Sun Ultra 10 won't boot

[DarkSky]

My father just brought home a gently used Sun Microsystems Ultra 10 for me to use for whatever I want. I believe it has Solaris 8 on it. I hooked up the keyboard, monitor, and the power and flipped the on switch. It started booting; the fan turned on, it hit the disk drive, and the keyboard lights flashed.

But nothing else happened. The screen stayed blank and never displayed any error messages or anything of the sort. After about a minute it makes a noise like it's rebooting and starts the process again. I'm not using the power cable that came with the computer, though I don't think that it should really matter; it's a standard issue power cable. Other than that, could it possibly be a hardware problem? Any help is greatly appreciated and thanked in advance.

 

[DarkSky]

Whoops...double post.

 

[neonerd]

idk, but i had a similar problem after overclocking, and the problem was my mobo...however, it may also be the video card, welcome to AT btw

EDIT: I might have an extra card depending on what kind it can take...check if it has an AGP Slot, and i might be able to give u one...lmk

 

[DarkSky]

Well, there is no video card - it's on board.

 

[ProviaFan]

For one, I don't think you can overclock Sun hardware at all. Heck, it doesn't even have a BIOS; rather, it uses something called OpenFirmware (the best way that I can describe it without knowing the details is that it's sort of like a limited version of a UNIX shell that's designed to do something similar to what a BIOS does, and more).

Also, Sun hardware typically uses some other form of graphics slot (can't remember the acronym right now). It's not AGP, and it's definitely not compatible with AGP either.

Until our Sun experts that have actually used Sun hardware get in here (I've just read about them, so ignore what I'm saying ), I'd wonder what kind of monitor it is that you're using on the system. Is it one that came with it, or is it a CRT that is attached with an adapter? I'm thinking it might be an issue of the Sun needing a slightly different (and incompatible) type of monitor, or perhaps it's a case where the system was set up as a server, where it just sent boot messages to the serial port, neglecting the monitor entirely.

Edit: BTW, just noticed that these are your very first posts. Welcome to the AT Forums.

 

[DerMonkeyhauser]

If you can, try unplugging the keyboard (which makes it POST over the serial port) and hooking up a serial cable (with a null-modem adapter) to Serial Port A on it. Set Hyperterminal to 9600 N/8/1 and see if it gives any boot messages. If it doesn't, send a break command down the serial line every couple of seconds until it gives you an OpenFirmware prompt.