[Info-vax] MicroVAX 3100-30 - won't boot...

[AdeV]

Paul Sture may or may not have intoned:
> In article 
> <ab2d2df3-a785-43f2-94eb-6cb7df4d9eb3 at a32g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>,
>  FrankS <sapienza at noesys.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Dec 31, 8:38 am, Steven Schweda <sms.antin... at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On some newer (Alpha) systems, if you choose the
> > > wrong serial port, then you may get some messages, but
> > > eventually the system starts talking to only the right port,
> > > so a terminal on the wrong port looks dead.  (I've never tried
> > > using the wrong port on an old VAX.)
> > >
> > 
> > If he was on the wrong port then he wouldn't get the POST display
> > (which he references in the original message).
> > 
> > I'm more inclined to believe either an incompatible CD-ROM drive, or a
> > bad burn of the CD image.  Many times in the past I've seen copies of
> > CD-ROMs not work in certain drives.  Something about not properly
> > closing the image.
> > 
> > Better to use original media.
> > 
> 
> In that case, may we ask the OP what software was used to burn the CD?

You may....

The "original" disk (which is a CDR copy) - unknown. I used this disk to 
make an NRG image file using Nero 6, which I converted into an ISO using 
nrg2iso. This ISO was then used to (successfully) install SimH.

The NRG image I burned back to a Verbatim CDR, using a Dell CD writer, 
again with Nero 6 - at its slowest supported burn speed of 4x.

I also downloaded a copy of VMS7.3 from a well known torrent website, 
this was in "img" format. I've successfully used that to install a simh 
instance as well, but I am unable to burn that to a real disk, as all 
the utilities I've tried simply complain about it.


FWIW, both the original CDR and my newly burnt copy are able to boot as 
far as the VMS message - the new CD somewhat more reliably than the 
original one.

-- 
Cheers!
Ade.