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Conference bgsdev::open3d

Title:open3d
Notice:Kits on notes 3 and 4; Documents note 223
Moderator:WRKSYS::COULTER
Created:Wed Dec 09 1992
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1306
Total number of notes:5260

1244.0. "Powersave problem??" by NETRIX::"plessas@mail.dec.com" (John Plessas) Wed Feb 12 1997 18:35

My customer has some AlphaStation 500 workstations that were all apparently 
dead when they came in on Friday morning Jan 31, 1997.  The screen was black
and any mouse movement, keyboard activity, or even powering off and on the
monitor would not bring the screen back.  The systems were still running
though as you could rlogin to them, which my customer did to reboot them. It
appeared to be some kind of powersave problem.

Apparently, according to the customer, this is repeatable by setting the 
time back to Jan 31, 1997 3:15 AM and waiting for about 3 minutes.  I am
currently trying to get some more info on this, e.g. does restarting the X 
server fix the problem, etc.

The configurations of the machines experiencing the problem are:
        AlphaStation 500 (I'm currently trying to find out if it is
                          limited to 500/333 500/400 or 500/500.  They
                          have all 3 configs)
        PowerStorm 4D40T
        Monitor: VRC21-WA
        Digital UNIX V4.0a
        Open3D V4.1

Has anyone seen anything like this before?  I've seen other references 
to powersave hangs, but no resolutions.  Is this Open3D related or 
should I be looking elsewhere?

        
Thanx
John
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1244.1WRKSYS::COULTERIf this typewriter can't do it, ...Wed Feb 12 1997 23:219
    The other screen-saver problems had to do with blink,
    not "never coming back".  This is a new one.
    
    What are the MONITOR's settings?  Are you using CDE?
    And have you asked for the power-save settings in
    the utilities?  Is the monitor actually *in* it's
    power-down mode, or is the screen just "blanked"?
    
    
1244.2I'll try to get more infoNETRIX::"plessas@mail.dec.com"John PlessasThu Feb 13 1997 15:2629
>>  The other screen-saver problems had to do with blink,
>>  not "never coming back".  This is a new one.

I guess this sounded to me like the problem described in note 1770 of
the alphastation conference (and other notes 1770 refers to).  The customer
rebooted to get the screen back.
    
>>  What are the MONITOR's settings? 

I'll try to get them and post them here

>>  Are you using CDE?

Yes

>>  And have you asked for the power-save settings in
>>  the utilities?

I'm not sure what you are referring to here.  Could you elaborate?

>>  Is the monitor actually *in* it's
>>  power-down mode, or is the screen just "blanked"?

Will try to verify.  Since I'm not on site, do you know the best way I
can have the customer verify this?   
    
John

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1244.3more info from customerNETRIX::"plessas@mail.dec.com"John PlessasFri Feb 21 1997 13:2319
One of the system managers at the customer site provided this description
of what happened:

     
     I actually was late that day, and most were back up by the time I got 
     here.  All of our 500's were 'blanked' - the screens were dark like a 
     screen saver and the system would not wake up regardless of how many 
     buttons and or keys you pressed.  You could rlogin or telnet in from 
     another host, however.  Someone in the group logged in to each one and 
     rebooted them and they came up fine.  However, one person left their 
     workstation up so I could poke around, which I did, remotely.  What I 
     found was about 5 proccess running the dtlock and dtscreen blank type 
     command and they seemed to respawn no matter how fast I killed them.  
     They would die, but very quickly would restart.  Nothing I did could 
     break the lock.  I don't think it was the monitors, I think it was 
     somthing within cde and they way it clicks into powersave mode.  No 
     problems since....

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