I found two of these machines. Think I don't know beige Macs? I know Sun even less!
Doesn't look like I can just hook up a VGA display and USB keyboard to it so.... help!
What do I need to test these?

You will need a propritary SUN keyboard and mouse for them, a 12W3 video adapter to hook a display up, and alot of patience. They do use a SCSI hard drive, but many SUN machines will not boot if the backup battery (PRAM battery) is dead and does not save settings. There is alot of basic information here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation_1

Both Sun keyboards/mice and the 13W3 adapters to VGA can be found on eBay. Or I can send you a keyboard/mouse - I have plenty!

Not handy to me now, but if you search for the Sun NVRAM FAQ it will tell you more about what you need to do to fix that problem.

And, if you want to sell or trade for one of those guys, a Sparc 1 is something I'm missing in my collection. :)

Here is the NVRAM FAQ:


Glitchworks makes a nice little replacement board that lets you use a coin cell battery. You need some Dremel and soldering skills, but it's a nice long-term replacement. I've done about a dozen of these over time...


I'm pretty sure the Sparc 1 is the 48t02, but if it's the 48t08, he has the board for that, too.

If he's out of the boards, I could probably spare one or two... the other parts are available on Mouser/Digikey very reasonably.

>> ScutBoy said:

Both Sun keyboards/mice and the 13W3 adapters to VGA can be found on eBay. Or I can send you a keyboard/mouse - I have plenty! Not handy to me now, but if you search for the Sun NVRAM FAQ it will tell you more about what you need to do to fix that problem. And, if you want to sell or trade for one of those guys, a Sparc 1 is something I'm missing in my collection. Click to expand...

I get the feeling it's more trouble than it's worth to test these machines all the way. I can power them up but that's about it. Have yet to investigate and price these out but offers are always welcome :)

It appears these Sparcstations are no longer my problem :) Case closed!

Glad I could help :)