[geeks] HP Visualize B1000 (A4985A)

[Andrew Jones]

Caution: I know very little about the final-generation HP workstations, I have never owned one

Some things I would try, as general troubleshooting measures

1. serial matters

remove the DE9 cables.   a lot of PCs, and worse, a lot of cables with DE9 on either end, do not handle the "extra" lines in RS-232 correctly and UNIX workstation firmwares freak out at boot time

2. graphics matters

 almost all LCD monitors sold for use with a PC will support either sync on green or separate sync.   and almost none of them will tell you which, if either.   So the extremely specific pinout of your EVC <=> HD15 adapter is going to be important.

i would try, first, swapping the monitor.   every cheap LCD with VGA input will have the same seven dollar chip for ADC, but they all have different configurations.

second, figure out an adapter or cabling situation so you are comfortable clipping pins out of the HD15 side.   

Some PC-focused LCDs will refuse to EVER display sync-on-green if ANY sync pins are connected. (But, I think a B1000 is too new for SoG)

Others will refuse to EVER display a separate sync signal if the composite sync pin is connected

I used to keep a 15" flat panel with a VGA cable from which I had clipped the appropriate pins to get it working with separate sync. 

Last, and most annoying option: find yourself an EVC to 5-BNC adapter, because anything with 5-BNC inputs is gonna just Do The Right Thing with the ADC


On Thursday, November 20th, 2025 at 01:09, Mouse via geeks <geeks at sunhelp.org> wrote:

>
>
> I've got an HP A4985A, a Visualize B1000 machine. This is the machine
> whose video led me to start the "Not-quite DVI video?" thread back on
> 2025-10-27. The case says it's a PA-RISC machine, which actually is my
> major reason for wanting to get it working.
>
> I recently found an HP 1253-0635, which has that not-quite-DVI
> connector (EVC, apparently, it's called) on one side and a DE-15
> ("VGA") on the other. So I dragged out the machine again and tried it.
>
> With the adapter on the video and a 1280x1024 ViewSonic flatscreen
> which appears to work fine for your typical peecee BIOS on the other
> end of the VGA cable, both serial ports wired up to another machine,
> and a USB keyboard connected (I see nothing else I recognize as a
> possible keyboard connector), I turned it on. The fans spun up. After
> a while the fan RPMs started varying and then after a while longer the
> fans, as far as I can tell, stopped entirely. At no point did I see
> video on the monitor or anything on either serial port. (I'm assuming
> they're wired like peecee DE9 serial ports, since they're DE9s.) The
> other machine was listening at 9600, but I didn't see any baud barf
> either.
>
> Any idea what's wrong? Just my expectations, or should I have seen
> something? I can retry and specify exactly how long I wait, if that
> would help, but I'd guess I gave it at least five minutes.
>
> In passing, I recently (on a different thread - the rescue@ thread
> "SPARCstation 1 boot woes") mentioned I tried to find something on
> archive.org and failed. Someone on the list then told me exactly where
> to find it on archive.org. Is there some document somewhere writing up
> how to get useful results out of them? I'd love to be able to coax
> useful things out of them without needing to ask the (emininently
> helpful!) people on the lists here....
>
> /~\ The ASCII Mouse
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