I have a NeXTstation TurboColor with an ADB Soundbox and a original 21" NeXT Color Monitor.
I have a fresh installed NeXTSTEP 3.3 on a 1 GB hard disk.
When I boot the system it is fine for about 10 minutes then the keyboard and mouse show issues. Keystrokes are not taken over and at the same time the mouse does not react. Then it starts to work for some moments and hangs again.
This also happens, if I exchange the original black keyboard with a ADB Apple keyboard and mouse.
While I do have a brand new installation of NeXTSTEP 3.3 with the latest patches only, I doubt that it is the OS itself.
In my opinion there are only two options: The soundbox or the soundbox cable to monitor and the slab.
Has anybody seen this before and knows a solution?
Thanks,
Roland
You're right, the soundbox or cable is the first thing to look at. Hard to verify without a second cable to try though.
However, since it works for a while after turning on, it could be heat related too. Is the fan inside the station working?
you might want to read this article. maybe it will point into the right direction...
http://www.jax184.com/projects/NeXT/NeXT.html
I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but I would also give all the surface mounted capacitors a close look. If the behaviour is erratic it could be caused by excessive electrical noise. Noise will be excessive if the capacitor filtering is compromised. Capacitors are also sensitive to operating temperatures, etc...
Thanks for all the quick and valuable answers.
It must be temperature related. I placed the slab in a way it has a better air circulation and moved the monitor off the top.
I could run the slab for many hours without issues - only after 6 hours of heavy load the keyboard wasn't responsive anymore. A hard power reset solved the issue.
The fan is very noisy, so I am thinking about replacing it with a stronger one that isn't as loud as the current one (I fear messing around with the capacitors etc).
Any good recommendations for fans ?
t-rexky has a very nice fan in his turbo slab ->
http://www.flickr.com/photos/t-rexky/6795369812/in/set-72157629117909298/it looks as if this is an Arctic Cooling F8 Pro.
at some point you will have to replace the capacitors, there's no way around this. they have a limited lifetime...
Thanks!
I wish I would be skilled enough to replace them by myself :-)
Just wanted to leave a comment that my NeXTstation Turbo Color is running great again.
When I ran into issues once more, I removed the mouse and suddenly everything was fine. I replaced it with another one and even after a day of usage, there have been no issues anymore.
---
Second question: I have a (non-turbo) slab as well and tried the ADB Soundbox + Keyboard + Mouse and couldn't get them working. (ROM version = 2.4)
Looks like I need the latest version of the ROM to make this work:
http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2762&highlight=rom.How / where can I get the latest version on EEPROM?
Thanks!
huh, interesting. I would never have guessed that the mouse could have been the culprit...
now to your question (answer taken from here)
http://heller.userweb.mwn.de/NeXT/HW_internal_FAQ.txtaccording to this
http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2173 a v71 ROM will work, too.
Subject: L8. How to convert a Turbo system to use ADB?
[From: Brad_Sime@NeXT.COM (Brad Sime)]
If ADB equipment are used with older NeXT systems they won't work properly.
Here are the ADB requiments:
a) A Turbo computer.
b) CPU eprom version 74.
c) New revision computer to soundbox/monitor cable. The part
number is molded at both ends of the connector:
Cable NEW OLD (Non ADB)
NeXTcube 4534 150
NeXTstation 4535 1532
NeXTstation color 4536 2286
d) New revision monitor which uses a vertical scan rate of 72hz
instead of 68hz, except on NeXTdimension systems color monitor
stays 68hz.
Monitor NEW (72hz) OLD (68hz)
17" mono ACX (N4000b) AAA (N4000a & N4000)
17" color ADF (N4006) ABG (N4001)
21" color ADB (N4005a) ABH (N4005)
e) ADB soundbox for color sytems. S/N prefix ADD instead of ABN.
In essence: I won't be able to run my non-turbo slab with ADB.
I built the v74 from my Turbo into the older slab. After turning it on, not even the monitor was showing a thing.
Anyway: wanted to tell that this form rocks and you guys rock. Great, fast and accurate information!!!
THANKS a mil