finally success !!! With only the CPU and the memory boards and the RDQ3 in the system I was able to boot into VMS 5.5. Had to reboot with "b /1" and "set uafalternate 1" to circumvent the login but it worked. Now let's start some serious learning about VMS ;-) Tomorrow we'll see about the other boards and the batteries are propably gone but those things seem manageble now thanx everyone for the help sipke