Well, well, well. Good news and bad news.
First, Sonnet, bless them, said they would still honour the warranty even though it was technically out of it. They said, though, they were totally out of the 1.8GHz cards and would I take a 1.6? Yes, yes, yes! So I printed out the RMA form and intended to send it in tomorrow.
Tonight I sat down at my workstation to do some more Classilla work on the MDD with the 1.25GHz card which was of Sunday working. And ... it didn't power up again. I got really suspicious.
Some testing on the workbench indicated the power supply had utterly died (not uncommon in MDDs -- the first time, mind you, since I bought this box new in December 2002). I got out my spare from the lockup and pulled the power supply from it, installed it, and it fired up normally with the 1.25GHz card.
So I got really, really suspicious and got the Sonnet back out of the shipping box and put it back in. It works!
Bizarre that the first symptom of a bogus power supply would be, apparently, the accelerator card not working. I guess it was just enough to push it over the edge, yet still work okay (at least for a couple days) with the old card. I'm going to burn it in for a couple days and if it still seems to be working, I'll call off the RMA. I would like, however, to say a BIG thank you to Sonnet. Their customer service has always been flawless. Here is another example.
This does mean I'm out of trustworthy spare parts, though, so I'll be in the market very soon for a replacement dual 1.25GHz MDD FW400 as a standby if anyone's selling. I guarantee it will be going to a good home and to good use (keeping Classilla builds and other classic software projects rolling). I'll post a formal WTB when I've confirmed that the power supply was the actual issue, but people are free to PM me if they have one they're willing to sell. It should be intact and in reasonably good physical condition because it may be swapped out entirely while I work on the other unit.
First, Sonnet, bless them, said they would still honour the warranty even though it was technically out of it. They said, though, they were totally out of the 1.8GHz cards and would I take a 1.6? Yes, yes, yes! So I printed out the RMA form and intended to send it in tomorrow.
Tonight I sat down at my workstation to do some more Classilla work on the MDD with the 1.25GHz card which was of Sunday working. And ... it didn't power up again. I got really suspicious.
Some testing on the workbench indicated the power supply had utterly died (not uncommon in MDDs -- the first time, mind you, since I bought this box new in December 2002). I got out my spare from the lockup and pulled the power supply from it, installed it, and it fired up normally with the 1.25GHz card.
So I got really, really suspicious and got the Sonnet back out of the shipping box and put it back in. It works!
Bizarre that the first symptom of a bogus power supply would be, apparently, the accelerator card not working. I guess it was just enough to push it over the edge, yet still work okay (at least for a couple days) with the old card. I'm going to burn it in for a couple days and if it still seems to be working, I'll call off the RMA. I would like, however, to say a BIG thank you to Sonnet. Their customer service has always been flawless. Here is another example.
This does mean I'm out of trustworthy spare parts, though, so I'll be in the market very soon for a replacement dual 1.25GHz MDD FW400 as a standby if anyone's selling. I guarantee it will be going to a good home and to good use (keeping Classilla builds and other classic software projects rolling). I'll post a formal WTB when I've confirmed that the power supply was the actual issue, but people are free to PM me if they have one they're willing to sell. It should be intact and in reasonably good physical condition because it may be swapped out entirely while I work on the other unit.