23 Nov
2002
23 Nov
'02
11:25 a.m.
I had time to troubleshoot further, and somehow managed
to get it to at
least make it to '6', but
couldn't get it to progress past '9' the
next time (when I had a
console cable connected). I'm
9 is "Identifying console terminal". It's supposed to give up
after six seconds and skip to step 7. If it identifies ther terminal,
it will go to step 8 instead and query the language.
6 is the RAM test.
You said uVAX II but what cards are in there? If it finds
a video card I think the sequence might change a bit.
Also, what is the story on the FCO on the power
harnesses for the
backplane? The two harnesses in
my BA123 are made of a gray ribbon cable pressed into
orange
connectors.
I *thought* it was the early BA23 power harness that
had the issue, not the BA123. A bit of googling through
newsgroups (comp.sys.dec or comp.os.vms) should nail
that down somewhat.
Antonio
23 Nov
23 Nov
1:15 p.m.
On Sat, 23 Nov 2002, Antonio Carlini wrote:
It's supposed to give up after 6 seconds, but in my case, it doesn't...
Google turned up mostly vague info describing the affected harnesses, but
I did see references to both the BA123 and BA23 harnesses having been
FCO'd. The same references also mentioned the replacement harnesses have
white connectors and individual wires instead of a webbed or ribbon type
cable. To me, those white connectors sound like AMP or Molex connectors
with individual pins crimped onto each wire instead of having the wires
pressed into an IDC type connector like the harnesses currently installed
in my BA123.
-Toth
I had time to
troubleshoot further, and somehow managed to get it to
at least make it to '6', but couldn't get it to progress past '9'
the
next time (when I had a console cable connected). I'm
9 is "Identifying console terminal". It's supposed to give up after six
seconds and skip to step 7. If it identifies ther terminal, it will go
to step 8 instead and query the language. 6 is the RAM test.
Right, and it took a *long* time when the system was initially able to get
though all of the tests.
You said uVAX II but what cards are in there? If it
finds a video card I
think the sequence might change a bit.
Its nearly a stock DEC MicroVAX II. No graphics hardware at all (which
would have made it a VAXStation II).
Board complement, as installed and as originally configured by DEC:
Slot Module Cardcage legend Option
1 M7606-AF M7606-H2 KA630-AA
2 M7608-BP M7608-B2 MS630-BB
3 M9047 M9047 grant card
4 M3104 M3104-C1 DHV11-A
5/upper M7546 M7546-E1 TQK50-AA
5/lower M7555 M7555-C1 RQDX3
6-12 empty
13/lower RQDX signal distribution board
Slots 1-4 are Q/CD, 5-12 are Q/Q, and 13 is power only.
I've since pulled all the boards, installed a M7625-AA (KA655) and M7621
(MS650) 8MB memory card by themselves, and got a chevron prompt. I also
got a memory error and a message stating normal startup is not possible.
'show memory' showed 0MB of ram installed. I tried another 8MB board with
the same results. I also tried 3 different 16MB boards, but the LED
display showed 'F', and of course, I didn't get a chevron prompt.
I'm *really* leaning towards a power supply problem. I did already clean
the power supply (I did that while cleaning the rest of the system). Does
anyone know where I can find the pinout for the power supply connectors?
Also, what is
the story on the FCO on the power harnesses for the
backplane? The two harnesses in my BA123 are made of a gray ribbon
cable pressed into orange connectors.
I *thought* it was the early BA23 power harness that had the issue, not
the BA123. A bit of googling through newsgroups (comp.sys.dec or
comp.os.vms) should nail that down somewhat. 
24 Nov
24 Nov
3:45 p.m.
Tothwolf wrote:
I'm *really* leaning towards a power supply
problem. I did already clean
the power supply (I did that while cleaning the rest of the system). Does
anyone know where I can find the pinout for the power supply connectors?
Jerome Fine replies:
I have been using both the BA23 and BA123 boxes with PDP-11
systems for about 10 years. During that time, I can't think of a time
when I have a power supply problem with a BA23, but out of about
5 BA123 boxes, two failed with a power supply problem. I attempted
to determine what the cause was in one case and I believe that the
magic smoke escaped from one of the capacitors in the primary
circuit which is used to rectify the AC. As a result, there was a total
failure. I can't remember, but I think that the other problem was also
a total failure.
On the other hand, I also have a problem when I use more than SEVEN
quad boards with the current BA123 box which still works when I also
use a Sigma ESDI RQD11-EC quad Qbus controller with Hitachi DK515-78
hard disk drives of 600 MBytes each. This is most likely a timing problem
that shows up as a dramatic decrease in the READ speed of the drives.
But perhaps it is also related to the power supply since I don't seem to
remember that the problem existed when I first started using the ESDI
Hitachi DK515-78 drives and there were initially ELEVEN quad boards
in the backplane.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
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2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com -
jhfinepw4z＠compsys.to -
tothwolf＠concentric.net