AlphaStation 200 NVRAM Problem

[Robert Jarratt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Peter
> Coghlan
> Sent: 02 May 2016 10:42
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts <cctech at classiccmp.org>
> Subject: RE: AlphaStation 200 NVRAM Problem
> 
> > >
> > >  One possibility I have in mind is it's something peculiar about DRAM.
> > > As you may have been aware DROM code isn't run directly, it's loaded
> > > by SROM into DRAM.  If it fails a specific bit pattern at a specific
> > > location some reason, then you might see symptoms like these.  So
> > > shuffling DRAM modules might change something here.
> >
> > I will give this a go, but it seems unlikely as the machine is able to
> > run VMS, and I assume it must be passing at least some basic memory
> tests.
> >
> 
> Perhaps VMS could be working around correctable memory errors that
> SROM is not able to cope with?  If this is the case,
> 
> $ SHOW ERROR
> 


That just says:

%SHOW-S-NOERRORS, no device errors found

> should give a clue and there should be further information in the error
log.
> (I'm not sure how you display that since the functioning of $ ANALYZE
> /ERROR got messed up on Alpha some time ago.)
> 

I tried SHOW MEMORY, but that seemed good. ANALYZE/ERROR said I should
install DECevent and run conversion utility. Not sure about that one.

Regards

Rob