DEC Alpha 3000 Model 600

[Rod Smallwood]

Hello Peter
          Looks like I trod the same path as you.
I cleaned the CD with a microfibre cloth. No Joy.
I tried every scsi CD drive I have. After setting the jumpers of course.
Theres a couple more in the store I'll clean them up and  give them a try.
The wife and I (retired) are off for a week's KGB (kids gone back)
holiday to-morrow, so I'll have a go when I get back.

Rod


On 07/09/2015 11:37, Peter Coghlan wrote:
> Rod Smallwood wrote:
>>
>> I thought it might be nice to have a DEC based graphics work station.
>> I had the Alpha, a high res monitor and the Hobbyist Media CD for 
>> ALPHAVMS 8,3. (yes the system supports 8.3)
>> SFSG ..  So CD in the drive and switch on. First a nice colour 
>> graphics demo/test.
>> Then the nomal system level stuff. >>> prompt, enter SHO DEV and our 
>> CD drive shows as DKA400 just where it should be.
>>
>> So Boot DKA400: and off we go. After a while a menu appears from 
>> which you can load  layered products you need.
>> It gets part way through the load and falls over with a data error. 
>> The cd is a real bought and paid for Media CD and is not a copy.
>>
>
> I've come across problems with CD media and/or CD drives in several 
> alphas.
> Sometimes cleaning the disks well helped (these were original CONDIST 
> CDs too).
> Other times cleaning the CD drive seemed to help but usually only for 
> a while.
> More often things quickly got worse and I had to change out the drive.
>
>>
>> Before I do a lot of tedious emaling (HP have taken the Hobbyist 
>> program in house) has anybody successfully loaded an Alpha  with 
>> ALPHA VMS 8.3?
>>
>
> I'm not sure what you mean here.  I have ALPHA VMS 8.3 running on a 
> Digital
> Personal WorkStation 500a and 8.2 running on an Alphaserver 800 
> 5/500.  I'm
> sure lots of people are running 8.3 on all sorts of Alphas.
>
> I have two Dec 3000 Model 600 machines but neither works - the LEDs 
> count down
> to F0 (IIRC) and that's it.  Nothing happens on the console.  Both 
> failed in
> service, one when I was trying to reboot it remotely.  I think they 
> used to run
> V6.2 - they've been out of action a long time.
>
> Regards,
> Peter Coghlan.