[rescue] Help with Sun 3's

[Mike Spooner]

RAM "stiction" can be a damned nuisance. I'd first try the usual mechanical
methods of loosening the unwanted metal-metal bond between the pads and the
slot-pins:
1. Rock the SIMMs back-and-forth just a bit, for as long as you can put up
with (15 minutes). Not as mush rock-angle as if you are taking them out,
rather just a few degrees each way, and don't force anything, and don't
"flex" the SIMMs.
2. *Gently* tap the top edge of the SIMMs with the smooth side of a
teaspoon, starting from one end and working to the other.

There are also some specialist sprays that can loosen and detach such
copper/gold-copper metal-migration bondage, but be careful, it's not the
stuff you would find in a hardware store.

Regards,
Mike

On Wed, 2 Jan 2019 at 16:33, Daniel Salive <two32 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Well, I went through all the 3's I have and I only managed to get one
> actually
> up and running, even after swapping boards around between known good PSU's
> and
> etc.  The one that does work does run perfectly though, and allowed me to
> test
> my monitor so at least I know I've got ONE system here.
>
> I would really like to try and get some more of these working, two of my
> friends had expressed interest in one and they're too cool to just let die.
>
> All the rest have one of 3 different issues:
>
> Memory errors/Memory Path errors (most of them)
> All 8 lights lit/RESET indicator lit/nothing output even to terminal
> or no power at all/dead PSU, but even those machines when swapping the
> board
> to another one that works, still have either memory issues or the reset
> indicator lit.
>
> I was going to try testing memory, but I ran into another issue right away!
> Pulling the ram on these is diffcult.  There's a special tool online, but I
> don't think that it would solve my problem completely - at least not by
> itself.  It seems that the contacts stick to the SIMMS extremely well, and
> removing the sims even gently and straight up has a good chance of damaging
> the contacts.  Not wanting to ruin potentially irreplaceable board parts, I
> stopped after removing only two sticks.  I have thought about inserting
> some
> really thin shim stock (like 0.003") between the ram and the contact to get
> them out, but I'm not sure if that'll work and there's not enough room to
> do
> that in all the slots, but it's an idea.  Anyone else have any ideas?
>
> Also, anyone know how to test lots of parity 30 pin simms, without using
> something with easy to damage slots?
>
> Thanks again for all the help!
>
> --Daniel
>
>
>
> >> Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2018 20:04:25 +0000
> >> From: Daniel Salive <two32 at hotmail.com>
> > >Subject: Re: [rescue] Help with Sun 3's
> >>
> > >Tried with one of the 3/60's as well and got a similar result, though
> it's
> > >reporting many memory errors.  But at least I got it to talk to
> something!
> >>
> >
> >You could set the memory configuration jumpers to 4MB, and remove all but
> 4
> >of the DIMMS. Then cycle the sets of 4 DIMMS through the first 4 sockets
> to
> >find the good and bad ones.
> >
> >--
> >Michael Thompson
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