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Power supply glitch?
Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2020 6:36 pm
by Hypex
Hi guys.
Tonight I encountered a glitch. I had switched off my X1000 and came back to switch it on later. In the mean time I had left the power on running to the PSU. I pressed the on switch on the case and nothing happened. This was unusual. I tried a few more times and nothing. I was worried the PSU had fried. The monitor was getting power as the standby light was flashing.
I turned off the power. Waited about 15 seconds. Then turned it back on. Tried to switch on the X1000 again. It worked! Been fine for now.
I also encountered another glitch earlier today. I needed to reset but the case reset didn't function. Took a few presses before it worked. This hasn't happened before. It's possible there could be a mechanical problem developing with the switches. Has anyone encountered these types of glitches?
Re: Power supply glitch?
Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2020 7:07 pm
by Raziel
Yes, check your battery.
All kind of weird symptomatics encountered with a drained or faulty battery (turn on/off, hard/soft reset etc.) until i replaced it.
Re: Power supply glitch?
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2020 4:35 pm
by Hypex
I've got some new ones somewhere. I don't recall how long it's been since I last replaced it. Now I just worry about losing the variables.
Re: Power supply glitch?
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2020 4:51 pm
by Raziel
Use "NVGetVar" from a Shell to save your settings, print them and retype/save them (if necessary)
Also, try to get your hands on a BR2032 (instead of a CR2032).
They don't drain as much and don't lose their voltage as fast.
I got one in my X since over 5 years now and never ever had a problem with shaky battery again.
(Thanks to lylehaze for the hint).
They are pretty hard to get unfortunately (at least around here), electronic stores (probably not amazon) should have them in stock, though.
from
here:
BR2032 battery is another non-rechargeable 3V lithium battery featuring Carbon monofluoride as positive electrode (cathode), organic electrolyte and lithium as negative electrode (anode).
br2032 panasonic
BR2032 are not as common as CR2032 and the manufacturers that do make them, label them simply 'BR2032'.
BR2032 nominal capacity is 3 volts, with open circuit voltage of 3.1 volts and nominal capacity of 180-190 mAh.
BR2032 are known for having slightly lower initial voltage than CR2032, but their voltage over time is much more stable. Also, their self-discharge rate is extremely low, down or even lower than 0.5% per year at 140°F (60°C) and even less at the lower temperatures, making these batteries common choice for motherboards and some watches.
Operating temperature of BR2032 varies on the model, but generally it is between -13°F (-25°C; or even lower) and 185°F (85°C).
On the other hand, discharge currents of BR2032 batteries should be kept very low, with standard discharge current around 30 μA (0.03 mA).
Re: Power supply glitch?
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 5:20 pm
by Hypex
Thanks Raziel.
I think that was it. I replaced the battery. The old one measured 1.3 volts. Now wonder I was getting trouble. The only thing it didn't cause was the black screen of death. Even though it did start to delay on bootup after reset.
Thanks for passing on the BR2032 info as well. Good to know.
My NV settings survived. I swapped them as quick as possible. But man was that battery a motherfudger to get out! They could have at least put the slots in a place where you can pry it out. Slots at the top so you push the battery out AGAINST the holding strap? Seriously?!
There is no PCIe clip to hold down a graphic card. The SATA ports aren't the best quality. But the battery is designed to not comes out. Sometimes I wonder. I really do.
I think it might be a good idea if a CFE backup and restore program was around!
Re: Power supply glitch?
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:44 am
by Raziel
Great to hear you got it fixed
Yeah, some of the design choices are ... questionable.
I faintly remember that there was such a program with my XE.
It even came as part of the early 4.0 OS tools.
I think the author left and the program was taken out from the tools later again.
It was an early editor where you could load and save the Uboot vars, quite handy back then.
Not sure if it even possible to write to the firmwares eprom from with the OS, guess not
Re: Power supply glitch?
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:55 pm
by nbache
Raziel wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:44 amI faintly remember that there was such a program with my XE.
It even came as part of the early 4.0 OS tools.
NVGetVar. On the XE et al there was only the program to read the NV vars.
For the Sams, ACube had also made an NVSetVar program, but it only works there.
Still, it is also useful just to run NVGetVar and redirect the result to a file (save it on another machine!) or a printer, so you can later check/correct the variables in case of trouble.
It was an early editor where you could load and save the Uboot vars, quite handy back then.
Ah, maybe you mean the UBoot "prefs" program. Yeah, it had, IIRC, a number of problems, not to mention it had to be changed whenever someone dreamt up a new NV variable. I think it was simply deemed too much trouble for its worth. After all, you still had the UBoot menus as well as the above method.
Best regards,
Niels
Re: Power supply glitch?
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:49 pm
by Raziel
@nbache
Yep, it was even called "UBootPrefs".
I think it was stupid to drop it that early.
Granted, new vars meant adapting, but isn't this what a program is all about?
Fix, it, enhance it, care for it?
It wasn't long after the drop when UBoot started to act up and no one was around anymore to fix obvious bugs.
Back then, there also was a freely available (for non-beta folk) bug tracker and i posted at least one big UBoot entry with lots of bugs, which hasn't been fixed ever since (i believe, forgot where the bug tracker were)
Re: Power supply glitch?
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:19 pm
by nbache
Actually, the UBoot prefs program didn't have anything to do with the UBoot code itself.
The NV variables (also known as "UBoot variables") it could maintain are simply values kept in the Non-Volatile RAM (NVRam), which happens to be also available to the UBoot code. But most of them were (are) used for controlling stuff which goes on later in the boot process, such as in the IDE and other drivers and the kernel command line.
UBoot doesn't care which variables are defined and which values they have (more or less; some of them define command lines for starting various boot processes and are executed - quasi blindly - by UBoot, but IIRC those weren't available in the prefs program anyway?).
So in fact the name of the program itself was a bit misleading.
Best regards,
Niels
Re: Power supply glitch?
Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 8:10 am
by Hypex
nbache wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:55 pm]Ah, maybe you mean the UBoot "prefs" program. Yeah, it had, IIRC, a number of problems, not to mention it had to be changed whenever someone dreamt up a new NV variable. I think it was simply deemed too much trouble for its worth. After all, you still had the UBoot menus as well as the above method.
Best regards,
Niels
I used UBoot Prefs for years without major trouble., It was a useful tool for the user. When ever UBoot settings came up in forums and especially DMA drive settings, the first thing I would recommend is UBoot Prefs. As you can see and set the settings without fiddling around in UBoot entering cryptic numbers. The internal UBoot menu didn't allow to do this. It was useful in other ways.