[Info-vax] DEC Multia (UDB) issues

[John Wallace]

On Aug 22, 3:21 pm, MG <marcog... at SPAMxs4all.nl> wrote:
> Generally speaking: Are SCSI failures common?  I recently tried to
> directly boot an OpenVMS Alpha V8.3 installation CD, in an RRD43 and
> also a Yamaha SCSI CD-R/RW drive later (which was properly detected
> in the SRM), but I'm getting SCSI bus errors.
>
> The NVR/TOY battery is also dead, might this be affecting it?  I've
> only recently laid my hands on the Multia (UDB), so I'm not very
> experienced yet with this system (and only powered it up a few times).
> All and any suggestions, ideas, tips, pointers and so forth will be
> greatly appreciated.
>
> In the meantime, I've found a cheap second-hand PCMCIA SCSI adapter
> and I'll see if that fixes some problems.  I don't know if it will
> work (or even be detected), but for the price I paid it's no big loss
> if it shouldn't.  About PCMCIA, does anyone perhaps know if off-the-
> shelf CF (Compact Flash) cards and PCMCIA-adapters will (or are
> reported) to work with the Multia?  I know it's not much to go by,
> but it's as specific as I can get (for now).
>
> I can provide more detailed error logs.  I didn't have it hooked up
> via the serial console, because I didn't have a serial console handy,
> but I do have pictures (which I could e-mail or host somewhere).
>
>   - MG

If it's not recognised by the SRM console you can't boot off it. The
chances of a 3rd party device being recognised by SRM are not zero,
but not far off.

I also wouldn't dismiss the lack of battery quite so quickly as others
have done. The Multia built in SCSI adapter is an NCR810 (KZPAA-
compatible). The Multia SRM console is pretty much the same as others
from the era and various SCSI settings are configurable from the
console; if misconfigured you may well see devices at the >>> but they
may well not work right if something is misconfigured. I can't
remember if these settings are lost at reset/power-cycle if the
battery is dead but it would not be a surprise if they were.

Get a new battery, check all the SCSI-related settings make sense, and
see where that leads.

Best of luck.