Vaxstation 3100 - I have console access

[Bryan C. Everly]

Peter,

I confirmed that there is a NCR5380 chip on the daughterboard and that
everything was connected.  Still no joy.  The one thing I'm wondering is
this.  If you look at the attached picture below from
http://home.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/vax/vs3khw.html, you will see there is a
40-ish pin EPROM (?) in the bottom row of chips third from the left.  Mine
just has an empty socket there.  Is it possible this is causing the problem?

[image: VS3100 SCSI/MFM controller]


Thanks,
Bryan

On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 10:22 AM, Peter Coghlan <cctalk at beyondthepale.ie>
wrote:

> >
> > Peter,
> >
> > Thanks for the email.  My challenge is that this machine has a floppy
> and a
> > SCSI drive (both appear to be cabled correctly when I open things up) and
> > yet neither show up when I do a "show device" from the console.
> >
> > >>> show device
> >
> > VMS/VMB  ULTRIX    ADDR    DEVTYP  NUMBYTES  RM/FX  WP  DEVNAM  REV
> > -------  ------  --------  ------  --------  -----  --  ------  ---
> > ESA0     SE0     08-00-2B-16-58-20
> >
> > Therefore, when I issue a "boot" command, it's trying to boot from the
> > network and not from the floppy I currently have inserted.
> >
> > Any ideas on troubleshooting I can do to determine why it isn't seeing
> > things on the SCSI bus?  (I'm assuming this is a SCSI floppy - please let
> > me know if I'm incorrect in that assumption.)
> >
>
> Hi Bryan,
>
> Now that you mention it, your TEST 50 output (quoted below for reference)
> is
> not showing any SCSI controllers.  There ought to be either one or two of
> them, depending on the model.
>
> > KA42-A  V1.3
> > ID 08-00-2B-16-58-20
> >
> >    MONO     0000.0001
> >  ? CLK      0000.0005
> >    NVR      0000.0001
> >  ? DZ       0000.4001
> >       00000001 00000001 00000001 00004001 00000000 00000000
> >    MEM      0010.0001
> >       01000000
> >    MM       0000.0001
> >    FP       0000.0001
> >    IT       0000.0001
> >    SYS      0000.0001
> >    8PLN     0000.0001  V1.3
> >    NI       0100.0001
> > >>>
>
> As far as I recall, some of the 3100s have a the floppy connected to a SCSI
> controller but others have a non-SCSI floppy controller like the one in the
> VAX 2000 which I think shows up as DUA2 instead of DKAsomething.
>
> Have a look at the where the SCSI connectors go - it might be to a daughter
> board in the top corner.  There may be one or two 40 pin NCR5380 SCSI
> controller chips on it.  Check that this board is correctly connected to
> the
> system board - it probably sits directly into a couple of connectors on it.
> If there is a cable instead, make sure it is plugged in properly.  If you
> are
> good with a multimeter, check that it is getting power.
>
> I hate to say it but I have a Microvax 3100 (rather than a VAXStation 3100)
> which has failed in a similar manner - both SCSI controllers are not
> visible.
> They are on the system board though, not on a daughter board.  I doubt both
> failed independently - probably some support circuitry they have in common.
>
> If you can't get the disks working, it should still be possible to boot the
> operating system of your choice over the network if you have a suitable
> boot
> host (which might not have to run the same os) or emulator.
>
> Regards,
> Peter Coghlan.
>