18 Mar
2001
18 Mar
'01
10:02 a.m.
Hi
There is a large flea market about 20 minutes from here every weekend. It
fills about 2 to 3 drive-in parking lots during summer and even during the
dead of winter in below 0 temperatures, there are about 100 tables and lots
to look through... Never know what you are going to find...today I found:
Vax Station 5000/200 with 32Megs (?) $5
Amiga 500/mouse/rf mod + Intellivision II (for my game console collector
friends) $7
Box full of C64 stuff : 1541, C64, 2 CBM Power Supplies, TI99 Power Supply,
1530 Mouse, RCA cables, 1541 cable, 1 Fast Load $7
Sensory Chess Challenger 9'' inbox/manual (1981...)...my Phd-teacher brother
is a chess champ and collects old chess sets...I taught he would get a kick
outta this...$4
I passed on a Sharp PC-10 portable computer + printer at $10 as-is...I
offered $5...no go...
Can someone tell me more about the VAX? I know nothing about these things.
Either point me to a good faq or a manual or just tell me how to check this
thing out...I searched the net and after 20 minutes found close to nothing
about this thing...the compaq site is a maze....
Unit powers on PS fans (3!) spin. Small leds in back (6?) near ports seem to
cycle through in a "logical and non erratic way" at start up...
There are 4 large memory boards. Counting the chips I suspect these boards
hold 8 Megs each...4 boards...32Megs...built in ethernet from what I can
see...
Slot -0- in back does not have a cover anymore. There is nothing there...I
suspect this held a video card (?) can I still hook this up headless to a
terminal?
I connected my trusty Wyse60 to this and after a short "POST" I get...:
?IO 5/rzl/vmunix (bb rd)
>
Returns bring more >> prompts so I am talking to the box...So I guess it
works...
The thing has no floppy or keyboard connector...Just a SCSI port....how does
it boot? -- from scsi cdrom? (linux something to try on this I suspect...?)
Sorry about the questions but I know nothing about these VAX boxes...
Thanks for the help
Claude
claudew(a)videotron.ca