A4000T appears to be dead

[X-ray]

@ PaSha

If you were a woman I would kiss you, mate!!!!

 :banana:  :banana:  :banana:

You nailed the first half of my problem exactly.

For the benefit of any poor sod other than myself, this is what happened:

The PPC card has its own plastic spacers, but the spacers on this card were so loose that they came off very easily. However the spacers on the A4000T motherboard are 'dug in like Alabama ticks'...I didn't have any reason to suspect that the mobo spacers were of a different length, so I installed the card on those spacers. And that is why I had no boot (on most occasions). I will post pictures of this problem, to save some other ignorant SOB the same woes as I have had in the past few days.

I have now pulled the A4KT spacers out (was like pulling the teeth of a granite gorgoyle) and installed the loose PPC board spacers. I'll have to get a special adhesive to (non-permanently) secure these spacers.

Of course, this all makes sense now because the 030 card doesn't rest on any spacers, that's why it worked most of the time. Add to this the other variables of SCSI cables unplugged, IDE cables plugged/unplugged, (insert any variable you like here) and there are quite a few variables and its not surprising I didn't spot the problem. I was doomed to failure because of the spacers. When I checked that the CPU card was properly seated, I checked the alignment of the two connectors, and they were exactly aligned. I didn't look at the case from the other angle to see if the CPU card wasn't parallel to the mobo: after-all, I thought if the spacer ends were secure to the mobo and the CPU card, and the edges of the connectors were flush, it must have been secure, yes??? And from the top, the CPU card looked flush and secure: the focus was on the connector, not the other side of the card.

Ha!!

Seecond problem: (nobody here would have guessed, it was my own fault) when I finally had the CPU card properly seated (just by luck/pressure) I had several no-boot problems if SCSI 2 devices were attached. I had to boot from the PPC UW drive because I didn't have the proper OS installed on the SCSI 2 drives: I had been booting from a CF card that had OS3.1 on it before I got the PPC.
Bottom line: I checked SCSI IDs, boot priorities, and got the machine to boot, but not all drives were visible on the Workbench, although they were seen by HDToolbox. That's when I realised it was a filesystem problem and remembered that the 'problem drives' were SFS.

DOH!!!!

Installed SFS...and all is well.

I think I will entitle this little incident "X-ray's folly"

An amusing tale, now that the facts are known  :-)

[Doobrey]

X-ray wrote:
I think I will entitle this little incident "X-ray's folly"

An amusing tale, now that the facts are known  :-)

Isn`t it {bleeping} annoying when it turns out to be something so ruddy simple as a bit of plastic! :pissed:

[X-ray]

@ Doobrey

Highly annoying, especially when the difference in length between the two spacers is less than  3mm !!!!!

[Ancalimon]

it must be the power supply and or the p8 and p9 connectors on the mainboard that connects to power supply.

[X-ray]

@ Fallen One

The problem was spacers (see earlier posts)

I tested the PSU when all this happened, because I have a spare.

[Argo]

Your photo's are now in the Gallery.

CPU Card Spacers (X-ray's Folly Part 1)

PPC/060 and A4000T Spacers (X-ray's Folly Part 2)

I was wondering what was up with the comparison photos.

[X-ray]

@ Argo

The comparison photos show how the CPU card is tilted (see the edge of the card relative to the tops of the chips on the mobo or the white text box) if the original spacers are used, but is parallel to the mobo if Phase 5 spacers are used.