[rescue] Sun Voyager: a) great story b) repair question c) looking for a new home

[Andrew Back]

Hi Walter,

That is indeed an interesting story.

I would be interested. I'm located in the UK and could arrange DHL
collection, assuming it's well packed.

Regards,

Andrew

On 03/11/2021 16:21, Walter Belgers wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Some Sun SPARCstation Voyager (SS240) stuff:
>
> Great story
>
> I got a mail from a lady who said she had a Sun Voyager in her attic,
stashed
> away for 20+ years, not knowing what to do with it. She found my website
and
> contacted me and we got mailing. She said her late husband got it when he
left
> his company (Philips) some 15~20 years ago. It was a gift from his
colleagues.
> So far, nothing very interesting. Until she mentioned the system had
belonged
> to Frank P. Carrubba.
>
> Frank Carrubba, (co?-)inventor of RISC, worked at IBM and HP and then
became
> CTO for Philips (1991-1997). I happened to work at the IT division of
Philips
> from 1994-2000, which was at the time on the same campus where the board of
> directors were. We once got a call from Frank asking "the IT people" to
help
> him in setting up this new Voyager he got as a present from Scott McNealey.
So
> me and a colleague went over and helped him (I can't remember what we did
> exactly).
>
> Fast forward 25 years and this exact same system turns up in an attic close
to
> where I live! The lady was wondering what to do with it. She had seen that
> Voyagers are quite expensive on eBay. I suggested I could have a look at
the
> specs and to see if it was in working order and she agreed. A change to see
> the thing again!
>
>
> Repair question
>
> This was a nice trigger to take the Voyagers in my collection to see if
they
> still worked. I have three. One is a black&white (bwtwo) Voyager. When I
got
> it, I was disappointed that it was not the colour version, but I now
believe
> that the black and white version is rarer. This one has a 810MB drive, 80MB
> RAM and runs Solaris 2.6. The NVRAM has an empty battery but other than
that
> it works and is complete with keyboard/mouse/cables/carrying case.
> Then I have a colour version that I got from a Sun employee. Cosmetically
very
> nice, comes with original documentation, carrying case etc. 810MB drive,
80MB
> RAM and I fixed the NVRAM battery.
>
> And then there's another colour Voyager with 810MB drive, 64MB memory and
all
> the accessories (and empty NVRAM battery). Now this one did not seem to
boot,
> nothing on the screen. I hooked up a serial terminal that showed it was
> working. I then attached an external monitor which also worked. I opened it
> up, reseated the video plugs on the mainboard and the screen connector, but
> that didn't help. I can't see any obvious problems.
> Question: is there an obvious cause for LCD failures / are there easy ways
to
> troubleshoot/repair this? The repair guide says: just replace the LCD. That
> will be hard..
>
>
> Looking for a new home
>
> I just got back from going to the nice lady. I wonder if Frank is still
> around, I couldn't find any address/email info. The system booted (slowly:
the
> NVRAM battery was also empty of course). The systems looks in good working
> order and also has all the hardware that normally comes with it (no
> documentation however). This Voyager only has the 340MB drive and 64MB of
RAM.
> It booted into Solaris 2.5 but wanted a password. I just cracked it, I now
> know Frank's favourite band. The hostname was "patricia" and I found on the
> net that Frank was married to Patricia, so that matches the story.
>
> Solaris 2.5 came out November 1995, 2.6 in July 1997. So it will have
probably
> been 1996 that my colleague and I installed Solaris on it. Nothing else was
on
> the harddrive. It looks like it was installed, Frank set the root password
and
> since 1996 is has never been used again. At the first boot, the file
systems
> were clean, so it must have last been booted by Frank, as he knew the root
> password (the only user on the system).
>
> Anyway, she was not wanting to put the system back in the attic. But she
would
> like some money for it. I normally don't pay for Suns, I'd rather
trade/swap,
> but of course she's not waiting for another Sun :) It was therefore not
> donated to me. Instead, she would like me to find somebody that appreciates
it
> and pay a reasonable amount for it, not as much as some Voayagers go for
> nowadays. Is anybody here interested in obtaining this Voyager? Mind you,
you
> mind end up with my other Voayager with 64MB/340MB, because I would like to
> keep the actual system that has the special story attached. In that case,
> you'd get a 64MB/340MB/CG6/Sol2.6/extra's/working NVRAM battery. Shipping
(or
> pickup) will be from the Netherlands.
>
> Cheers,
> Walter.
> --
> Walter Belgers
> walter at belge.rs -=- https://belge.rs/
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