Since I have two 2117F's at home, I'll answer this one... You wrote... Your machines are F series, the very last of the 1000 line I believe. The 2116 is one of the first. You've got both ends of the spectrum there ;) Bear this in mind, memory related cards go in the front card cage, i/o related cards in the rear card cage. There is no relationship between slot1 in front and slot1 in back. In the front card cage, the top three slots must be used for a specific card in each slot, in the remaining slots order isn't important (there are a few exceptions to this). In the rear, order isn't important except the slot number (octal select code) determines the interrupt priority of the board. Some OS's in the 1000 line expect certain cards to be in certain slots. In addition, the OS on your disks was likely genned to expect a certain card in every slot. I'm at work at the moment, so if there's any of the following notes I'm not sure of, email me over the weekend when I'm at home and I can clarify. Dual Channel Port Controller this is basically a card that provides two independent DMA channels for any I/o cards in the rear panel. Must go in top slot, front card cage. Attach ribbon cable. The 13037 is a disk controller for 7900A, 7905, 7906, 7920, and possibly 7925 drives. Different models of the 13037 could also support HP-IB as well as direct connect style drives. This card should go to a 5 inch tall rack mount box which contains a microprocessor board and several interface boards. Cables from the 13037 rack mount box then go to the drives. This is an optional memory protect card. ISTR it has to do with handling parity errors instead of just halting the cpu. This must go in the front cage, second slot from the top. Grd true in/out is an I/o card used for line level interfacing (process control, etc.) This is a Memory Expansion Module. It was necessary if the machine contained more that 64k of ram. Bear in mind that it is only usefull if the ROM's that go with it are in the Firmware accessory board. The firmware accessory board usually attached to the bottom cpu card and hung underneath it on the back right. The firmware roms provided some extra instructions for memory management (ie. setting up paging). This must go in the front cage, third slot from the top. Same as above. 64k ram card. The microcircuit interface ISTR is a 40 bit card to interface to external TTL levels. I'll have to look this up. Might also have been used to connect an I/O extender box, don't recall at the moment. 64k ram card. The 12966A baci card (buffered async control interface) is an RS232 port for you. One of the better models, actually. another 64k ram card. The 7970 mag tape 2 card isn't for a second tape drive, it's the 2nd card in a two controller set for the 7970 tape drive. another 64k ram card. The 7970 mag tape 1 is part of a 2 card set for a 7970 1/2 tape drive. the real number is 13181 or 13183 depending on the model 7970 it went to. another 64k ram card. Dunno about the line printer designation, but it should be obvious. probably gpib interface. another 64k ram card. The time base generator is a card used to provide various timing circuits. It does more than just act as a system clock, but that's the best way to describe it. Whether a TBG card is needed depends on the OS you load and the software features (modules) you use with it. This is the main memory controller for all those 64k ram cards. there is a ribbon cable to attach it to each 64k ram card. This is the cpu card itself. Look for the firmware accessory board attached underneath the cpu card in the back right. It holds instruction set additions typically. >Machine 2 Front card cage Rear card cage > same as above This was used in the I/o card cage if a card was not present. It just preserved the interrupt priority chain; normally empty non-adjacent slots are not allowed (unless you're doing all polling mode without need for arming the interrupts). > I/O Buffer all same as above I would need a part number, but sounds similar to the 12920/12921 mux controller. Multiple serial ports for terminals, printers, etc. Not familiar with these, they sound 3rd partyish to me, probably memory... the second controller of a two controller set, likely a 13210. This was used ONLY for 7900A disk drives. 256kw ram. the first controller of a two controller set, likely a 13210. only 7900a again. 256kw ram same as above system same as above system I don't recall for sure, but I *THINK* this might be for fixed head disks (earlier than the 7900A's). 2313 I think? Ahhh.. bad memory in my brain :) same as above FEM or MEM? in a card cage, I would expect it to be MEM, same as above. Otherwise, an educated guess would be some type of firmware board. same as above. Need to look up the part number for those. Possibly PSI's (programmable serial interface), used to hook up graphics terminals (one DB25 for keyboard, one DB25 for display). I have a virtually complete documentation set for the above, sans a few of the cards. The front panel on the 21mx line is pretty straigforward. A&B are registers, M is the memory location you want to look at, T is the contents of that location, P is the program counter, and S is a general purpose status register. The only thing not intuitive is that only when the T register is displayed and you press the store switch, the M register is automatically incremented for you (any other time you use the INC M button). Initially I found this annoying, but it is handy. Note that the A and B registers are memory locations 0 and 1 respectively - so they should be the same. As a test, try clearing register a, set a bit pattern, then press store. Then set the M register to zero, store, then look at T. It should be the same pattern you stored in A. Other important notes for a checkout - upon powerup, look at the very bottom row of lights (a/b/m/t/p/s). Only one should be lit. If more of them are lit, it indicates several different problems, the most likely of which is memory configuration/parity error. If the machine has the power fail option, deadness upon powerup can mean that the batteries are no longer sustaining memory. The system disables some functions to alert you of this. There is a way to clear this condition, but I need to check the manual when I get home. Another thing you can try is selecting the S register, clearing all bits, store, then set bits 6 through 11 to octal 13 (doesn't matter if there's a card in slot 13). Press preset, then IBL. If the overflow light comes on, nothing was loaded from ROM and you have a real problem. Otherwise... Then point the M register to 37777 and look at the T register. Instead of the zeros normally present on power up, you should see the contents of boot rom loader 00 are present (hit INC M to step up). The changing pattern will tell you it was able to load the boot loader. The 37777 memory location moves depending on how much ram is in the system. Finally, the 2117F should go through a powerup POST type test. Depending on battery charge (if the power fail option is present) sometimes it can take 20 seconds sometimes 30 minutes or so, but eventually if the system is 100% you should see the leftmost 5 bits or so on the display counting up as it checks memory. Since I'm at work and not at home, I'm reciting all this from memory. I could have easily left something out or said something wrong. Feel free to email me over the weekend on anything you have questions about. The machines in question are using HSM type memory, which had a slightly strange setup compared to the memory subsystems in the other HP systems I also have (2113B 2109B) and work with more often. There are some real specifics related to slots and ribbon cables in the front card cage. When I get home I'll check how my 2117F's (which are running fine) are configured. Jay West