DEC Alpha Bug Check Crash

Jon Elson elson at pico-systems.com
Fri Nov 9 11:59:16 CST 2018


On 11/08/2018 11:09 PM, Douglas Taylor via cctalk wrote:
> I hadn't started this DEC Alpha 3000-300 since last 
> summer, and booted it up so I could load the new PAK's the 
> other day.
>
> The result was that it completes almost the entire OpenVMS 
> startup, but then crashes with the following:
>
>
> %SET-I-INTSET, login interactive limit = 64, current 
> interactive value = 0
>
> **** OpenVMS Alpha Operating System V8.4     - BUGCHECK ****
>
> ** Bugcheck code = 000001CC: INVEXCEPTN, Exception while 
> above ASTDEL
> ** Crash CPU: 00000000    Primary CPU: 00000000    Node 
> Name: A300
> ** Highest CPU number:    00000000
> ** Active CPUs:           00000000.00000001
> ** Current Process:       DECW$STARTUP
> ** Current PSB ID:        00000001
> ** Image Name: 
> A300$DKA0:[SYS0.SYSCOMMON.][SYSEXE]DECW$CONFIG.EXE;1
>
> **** Starting selective memory dump at  8-NOV-2018 21:57...
>
> The disk is a SCSI2SD board with an 8 GB SD card.  It had 
> been running just fine, until now.
>
> Does this crash point to a hardware or software problem?
>
>
ASTDEL indicates that something in the OS caused a machine 
check interrupt.  Does DECW$CONFIG mean it is the DecWindows 
config process that bombed?  Can you get the OS to boot in 
non-windows mode, and try to log in from a serial terminal?  
If DecWindows is blowing up, it could be that the graphics 
adapter has a problem, is set to the wrong address, or is a 
different type than the software is expecting.  You might 
unplug and reseat all mezzanine boards and cycle all DIP 
switches to make sure it is not just a bad connection.

Jon


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