the haunted VAX6000 has been exorcized!

Yes! It was very much like Antonio suggested, a good deal of previously strangely behaving XBIA and XBIB boards were still working fine given the proper environment. I replaced the backplanes/cages for both XMI and VAXBI. I figured if nothing else, the set I put so neatly into boxes last year would be less exposed to dust and grime over the last year, and I did remember that one of the vaxen, i.e., this particular one did behave strangely even last year. Then step by step debugging with a little bit of board reseating and everything works now. Yeah! This is my second VAX6450 going online. Did I mention that one of them is now a VAXvector 6450 (with one vector processor right now because I still don't have more than one of the little cables.) It's going to be a VAXvector 6440 V2 (BTW: how was the number of vector CPUs officially counted?) and the other will be a VAX 6460. Both of them have 512 MB memory, one has a KDM70 with an SA600 with 8 RA90s the other now has the KDB50 with one RA90 and one RA92 in the "basement" of it's cabinet. I'm about to connecting the second VAX to the star coupler. And then all I need to do is fix the HSC90 that still gives me a k.ci error with status 111 (what the heck does that mean?) Then the HSC90 will plug in the port "B" of all the RA90s and RA92 and uh yes, there are also the RA81 and RA82, which I can't wait to actually use. My basement is going to be cleaned out now. It looks nice with two VAX 6000 and an SA600 shoulder to shoulder. Ah, yes, now I have an XMI and a VAXBI backplane cage spare. I will get rid of it one way or the other. If you want either or both, let me know. They are free for the taking or shipping. I'm sure that only one of them is actually defect AND I'm sure the defect could be fixed (I'd probably go with round in the dishwasher or so.) If you need parts from one, that's fine too. To know what's on them go to my VAX 6000 anatomy page. If I don't hear by soon, I will screw off all the parts and let the bulky stuff hit the dumpster. regards -Gunther Here is the transcript of a working VAX 6450 selftesting: c123456789 0123456789 0123456789 01234567# F E D C B A 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 NODE # A A . . M M M M . P P P P P TYP o o . . + + + + . + + + + + STF . . . . . . . . . E E E E B BPD . . . . . . . . . + + + + + ETF . . . . . . . . . E E E E B BPD . . . . . . . . . . + . + . + . XBI D + . . . . . . . . . + . . . . + . XBI E + . . . . A4 A3 A2 A1 . . . . . . ILV . . . . 128 128 128 128 . . . . . . 512 Mb ROM0 = V3.00 ROM1 = V3.00 EEPROM = 2.03/3.07 SN = AG94408846 Type Rev 1+ KA64A (8082) 000A 2+ KA64A (8082) 000C 3+ KA64A (8082) 000C 4+ KA64A (8082) 000A 5+ KA64A (8082) 000B 7+ MS65A (4001) 0084 8+ MS65A (4001) 0084 9+ MS65A (4001) 0084 A+ MS65A (4001) 0084 D+ DWMBA/A (2001) 0002 E+ DWMBA/A (2001) 0002 XBI D 1+ DWMBA/B (2107) 000A 3+ KDB50 (010E) 142C 5+ DEBNI (0118) 0300 XBI E 1+ DWMBA/B (2107) 000A 6+ TBK70 (410B) 0305 Current Primary: 1 /NOENABLED- /NOVECTOR_ENABLED- /NOPRIMARY- F E D C B A 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 NODE # . . . . A4 A3 A2 A1 . . . . . . ILV . . . . 128 128 128 128 . . . . . . 512 Mb /INTERLEAVE:DEFAULT /SCOPE /SPEED: 9600 /NOBREAK English XMI:D BI:5 08-00-2B-0B-23-AE DEFAULT /XMI:E /BI:6 CSA1 TAPE /XMI:E /BI:6 CSA1 ETH0 /XMI:D /BI:6 ET0 -- Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D. gschadow(a)regenstrief.org Medical Information Scientist Regenstrief Institute for Health Care Adjunct Assistant Professor Indiana University School of Medicine tel:1(317)630-7960 http://aurora.regenstrief.org