Antonio Carlini wrote: Hmm, gotta fix that. here's the close up picture of the plate that's hanging out, for KVM... http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dwoyciesjes/MVC-001F.JPG This box was used for designing/testing new insutrial strength keyboards, mice, trackballs, and joysticks for the VAX equipment... -- ---Dave Woyciesjes ---ICQ# 905818

Antonio Carlini wrote: Ahhh, here it is. Stamped in the edge/frame of the card it's connected to is M7602 YA. -- ---Dave Woyciesjes ---ICQ# 905818

Well, I hooked my VT420 (9600.8.N.1) to the VAX, and got no reaction on the terminal. The LED diplay on the CPU card started at F, then flipped A, and sat there. On the CPU card, there are two switches, and I don't know what they do. I've tried different switch combinations, to no avail... http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dwoyciesjes/Mvc-113f.jpg On the left side is a 2 position switch, upper position has a dot inside a circle, and the lower position has the dot above the circle. That's the setting it came at. There is also a triangle, pointed down, inside a circle immediatley below the switch. On the right is a 3 position rotary switch.1st position is a little face type of character, second is an arrow pointing right (this is selected), and the third is a circle with a T inside of it. There is an arrowhead on the circle, makes me think it's a looping test setting? Can anybody help me out quick to decipher these? I'm trying to get this booted, to see what's on it, before John picks it up... -- ---Dave Woyciesjes ---ICQ# 905818

Kevin Handy wrote: Thanks. That does help some. Well, my VAX doesn't have the console baud rate selection switch. I wonder if my VT is set to the wrong speed, and that's why I'm not getting anything? I guess I'll start at VT100 mode, 300 for the speed, and 8/None/1 settings. Unless anybody knows what it probably is... On that page, it doesn't mention test A, which is where apparently my VAX is stopping... Hmmm... -- ---Dave Woyciesjes ---ICQ# 905818

The sequence that i use, robotically, is H<CR>I<CR>U<CR>B<CR> for: Halt, Init, Unjam, Boot but the B would probably do it. I think SHO DEV will work at this point in case the B(oot) dev needs to be specified explicitly, most likely not needed with a one drive system. John A. ----- Original Message ----- From: David Woyciesjes &lt;dwoyciesjes(a)comcast.net&gt; To: &lt;cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 2:26 PM Subject: Industrial VAX 630 booting saga Well, I hooked my Digital BCC17-06 cable (3 BNC, LK401 jack) to the QVSS patch panel, then to my Digital VRT19-DA (Sony GDM-1960) & Digital VRT17-HA monitors. The VRT17 clicked like it was trying to do something, and the VRT19 had lines like the H or V scan rates weren't right. The keyboard beeped, and the caps light worked, so that's something. During this, I had the VT420 connected to the CPU console jack, and by fiddling was able to get some stuff. So... I figured I'd pull the video card (QVSS, VCB01), to force it to use the console port. I also moved the DEQNA ethernet and the M9047 (bus terminator?) cards over to fill the now empty slot. I sort of recall hearing that it needs to be that way for these beasts? Now... I can see it performing the normal system test on the terminal (set now to 9600/8/N/1). I'm getting somewhere, finally. :) Back up to the garage to see how far it got... Okay, with the CPU switches set to normal boot, and halt enabled, It completed all systems tests, and waited at the dead sargent for me. (Time to find a list of console commands. Maybe my VAXStation 3100 book may help) I've now changed it to halt disabled, to see how far it goes this time... David Woyciesjes wrote: reaction on -- ---Dave Woyciesjes ---ICQ# 905818

Do you know that it had software? It's easy to erase a whole drive when a company is not sure which files are sensitive or not. I don't know from my limited knowledge how to distinguish Perhaps it requires additional diagnostics SW. John A.

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/wiz_1622.html "Please check existing discussions of the "serpentine" nature of the Q-bus module configuration available here in Ask The Wizard such as topic (1149), ... This could well be a problem with the Q-bus configuration, with the disk controller (probably an RQDX3 series controller), with the disk connection,..." John A.

David Woyciesjes wrote: Yep. That appears to be the answer. It's booting now VAX/VMS V5.1 Major id = 1 Minor id = 0. Now it's asking for the date and time, but for the life of me I can't seem to input a valid answer! Help!?! -- ---Dave Woyciesjes ---ICQ# 905818

--- David Woyciesjes &lt;dwoyciesjes(a)comcast.net&gt; wrote: There are instructions in VMS FAQs (among other places) for how to get into a machine when you have free access to the console. There is some variation, but there are some cookbook instructions on how to do it. The canonical defaults are SYSTEM/MANAGER and FIELD/SERVICE. Some older machines might have SYSTEST/UETP. Any of these should have enough privs to let you twiddle the SYSUAF file (change passwords, add accounts, etc.) More recent versions of VMS will not allow you to take a default SYSTEM password, but you can change it back after the install is done. -ethan

John Allain wrote: Yeah, it did have software. They were testing keyboard and mice on it, so it must have a minimum GUI on there. And the people at CTI aren't the type to go deleting files, especially since at the time, they were under the impression that they would have to return the VAX... -- ---Dave Woyciesjes ---ICQ# 905818

--- David Woyciesjes &lt;dwoyciesjes(a)comcast.net&gt; wrote: Bus Grant. Unlike ISA and PCI-type machines, the Unibus and Qbus peripherals generate requests by breaking a chain of signals that go from slot to slot. If you look closely (or not so closely ;-) at your M9047, you'll see that there are no active or passive components on it - just a few backplane pins jumpered together. A peripheral card that wants to make an interrupt (or DMA) request will normally have those pins electrically "jumpered" and will "disconnect" them to initiate the request. This has the intentional side-effect that cards further away from the CPU can each make their own requests on the same line, but will never be noticed until the closer card has reconnected the signal. Unibus and Qbus machines do not run out of IRQs like ISA machines. They run out of physical slots to stuff boards into, or, in rare cases, the bus gets electrically overloaded with too many cards for the signals to propagate without too much noise (look up DC and AC Bus Loading in the literature). For a real-world example, we had our primary VAX-11/750 (.8 VUPS, *roughly* equivalent to the same integer horsepower as a Mac SE, an Amiga 1000 or a Sega Genesis) with MASSBUS disk (SI9900), MASSBUS tape (TU78) and a single Unibus with 3 Emulex 16-port serial boards, a 56Kbps DDCMP link (DMR-11?), a UDA-50 with one or two RA81s, an RX50 (RUX50), an RL02 (RL11), a TU80 (TS11), 6 COMBOARDs (68000-based DMA protocol engines with a sync serial port and line printer port), and a DMF-32 (8 serial, a sync serial (DDCMP) and a line printer). If I've remembered everthing that was on there, that makes at least 20 interrupt vectors in use. Plenty to spare. Very nice cards to have. I wish when we were making grant cards, that we had put pins in both Qbus and Unibus locations on the fingers so we could move jumpers to select what kind of bus to grant. We supplied a GC747 (our number) grant card with every Unibus COMBOARD, but never did with any Qbus COMBOARD. :-( -ethan

Ah, so is there a possibility it was used for testing of DECstation and VAXstation hardware? The early Alphas (as has been discussed here) had a similar cable, complete with a mylar (?) strip that sat underneath the monitor to keep the keyboard/mouse box in one place. Personally I wouldn't until I dismantled the VAX to see where the bulkhead connector went. From its form factor it was obviously designed for a MVII, so given that thinking it could've been part of an MVII GPX and therefore would definitely be for a KVM cable; I'd wait until someone gives a definite answer. cheers -- adrian/witchy www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans