[Info-vax] MicroVAX/VMS newbie, couple of questions

[Jordi Guillaumes i Pons]

En/na Richard B. Gilbert ha escrit:
> Tone007 wrote:
>> the orange LED flashes for a bit on power up but eventually all three
>> LEDs begin flashing constantly and stay that way while the system is
>> in operation.  I have no tapes to try the drive with unfortunately.

> 
> ISTR that all lights flashing on a DLT drive means that there is a 
> hardware problem.  I think it has something to do with a broken or 
> misconfigured "leader" that's supposed to hook up with the tape in your 
> cartridge.

It could be also a problem in the logic board of the TK70. Recently one 
of my two TK70s started flashing after operating for a while. I 
disassembled it to the point to see the "leader" was OK. Fortunately, I 
had an old TK70 (with a broken leader ;) and I did a brain transplant 
between both. So now I have two operating TK70s and a broken one I'll 
keep for parts...

If the problem is the "leader" it is usually fixable, but the repair 
doesn't last longer.

For the OP: Does the 3900 have a SCSI interface (KZQSA or similar)? If 
it has you could try to get an old external SCSI driver in eBay and 
you'll be able to do the VMS upgrade using the hobbyst VMS CD. I use an 
ancient NEC 3x multispin (triple speed... wow!) for that. There are 
usually lots of those in eBay.