AlphaStation 200 NVRAM Problem

[Robert Jarratt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctech [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Peter
> Coghlan
> Sent: 23 April 2016 21:44
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts <cctech at classiccmp.org>
> Subject: RE: AlphaStation 200 NVRAM Problem
> 
> >
> >  First of all you might be able to run some SRAM diagnostics yourself,
> > either from the console (if it has a tool for this; at worst you could
> > poke at it manually with deposit/examine commands, but the complicated
> > flashbus access protocol will make it a tedious task unless there is a
> > way to script it) or from the OS (can't help how to do this from VMS;
> > under Linux you could mmap(2) /dev/mem at the right address and then
> > poke at it with a little program doing the right dance to get the
> > flashbus access protocol right), to see if it shows any symptoms of
> misbehaviour.
> >
> 
> The equivelant in VMS is sys$crmpsc.  I can supply a sample program (in
> macro32) which calls it to read the firmware in a VAXStation 2000.
> I don't know the right addresses to use for an Alphastation 200 though.
> 
> (Congratulations on the progress made so far.  Maybe there is hope yet for
> my two DEC 3000/600 machines which have similar symptoms.)
> 
> Regards,
> Peter Coghlan.

Thanks for the tip, I had forgotten all about that system service (last used
it probably 30 years ago). I'll do it in C I think (assuming I have a C
compiler for the Alpha). Much easier than using examine and deposit. It
would be good to see the macro code though.

Thanks

Rob