[Info-vax] testing VAXstations

[Zane H. Healy]

In comp.os.vms Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) <helbig at asclothestro.multivax.de> wrote:
> Finally I have time to do some inventory, so I am testing old hardware
> (with the aim of knowing what works and what doesn't and deciding what I
> might pass on to a good home).  It's been a while since I've done
> anything with a VAX (about 10 years).  On a VAXstation 4000, I have the
> S3 switch set to UP.  I am using a terminal and cable which I normally
> use for an Alpha console (9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity,
> receive=transmit, 1 stop bit) so I am assuming that that is not the
> problem (IIRC VAXes, in contrast to Alphas, won't boot if they don't
> sense the console).  The cable is MMJ on both VAX (printer port) and VT.
> 
> When I power the box on, all the LEDs light up, but stay lit.  From the
> old days, I remember flashing (and maybe some sounds) then some output
> on the console terminal.  Now, nothing. 
> 
> Any ideas?

One of the things I've done the last couple months, is to test my VAXstation
4000's.  The VLC and 60 will boot with a dead Dallas RTC chip (the battery
is built in).  The 90 won't, and if I remember correctly this was the
failure I saw.  I simply bought some DS12887A+ RTC's, and swapped them out
in my 90, VLC, and one 60.  I still need to swap the chip on the 60 that
runs 24x7 (DECnet area router).

Something I did notice with the spare 60 and the VLC is that they needed to
be sitting plugged in a bit before they come up, before I swapped the RTC
chip.  IIRC, I saw this on my AlphaStation 200's, and the 500 as well.

Once I had the 90 running, I put a SCSI2SD board in it, and got it working
with an LCD monitor, and I'm now using it again.

Zane