<Is it possible for a RQDX3 to be bad, and trash a RD53 (Yes, I know what
<terrible drives they are) to the extent they can't be formated in a VS200
Yes and no. Yes I've had drives a VS2k would not touch but the drives
were otherwise ok. The PDP-11 formatter would however format them. Most
of the drives I have that the VS2k didn't like were formatted on my CP/M
crate using a teltek card(oddball format) or the older PC mfm controllers.
You could have an incorrect hookup, power problems or other things going
on. Are the RD5x's powered from the same powersupply as the rest of the
system (in the same box)?
RQDX3s do fail though the failure modes can be vary varied as they have
their own PDP-11/memory/eprom on board. If it passes self diagnostics
it's a 98% safe bet, if it's self testable it's ok. That does mean there
are parts that selftest cannot verify.
<So my question is, am I just having very bad luck or is the controller m
<problem?
I think your suffering from a multitude of things and with an apparent
lack of docs to reference too. Your trying to attack it was if it were
a PC and it's not even close. Those drives generally don't fail that
suddenly and my expereince is they are generally reliable. But when you
start with a box of junk it's hard to get to a know working point.
Me I have Q-bus PDP-11s that can boot faster and off a wider variety of
devices so any testing is done that using good old RT-11. I also have a
set of diags for that platform so testing things like disks, tapes and
interfaces is doable either with diags or by using them. At some point
I have know good boards and questionable seperated and can move the known
good to the uvax. PDP-11 and uvax Qbus commonality can be handy.
Allison
Received on Sun Feb 22 1998 - 22:21:18 GMT