[Info-vax] DEC 3000/900 bootup problem

[Vance Haemmerle]

Some updates on my bootup problem...

I ordered a replacement I/O board (54-21147-02).
I confirmed that all jumpers on the new board were
the same as on my original board (they were).  I
moved the ethernet rom chip and replaced the board.
I did not replace the DALLAS NVRAM battery chip since
I think there may be a problem with the old one.
The system did not do its initial video card tests,
nor any system tests or ever get to the console.
It stopped at LED code "E1" which the service manual
says is "TURBOchannel sizing completed".

When I put the ethernet rom chip back on the old board
and reinstalled it, my system did do the startup and
get attempt to boot.

As far as I can tell this replacement board is defective.

There is a difference in behavior with the several
re-seatings of the I/O board.  Now the system is back
to not having a SCSI error on power up, but "test SCSI"
still has the data mismatch errors.  The disk boot
still hangs after the version string, but now, instead
of hanging forever, after about a minute it attemps
to boot again with "83 SYS BOOT".

I attempted to boot off the V7.2-2 CD-ROM and for the
first time it now asked for the Time!  I put the time
in and saw the Compaq message and after a short time
the bootup failed with message number 0000043C and

Improperly handled condition, image exit forced.

So... I/O board flackiness?  Not NVROM chip problems?

--
Vance Haemmerle



Vance Haemmerle wrote:
>   Today my DEC 3000/900 developed a problem.
> It was in a cluster with a VAXstation and was
> booted out of the cluster, both had been up for
> 42 days, it appeared to have hung.  Now the DEC 3000/900
> cannot boot.  Here are the symptoms...
> 
> Whether booting from the system disk, an internal
> RRD45 or a newly connected RRD43 (just in case it was
> a disk or cd-rom problem) after all the inits and
> book checks pass and the
> 
> OpenVMS (TM) Alpha Operating System, Version 7.1-2
> 
> message appears and a few more disk activities occur
> (drive or CD-ROM) the bootup appears to hang.
> 
> 
> Details and things I've tried:
> 
> All power-on tests are OK
> All console tests pass
> The number on the console display is normal ("90").
> A boot from the V7.1-2 and V7.2-2 CD-ROMs hang
> soon after the OS version string.
> Conversational boots with "MIN", USE DEFAULT and SET/STARTUP OPA0:
> all hang.
> The system also has a drive with Tru64 Unix V4.0F on it
> but it boots all the way up and runs!
> 
> Any ideas of what to try or what it might be and why it only
> affects VMS bootup?  I assume something in the autoconfigure
> is going bad.
> 
> -- 
> Vance Haemmerle