I retrieved an old AS/400 and a stack of manuals a while back. I believe
my manuals cover the CISC 9402/9404/9406 machines.
If you get yours close to the point of booting I can look up the SRC codes
from the console in the manuals.
I also learned in the manuals that IBM included some sort of sensor in
many of the models where if excess movement was detected the machine would
demand a new system password be generated from IBM.
That paranoid IBM plot was supposed to prevent people transferring
ownership of the machine without paying IBM their due. Apparently you can
bypass the system password for a time but after a set period the machine
will refuse to reboot.
I don't know for sure if the 9406 had that feature. As I recall that is
one of the larger models.
I never had the correct pile of twinax gear to get mine successfully
booted. Its drives were recycled from 524 bytes/sector to 512
bytes/sector into my RS/6000 220.
Incidentally, there is a web site with info on this hardware:
http://www2.ibmlink.ibm.com/cgi-bin/master?xh=jN7O$Vn32jOgss0USenGnN9332&am…
Paul
On 21 Jun 2000, Eric Smith wrote:
I'm now the proud (?) owner of an old AS/400, Type
9406 Model B45.
Assuming that when we managed to let the rack fall on its side that we
didn't destroy it; this is yet to be determined. Anyhow, I have very
little (bordering on no) clue about AS/400s, so if anyone else knows
about them, tips, advice, help, or the like would be greatly
appreciated.
The system came with about twelve Type 9332-600 disk drives (600M each),
a Type 9348-001 nine-track drive (which is an HP 88780 with a custom
front panel), and two terminals (but only one keyboard). It appears
that the disks and tape drive are differential SCSI devices with
Sun-style 50-pin D-sub connectors. I vaugely recall reading in the past
that AS/400s use a weird sector size that is not a power of two; most
high-end SCSI drives can be reformatted for alternate sector sizes.
The CPU box contains:
part feature upper lower
slot number number connector connector function
---- ------- ------- --------- --------- ----------
1 66X4709 3060 16M memory
2 66X4709 3060 16M memory
3 66X4490 3055 8M memory
4 21F5132 2513 processor? tamper seals!
5 93X2120 2514 ???
6 93X2701 2601 50 female tape interface
7 93X2709 6110 50 female disk interface
8 46F4141 6130 ???
9 26F5028 6031 50 male 50 male ???
10 59X4270 6040 25 female ???
11 93X2737 6110 50 female second disk interface?
12 blank panel
13 blank panel
I guess that one of the cards in slot 9 or 10 must be an interface to
terminals or to a 3174 terminal controller or the like.
The IBM AS/400 web site doesn't seem to have any info on hardware this
old.
I'd really like to get an ethernet interface.
I got factory-sealed 9-track tape distributions of two different releases
of OS/400, four tapes each. I gather that there's some sort of license
key needed for the software, so I have no idea whether I'll be able to
install it. Naturally when I got the machine the seller didn't make any
arrangements for a license transfer. For the price I paid I suppose it
would be unreasonable to ask them to jump through hoops to do such a
thing.