[Gllug] Compaq Wierdness

[Rich Walker]

In message <3B9AF935.3070407 at yahoo.com>
          David Irvine <co2cool at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Having some issues with a compaq Proliant ML370.  I have a server, its 
>  been sitting in the corner for a while, everynow and again somebody 
> comes along and takes a  bit out for another server thats needing fixed, 
> ive decided that i want this machine up  and runnin since i've just ran 
> out of pci slots, diskspace is getting low again, and i want cool 
> looking fans.
> 
> Anyway the problem I am faced with is I need some sort of card for it. 
> It used to have a single processor, but i want to put twin pIII's in it. 
>  Each  chip has to have some sort of little card next to it in order for 
> the machine to boot.  I dont have any of these cards. Nor do i  know 
> what they are called.  They are about 1"x2" circuit board with fairly 
> large components  coming out of them,  they fit into a male white 
> socket, and the board has a  black block connector similar to ide.  they 
> sit in line with the processor like so ---------- --- processor/board 
> respectively and there are two slots, i'm  assuming one  per processor.

Voltage regulator modules, or VRM's

They *might* be interchangeable between machines that use VRM's, and
they might not. I went through some fun getting one for a
Professional Workstation 5000.

> 
> Can anybody tell  me  what these are, what they do, why i need one, 
> where i can  get one, and how much they  cost? Its been bugging me for a 
> while now. Nobody seems to know what i'm  talking about. :D

Most CPU's these days wither tell the mobo what voltage they need,
or the mobo has a set of dip switches. Back way back when, CPU's
just used 5 and 3.3, so no-one needed special regulators. But they
were expected one  day, which is why you'll see sockets like this on
lots of old Socket 7 or Socket 8 motherboards. The VRM allows the
CPU to specify the required voltage, IIRC.

You're probably going to have to poke round the Compaq web site for
the maintenance manual for the relevant Proliant; that will tell you
the Compaq part number for it, and then you can either get gouged,
or find someone with one for sale on ebay or otherwise.


hth

cheers,Rich.


> 
> 
> Cheers for the help
> 
> 
> David
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Rich Walker: rw at shadow.org.uk (Shadow Robot Project)
http://www.shadow.org.uk        251 Liverpool Road
+44(0)171 700 2487                London  N1 1LX
"Sometimes after an electrical storm I see in 5 dimensions"
  -- Cornfed Pig,  Duckman.

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