DEC Alpha Bug Check Crash

[Jon Elson]

On 11/09/2018 05:38 PM, Peter Coghlan via cctalk wrote:
>> I hadn't started this DEC Alpha 3000-300 since last 
>> summer, and booted it up so I could load the new PAK's 
>> the other day.
>>
>> The result was that it completes almost the entire 
>> OpenVMS startup, but then crashes with the following:
>>
>>
>> %SET-I-INTSET, login interactive limit = 64, current 
>> interactive value = 0
>>
>> **** OpenVMS Alpha Operating System V8.4     - BUGCHECK ****
>>
>> ** Bugcheck code = 000001CC: INVEXCEPTN, Exception while 
>> above ASTDEL
>> ** Crash CPU: 00000000    Primary CPU: 00000000    Node 
>> Name: A300
>> ** Highest CPU number:    00000000
>> ** Active CPUs:           00000000.00000001
>> ** Current Process:       DECW$STARTUP
>> ** Current PSB ID:        00000001
>> ** Image Name: 
>> A300$DKA0:[SYS0.SYSCOMMON.][SYSEXE]DECW$CONFIG.EXE;1
>>
>> **** Starting selective memory dump at  8-NOV-2018 21:57...
>>
>> The disk is a SCSI2SD board with an 8 GB SD card.  It had 
>> been running just fine, until now.
>>
>> Does this crash point to a hardware or software problem?
>>
>
> I think "Exception while above ASTDEL" refers to an 
> exception encountered
> while processing an interrupt in kernel mode, probably in 
> device driver code.
> I think this leans more in the direction of a sofware 
> problem while something
> like "Machine check in kernel mode" would lean more in the 
> direction of a
> hardware problem.
>
Well, most of my deeper experience in the driver level is 
VAX and not Alpha, I think a memory exception is still a 
machine check, and so trying to access a memory or device 
location that does not exist/respond is still a machine 
check at the very lowest level.

Jon