VAX 4000-200 Boot Problem - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

5 Feb 2014

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I have a working VAX 4000-200 and bought a spare CPU board for it. I plugged 
in the spare board and it seems to hang when starting the OS boot process. 
I've included the log below. I looked through the KA660 technical reference 
and couldn't find what might be hanging at this point in the boot process. 
I'm assuming that I can simply boot from the same OS image as the original 
CPU.

Assuming you are using VMS, no changes are required to the system disk.  In
fact you should be able to use the same system disk to boot any of the
various different VAX processors supported by the version of VMS installed,
not just a 4000.

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I compared the few jumpers on both boards and they are the same. I even 
validated the EPROM contents to be the same. Is the spare CPU board bad or 
is there something else I should be trying/aware of?

I guess DIA5 is the correct disk to boot from as you appear to be typing
it manually at the >>> prompt rather than relying on whatever is stored in
NVRAM on the replacement board which is probably incorrect.

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You can see from the 
log here that it does in fact pass all it's tests. Any help would be 
appreciated before I attempt to return this otherwise great looking board!

KA660-A V3.7, VMB 2.12
Performing normal system tests. 
[successful tests snipped]

...
 Tests completed.
 >>boot dia5 (BOOT/R5:0 DIA5)

2..
-CAP05$DIA5

Normally at this point you get a "1..0.." and then it boots into the OS. But 
with the spare board, it just hangs after the last line shown above.  The 
EPROMs on both boards are identical as is the board revision and all part 
numbers. 

I have a VAX 4000/100A but I use a SCSI disk to boot it as both my DSSI disks
have died.  The disk I use fails to spin up sometimes after it has been left
idle for a while.  When this happens, my 4000 hangs at the same point as you
are seeing.  There are several short buzzing noises when the disk attempts to
spin and if I lift it up and give it a sharp twist at the time that it tries,
it usually starts spinning and all is well.

I don't know if this is also a possibility with DSSI disks but it seems
plausable.  Is the problem still there if you put the original board back in?

Regards,
Peter Coghlan.