Well, I did it. Yesterday, the new VAX 4000-200 was disassembled to the point where the chasis only had the CPU and memory boards left in it, then I slid it down the basement steps on a strip of cardboard... somehow, the VAX didn't run me over like a runaway boulder after Wile E. Coyote while I was sliding it down the steps. Perhaps if I was sane, I'd have had someone help me, or would have blocked the door-frame with a wooden board, run rope attached to the VAX around it, and slowly lowered the VAX down the steps. :-) Wow, even the nearly empty and baseless BA400 (BA440?) chasis is somewhat heavy! After getting it downstairs, I somehow moved it through a space, a couple of yards long, that was only a couple of inches wider than the cabinet, and re-seated it on its base, sans replacing the nuts that hold it to the base. There's not enough free-space there to do turn it sideways and bolt the base back on... perhaps what's needed is a VAXwinch-II (TM): some pullies attached to the ceiling that can be used to lift small VAXen. Anyway, it's now counting down to 3, so, something's working! :-) ...will know more when I can get a terminal attached. Do all VAX-4000/200 machines make a loud fan noise when first powered on, and then get much quieter? Are variable-speed fans being used, and is that noise a test of high-speed operation? Hopefully this machine has VMS on one of the hard drives to play with. :-) The only problem is that I don't recall which hard drive was drive 0 and which one was drive 1; I got them mixed up during disassembly, so some experimentation is in order. On Sat, 21 Jul 2001, Chuck McManis wrote: Thanks. Yes, that's one reason why I wanted it; plus the fact that I once worked with one, back around 1991. Actually, what I worked with was a re-baged MicroVAX 3400 with a VAX 4000 CPU installed and a VAX 4000 badge placed where the removed MicroVAX 3400 badge was. Also it appears a lot easier to work on than a MicroVAX in cramped quarters. At least DSSI drives still appear to still obtainable. SCSI would be more useful so that I could read a the hobbyist CD-ROM now that DECUS has finally sent me a membership number. Did DEC made any DSSI CD-ROM drives? a couple of AMD chips... I'll have to look at the board more closely. It appears that I'll be pulling this board out, for the time being, anyway, since this system is not going to be attached to a monitor any time soon. [M3135 and M3136] It appears as though I'll be removing these three DECVoice and M3136 boards as well, if I can't use them with a regular home telephone line. Drats. I keep getting calls, routinely, for a certain business whose number is a digit off from mine, and it would be great fun to use this system to put their frequently mis-dialing customers through Telephonic Push-button Hell (TM): Hello, if you've called here to reach [company name], please press 1. Now, press 2. Very good; your education hasn't been a total failure. Please press 3 to reach [company name]. You've reached the new automated telephone system of [company name]; we highly value your business and seek to serve you better. This new system will make contacting us more convenient for you our valued customer. Our summer office hours are [blah, blah, blah], our winter office hours will be [same as the summer hours]; we hope that you're enjoying your summer as much as we are enjoying ours. Our mailing address is [blah, blah, blah], and our telephone number is [blah, blah, blah]. Again, our summer office hours [repeat the rest of the previous sencence]. We at [company name] are proud of our excellent customer service and all of the compliments that we receive from our loyal customers who give us their money to prove that we're the best company in the [ ... ] business. Thank you. By the way, please don't forget to check the due date on your latest statement from us after you hang up. Please enter the last ten digits of your telephone number followed by the pound sign. You've entered: [the numbers]. If this is correct, please press 1. If this is incorrect, please hang up and call back. You've entered 1; if this is correct, please press 2; if this is incorrect, please hang up and call back. Please listen carefully to the following menu before making any selections. For our summer business hours, please press 1. For our winter business hours, please press 2. For our mailing address, please press 3. For our telephone number, please press 4. To learn about our special offers, press 5. To learn about other special offers available only to new customers whose business we value the most, please press 6. To cancel your account with us, please press 7. To learn more about our services, please press 8. If you'd like to speak with a customer service representative, please press 0 for a menu of customer service representatives. To repeat this menu, please press 9. ...in the end, all selections would eventually lead to a message asking them to please learn to dial the right number, which they can find in the telephone directory. If some still bother to leave a message, then I suppose I could return their calls... at 3:00 AM. :-) Interesting... so was an old HP calculator that I bought at a hamfest! :-) None, aside from a small, easily removeable, label stating that this is "VAX 0040;" apparently part of a VAX farm. Interesting. There's just an empty bay, and a smoked plastic cover over where I'm guessing the tape drive should go (upper right corner). There's a tape drive cable that doesn't connect to any boards. I'd have to break something to remove the smoked plastic cover, however. My guess is that it's a BA400 or BA440. There are two doors in the front that swing open, and no clear sliding door like I remember seeing on a VAX 3400. The buttons to restart and halt the system are in the far upper right, and are not those little squares of 4 of 6 buttons, with lights in the middle, like the MicroVAXen have. Also, it has a single PSU. Each hard drive has it's own cover, pushbuttons, drive-ID-select key, etc. I'll pull the M7559 out of a Microvax II; the only problem is that I see no way to mount a TK70, or to easily connect any power to it. Do I need a device sled of some sort? Also, can I use a TK50 with the M7559? Once I assemble a cord that will fit the odd telephone-like RJ-something sockets for a terminal, I'll check the CPU out further. What do you mean by having the real -TM for that one? -- Copyright (C) 2001 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals: All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature & rdd(a)rddavis.net 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such http://www.rddavis.net beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.

The DECsystem 5400 does this as well. The fans are not the modern three wire type with the RPM sensor, tho. (Not sure about on the 4000/xxx series). The same setup exists on the DECserver 5x0 series QBUS machines as well. A Compaq field person told me once that the other fan is supposed to go faster if one fails but we have had several fail on several DECserver 550's and I never noticed the audible pitch change. The current VMS hobby licenses don't care about the version of VMS you're running. Under the old hobby scheme I believe the licenses would work on any version but you were only in compliance if you ran specific versions of VMS. On Sun, 22 Jul 2001, John Allain wrote: snip --

At 06:17 PM 7/22/01 -0400, John wrote: My Montegar licenses have worked on 5.5, 6.2, and 7.2 installs. --Chuck

My technique is to take the layered products file and "comment out" the UCX license. Then install the UCX and VAX-VMS licenses when I do the install, configure the ethernet port, ftp over the file with the UCX license commented out and type @foo.com and get everything licensed. (No APL or PL/I though :-() Burning it on a CD rom also works. I've also managed to use the LMF to load the licenses the trick it to realize that both the product date and termination date are the same value. --Chuck At 09:13 AM 7/27/01 -0400, Bill wrote:

Sounds right... DD11-DF sounds like a DD11-D with the BA11F box wire harness on it for 11/35/40/45/55/50 or 11/70 use.5/50 or 11/70 use. Sounds like a DD11-C 4 slot back plane for above F box... Been a long time since DEC and I should've kept the options module list when I left. Serves me right for being a good employee. 8-( Bill --- Bill Gates is a Persian cat and a monocle away from being a villain in a James Bond movie -- Dennis Miller bpechter@shell.monmouth.com|pechter@pechter.dyndns.org