EB5AGV's Workbench: Hewlett-Packard 16702A repair
A beautiful Logic Analyzer
Hewlett-Packard 16702A
This page is devoted to my Hewlett-Packard 16702A logic analyzer mainframe.
It is '99 unit (S/N US3911xxxx), Option 003 (160MB RAM, 4MB VIDEO RAM, 1600x1200 external VGA monitor) and was refurbished by HP on 2000.
I got it at eBay as an 'as-is' unit, with a known fault in the display section. Seller put a couple pictures of it working on an external monitor. As unit had no modules on it, only tests which were done to the unit were internal tests. All of them were OK.
I hope you enjoy the pictures and comments on this page!
Unit as received (10-March-2008)
Here you have some pictures of the logic analyzer.
As soon as I got it, I tried to power it . Fans started to run, power LED started to blink... but nothing happened. I had connected an external VGA monitor which said that frequency was out of range. Nice :-(!
So I opened it:
Construction is very nice, as all HP gear I have ever seen. Here you have some more internal pictures:
This is the SCSI module:
And this is the CPU (a 150MHz RISC):
This is the interface board:
And this is the Seagate 4.3GB SCSI hard disk:
Here you can see a CPU detail. Small plug-in circuit at the top right is the parallel printer interface:
This is a detail of the front panel keyboard. The unit can use an external keyboard (PC type) and also a mouse (PS/2). Both keyboards work same time, which is a good thing:
Preliminary works (10-March-2008)
Going back to the problem, I tried different approaches to the non-startup problem, removing some plug-in cards, memory and so on. Nothing helped until I removed the SCSI card. Once done, on next attempt, system booted!!!. Of course, only ROM booted, as there is no other storage unit. But, what is better, INTERNAL DISPLAY WORKED, and I got also, same time, external display. GREAT!!!
I continued working on the unit and wrote my advances to the hp-agilent Yahoogroup:
I have good news and bad news...
Good news is that I have got the system booting from the internal SCSI hard disk :-)!. What I have done is to reset some system parameters (just judging by their names as I have no manual...) and then reconnect the SCSI module. After some trying, I have got system booting and starting the 'X-Windows' (or whatever that system is). Everything seemed OK up to this point...
But then come the bad news: I have taken the only 16700 compatible card I have, a 16550A, from my 16500A mainframe. And, powering up again, the 16702A does not find the card (it says there is a problem accessing the backplane or with the drivers). I guess that was the real reason for this mainframe to be trashed, as I got it without modules, in 'as-is' condition and from a non technical person (who probably found it in a garbage pile)
There is still some hope it is just a matter of software... so, please, any hint about this will be more than welcomed!
Well, sometimes these things happen :-(
Regards,
JOSE
Some hours later, I had got more info:
Hello!
Well, I have some more info which, I hope, could help in the repair (which _could be_ a matter of software... read below)
I have found an error message when system is booting:
UNKNOWN NIO CARD TYPE 0xA8
Also, when I try to run the SELF TEST from the analyzer software, I get this:
CANNOT OPEN BACKPLANE DEVICE DRIVER!
So it seems that there is a missing driver which could prevent the detection of the plug-in 16550A module, am I right?
Installed software and versions are:
HP1660X-70XA A.02.90.00
PROC_SUPPORT A.02.90.00
I have ordered a free (great service Agilent, thanks!) CD-ROM with the last version of the 16700 software. Now I need to find and connect an SCSI CD-ROM (I have one from an old PC I found in the trash close to my work and also some from old Macs; cable is another matter)
Please, any hint welcomed!
Regards,
JOSE
Some further works (12-March-2008)
After some more struggle, I modified the LAN parameters as, curiously, what was configured by default was a 100MB/s LAN card which my 16702A does not support. So I selected the 10MB/s LAN option... and then system booted fine AND recognized the HP-16550A card :-)
Once I checked everything was OK, I replaced my HP-16500A with it:
Checking the analyzer (13-March-2008)
I was curious about the included Netscape software... and also about the LAN connection. I put a cable to my router, selected DHCP, rebooted analyzer and got it connected to Internet!. Here you have my WEB page on the 16702A display:
And a nice surprise... it has Adobe PDF reader (v4.0) installed!
Well, now it was time to check the acquisition... so I connected the analyzer to a couple digital lines on a Tektronix 2465B I am working on:
Success!!!