http://www.squirrel.com/squirrel/sun-nvram-hostid.faq.html was bookmarked
by John Tomaszewski and Steve McKenna and tells you all you need to know
about Sun non-volatile RAM and what to do when things go bad. Bill Kearney
and Charlie Fry both mentioned that the battery that supports the PROM is
probably in need of replacement. In short, the problem got solved because I
tried Rolf Kyburz's suggestion before reading the above:
With power off to computer, hold down Stop-n while powering back up. (This
requires three hands on a U5.) The display says "Resetting NVRAM defaults
because of L1-N command." and a little later "Setting NVRAM parameters to
default values."
It says again as before "The IDPROM contents are invalid." and "Invalid
format code in IDprom." but then the system DOES come up. I do suspect a
weak battery, because my main 500 MHz user left SIU before the holidays, we
had six power outages scheduled during the semester break, so I did not
repower the system for a long time until the last outage was done.
Thanks to John, Steve, Bill, Charlie, and Rolf. I think I will print and
file that FAQ.
Bill
William C. Stevens, Ph.D. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility
Director Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901-4405
618-453-6498 voice
618-453-6408 fax wstevens_at_siu.edu
http://opie.nmr.siu.edu
Received on Wed Jan 19 2005 - 18:58:22 MST