So, I now have a NeXTcube Turbo with 2 dimension cards in it. VERY cool! Although I would like to add my NON adb NeXT Megapixel to the mix, I need to figure out an odd issue I have where I can't get the system booted (hard drive errors) when both monitors are turned on and then the Cube started.
I am getting this error at startup...
READ: sdcmd bad state: 0
I get this 4 times (the drive is a 4GB it appears partitioned in 4 partitions by previous owner). The the NeXT> shows up and the booting stops. Up until the above error comes up it tells me on screen it is waiting for the drive to come ready. Then shows the READ error 4 times and halts.
I have qty two 21" NeXT monitors connected to the NeXTdimension cards. 1 has 16MB RAM and 1 has 64MB RAM. If I turn on only the monitor connected to the 64MB NeXTdimension card, and leave the other monitor off at first, I can get the system to boot. I don't see any text on the screen during start and is appears it is showing on the NeXTdimension 16MB monitor instead. What I have been doing is start the Cube, then wait for about 20 seconds or so, then turn on the 2nd 21" monitor, and I can see the test booting on that screen. It boots and I am in.
Now, if I add the 17" non ADB monitor to the mix using non ADB mouse and keyboard, I get the above READ error and I can't get past that. Since I can't turn off the mono monitor, and it starts up no matter what, the Cube does not like it that another display is also on at same time and she halts up. I have tried leaving both 21" off but other than the white screen on mono display, it does not boot. I turn on the NeXT display that gets the boot text and it shows the READ error and NeXT prompt like before.
I guess right now the only way I can get 2 displays and booted is only have the two 21" monitors connected and a particular one on at started to boot.
Odd to me. So, is this a Hard Drive issue that the drive is waiting to come ready and never does with certain monitors on and connected or a power issue in the Cube or the way NeXtdimensions can have quirks??
tj
By the way, the hard drive is spinning up when monitor is on at boot but I get this waiting on drive message anyway. To boot, I need to really leave both displays off and then wait to hear the drive really working and then I turn on monitors and it works. So, that is not an option when I add the mono monitor to the mix. Tj