Yowee! Kazowie!

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_freegate.com>
Date: Wed May 5 17:58:24 1999

This is one of those times where "winning" an auction is wild. So I tested
pulled the KA650 (I know the KA655) would be better, and the third party
memory boards out of one of the BA213 chassis and replaced the KA630 and
12MB(4+8MB) of RAM.

        Question: The KA650 ram linkage cable has slots for four RAM
        boards, the KA630 one has slots for two, I used the KA650's
        cable and it hangs over the next couple of Q/Q slots, can I use
        the KA630's cable? They seem to have the same number of pins but
        I haven't counted.

I power up this puppy and right away it's different because it starts at
#40 and starts counting down. The banner says:
        
KA650-A V5.3, VMB 2.7
Performing normal system tests.

Then I boot the current image of netbsd on it and it reports 64MB of "real"
memory, so these memory boards are 32MB each not 16MB each. Cool!

Then I power it down, and install one of the TK70 drives in place of the
Exabyte that has been giving me some trouble. Reboot and the kernel finds
the drive and all is well.

Power it down again so that I can button it up, go back into another room
where I'll tip into it without the noise, power it up get the >>> prompt
and type 'b' but it isn't echoed. Go back to the machine room and the vax
is dark and the room smells. Yikes! Turn it off, pull all the boards,
inspect them for damage. There isn't any, turn on the power with only the
CPU board installed, and notice a "light" in the TK70 drive. Now since
there aren't any light bulbs in the drive I look closely and sure enough it
is flames around a resistor in there. Off goes the power, out comes the
TK70, try it again, but no go, the DCOK like don't light and there is still
a vague smell coming from the chassis. Kazowie!

So, does anyone have the printset for the BA123 power supply? I'm pretty
sure the boards survived, the TK70 I'm not so sure about. I sure wish I
knew why it lit up like that.

--Chuck
Received on Wed May 05 1999 - 17:58:24 BST