DEC field service (was Re: HP's not cool? (was Re: pdp-11/60 Semi-Rescue))

Tony -- I'm starting to sound like an old fart here. Please shoot me before I call the DEC Field Service days the good old days. <BANG> Oops folks... that was just my wife with a .38. Before I end up more than a quart low on B Positive... DEC invested a ton on almost unlimited training if you worked hard and had a decent manager. I took a ton of courses because I volunteered to take any that the married folks with lived couldn't make due to personal committments or other work issues. Of course, when you moved PDP's and Vaxes from the lab to commercial environments when downtime is REAL MONEY the amount of time given to troubleshoot a problem is determined by the customer who controls field service access to the box. We had sites that a whole controlled plant with a pair of 11/34s and the only maintenance you could do was Christmas or Easter and downtime was impossible to schedule until both machines flamed up. Often small sites would run intermittant machines until 5 minutes before their service contract would run out for the day (usually either 5 pm or pm or midnight) and then log the DECservice call which meant DEC had to do continous around the clock maintenance until the machine was up. Boy the number of 4:55pm calls on Friday used to really %R$^& me off including the one a printer at Roche medicalwhere the customer shimmed the ribbon path with test tube lids and left scalpul blades in the LP25 when I got sent out to work it. The printer was obviously having problems for at least a day or so before they finished their medical test runs -- but they waited to call until it was completely unreadable. True. But this one usually damages the module (on digital, not analog signals) pretty quickly -- usually before the diag run finishes. I rarely saw the board slowly fail due to another board. Got any examples on DEC hardware where this happened. I'd like to hear of it. This is different with analog and video stuff or power supplies. Absolutely, but again this is less likely in digital stuff than in analog stuff like read amps, video, power amps, servo signals etc. The CPU and communications stuff usually works correctly or it doesn't. (There are occasional wierd problems like the DMR unit that ran diags and DECnet but had a specific pattern sensitivity in the line unit that would go intermittant and drop out on large file transfers... but the thing that proved that problem WAS A BOARD SWAP.) What pissed me off no end was the customer (Naval Air Propulsion, Trenton) who called me to ask me to change U41 on the TE16 logic and write board because his tape drive wouldn't go on line. I called this engineer back and told him I'd be in in about 3 weeks when logistics got me the chip. Or I could come down and swap the LAW board (was it an 8916 or 8912-- my memory seems to point to that number) in fifteen minutes and have him running again. I did scope the pin out and he was correct... but does it really matter that much if the online pulse doesn't get from the switch the one board that controlled all the circuitry on the door. It's obviously the one board if the switch contacts open and short ok. As far as tests go... DEC and IBM seem to have the best set of diagnostics out and the most redundant data paths to allow you to call the module out quickly. I really was amazed when I saw Perkin Elmer (Concurrent) 3200 series stuff and realized DEC put so much more into diagnostic engineering and mantainability. I guess AT&T and Lucent do similar stuff since I've seen a little of the AT&T specs for DEC stuff used by AT&T. Most of the minicomputer companies seemed to skimp on the diags compared to DEC. Their remote diag console in the 11/70 really amazed me for a mini. Geez. Engineers just want to bully the poor old technicians because they can. 8-) Bill --- bpechter@shell.monmouth.com|pechter@pechter.dyndns.org Three things never anger: First, the one who runs your DEC, The one who does Field Service and the one who signs your check.