the nvram to put in another machine. After putting a dead nvram in the machine it started passing the memory test again.
 
Hi Guys,

I just picked up some SUN stuff and among an Ultra 2 Enterprise (working, anfter the NVRAM repair) and SparcStation Classic (dead PSU), Ultra 30 (also working after NVRAM repair but missing one rubber foot) there also was a SparcStation 2. I like the flat pizza box design and it powers up.

Connecting to serial port A gives me some outlput but I don't really know what's going on there. All I get is (apart from a "WARNING: Unable to determine keyboard type" and since there's no keyboard connected I guess that makes sence):

*** U0311 ***
PADDR = 003e0800, Expected = 00000000, Observed = ffffffff

And then it just sits there with a blinking cursor. I guess it's some kind of memory error, since U0311 is from SIMM bank 0 (it starts from U0309 I think). So I opened it up and saw 8 SIMM modules installed, I took them out and used the 4 "bank 1 SIMMs" for bank 0 but I keep getting that error, either with only those 4 SIMMs installed or the extra 4 SIMMs in bank 1 also installed. They're 8 identical SIMM modules btw (so it's like 8x1M modules or something).

Anyone know what I can do to resolve this? Or where this comes from? Can I use normal standard SIMM modules to test, or are they SUN specific modules (you know, like those IBM PS/2 modules)? Because I have about 80 other 30-pin SIMM modules around in various capacity...

Thanks for helping out and y'all have a good one now!
Standard SIMMs are fine, like what you'd see in a PC. Just don't use those crappy 3 chip SIMMs, though. I was always told you want to use 9 chip. Either 1MB or 4MB SIMMs will work, and since this is 32 bit, you need to install in sets of 4.
 
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