MicroVAX Help

From: Richard A. Cini, Jr. <rcini_at_classic.msn.com>
Date: Sat Sep 6 20:17:30 1997

On Date: Fri, 5 Sep 1997 allisonp_at_world.std.com (Allison J Parent) wrote:

<Well, I got the RD52 external HD on my MicroVAX-I working tonight. I swapp
<the blown power supply with a new surplus one. Had to redrill the case, but

>>A microvax-1? Really? Are you sure of that?

        Isn't a VAXstation-I considered a MicroVAX-I? One of the FAQs that I read
made this reference, and it's a lot faster to type "uVAX" then "VAXstation"
<g>

>>Most of them couldn't support enough memory to run netbsd or ultrix.
>>Generally in their day it was 2mb, sometimes 3mb. The reason was the >>CPU
was two boards and memory at the time was either 512k or 1mb per >>board and
there was only 8 slots in a ba23. so the typical line up was cpu, >>4 memory
cards, an rqdx2 disk and a DHV or DZV serial card. the problem >>was that
would put the power supply 20% over the top!

        This makes some sense. One of the first things that I had to fix was a melted
power supply cable between the power supply (375w) and the backplane. Here is
what I can see as the configuration: 4mb RAM, one DHV serial card, DEQNA
Ethernet, a M9047 board (??), M7512 buss extender, an RQDX1, MSV11-Q memory,
and 2 processor boards. I know that the MSV11 is only a 1mb board, but the
bootloader reports about 3.5mb of RAM. The model tag on the back lists
"610QK-XZ changed to VS20C-R2". It also has 2 internal floppy drives and one
internal RD52 hard drive.


<1. Since I don't know what is on the drive in the first place, how
< do I avoid a permanent destruction of the file system yet still
< correcting the problem?

>>Well you have to know whats on the drive first. I've never seen a MV-1
>>running ultrix though it may be possible.

<
<2. If <1> is not possible, how do I go about fixing the problem. I
< could not find a program named "fdisk", so either it had been
< deleted from the root partition, or it's under another name.

>>If it's ultrix then most unix conventions apply.
>>If you booted in single user mode you do not have full access to the
>>system.

        Would I accomplish this by logging-in to the system? Unfortunately, I don't
have the root password. How can I get around this?

<3. The only way that I could get the drive to respond is to put
< the cable in the middle connector (J2). The drive did not
< respond at all in J1 or J3. There must be jumpers somewhere
< that govern this, like on the buss extender card, but I have
< no jumper map.

>>???? is this a ba23 or ba123? In a ba23 the rd52 disk is connected via
>>two cables to bulkhead J7 and J2. if its a ba123 with M9058 distribution
>>board then it's rd0(bottom most connector pair).

        The "J2" refers to the J2 on the external RD52 drive case. The buss extender
is brought out to a DB50 to position "F" on the bulkhead. On the RD52 case,
there are three DB50 connectors, J1 to J3. The drive only responds when using
J2. Is this OK? How is this changed?

<4. {unrelated} Every time I restart the uVAX, it complains about
< the time needing to be reset. Do the uVAXen have internal
< clock batteries that have to be recharged/replaced?
<< TIA for any help!

>>Yes on the back of the console connector there is a battery pack of three
>>aaa sized nicads. pull them and charge them by hand. if they don't charge
>>you can find similar packs in many dec systems (rainbow, any ba23 or >>ba123
or vs2000 box). Also you can use any three cell pack for cordless >>phones
that fit.

        Are you referring to the console connector on the bulkhead? On this unit,
there is no battery pack. It only has two ribbon cables going to the processor
boards.

        With this additional info, what do you recommend to do now? Thanks again for
the help!

Rich Cini/WUGNET
rcini_at_msn.com


Rich
Received on Sat Sep 06 1997 - 20:17:30 BST