Well, I've been playing with some machines I haven't
had time for before (not that I really have time now,
but that's beside the point), and I was able to fire
up the MicroVax II's. I have two of them, one in an
official DEC enclosure, and one in a third party
cabinet. They both "work" after a little cajoling, but
neither boots from disk. The third party cabinet Vax
has a screeching ESDI disk (sounds like a head crash)
on an Emulex controller, and the DEC cabinet Vax has
an RD53 on an RQDX3, and it sounds as if the rubber
bumper has glued the heads to the stops.
I have other ESDI disks, and one other Micropolis
drive (non DEC)- I want to attempt to format and test
some of them on the Vaxen. I plan on attempting to
repair the RD53, but I'd like to be able to format and
test disks, since I need to scare up a replacement for
the other Vax.
I have heard tales of a magical diagnostic tape that
exists for these machines. Both Vaxen have TK50's, and
I have one TK50 cartridge (jammed in one of the
TK50's... Gotta free that tonight). I also have, IIRC,
a SCSI TK50 (gotta dig that out tonight as well). So,
is there any way of creating a diagnostic tape for
these MicroVax II's? Is there an archive somewhere out
on the 'net of tape dumps?
Thanks!
-Ian