first DEC machine

From: R. Stricklin <red_at_bears.org>
Date: Fri Apr 2 15:22:54 1999

Howdy;

Several years ago while I was at UW I promised myself that one day I'd get
a VAX and learn how to use VMS. That day came yesterday, when a VAXstation
3100m76 showed up on my doorstep.

So in the immortal words of Zane, "I can't get it to boot." (:

I realise I may be making an entirely faulty set of assumptions about what
I'm doing so here's where I'm at.

I received also an LK201 keyboard, the wondrous "hockey puck" mouse, and
the video cable (15 pin D-sub on one end, 3 BNC plus what look to be
keyboard and mouse connectors). The machine supposedly has SPX graphics.

I connected the video cable to the appropriate port on the rear of the
VAX, and plugged the keyboard and mouse into the connectors on the cable,
and the 3 BNC to a NEC 5fge, which supports composite sync-on-green and
I'm fairly sure should sync up to whatever the VAX puts out.

Switched the machine on, and waited. And waited. Nothing. No lights on the
keyboard, nothing on the display. The LED status whatsis at the rear
wibbled around a bit but I didn't pay close attention to what it was
doing. The disks never spun up.

I tried again with the keyboard and mouse plugged into the connectors on
the back of the machine, and got keyboard lights, but aside from that had
the same luck as before.

What should I be looking at first? I'll try to borrow from work a cable I
can use to connect a serial terminal to the box to see if anything useful
happens then.

ok
r.
Received on Fri Apr 02 1999 - 15:22:54 BST