VaxServer 3100 and VT340 terminal

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Thu Mar 29 23:19:07 2001

At 10:24 AM 3/29/01 -0500, Compusync wrote:
> Hi
>Thanks for the information below. I was able to acquire the MMJ connector
>and was able to get the VaxServer properly interfaced with the vt340...sort
>of!

Well you've made tremendous progress!

> When I boot them up they start up as you described below without any
>problem...but the keyboard does not seem to be able to make any input. The
>keyboard seems to be in working order, since I can switch to setup mode,
>using the "Setup" F3 key. But no other key will do anything.

You need to make sure the communication parameters are set to 9600 baud, 8
data bits, one stop bit, and no parity. Also you should set the port to be
"DEC-423, Data Leads Only" otherwise you might be running afoul of the flow
control handshaking.


>When the VAX complete the booting process I have the following screen:
>
>KA41-B V1.4
>F_..E...D...C...B...A...9...8...7...6...5...4_..3_..2_..1?..
>
>? C 0080 0000.4001
>?? 1 00C0 0011.700E
> >>> [the cursor would be here]

That's just telling you that you don't have a mouse hooked up and your
network interface is not seeing carrier.

Another thing to try is a different MMJ connector on the back. I know its
silly but one one system I tried this was the problem. Got the power up
tests but it wasn't the "real" console.

>I believe this is an easy fix, (probably in setup)but obviously I am
>clueless why I cannot get any input from the LK201 keyboard.
>BTW: can you tell what operating system this is on?

You're not at an operating system yet, so far your still in the
bootrom/monitor.

>The VAX is VaxServer 3100 (says "series BAA 4B" on back). I opened it up and
>found 3 hard drives
>I am considering running OpenVMS freeware on this and was wondering what is
>the upgrade paths to making this more effective: CD-ROM, Hard Drive, Memory.
>It has an obsolete looking tape drive and one space for another internal
>drive.

I just finished doing a full up install of VMS on a VS3100/M30 (KA42 rather
than a KA41 but otherwise similar) and it has 8MB of RAM and two hard
drives (RZ58's). It runs VMS very nicely single user and I'm setting up a
budding young collector with it.

The single best upgrade you can do to that system is to get a CD-ROM for
it, either an internal mount or an external SCSI one. Once you crack the
keyboard issue type 'show config' or 'Test 50' to the monitor and it will
list out what is currently on the system. Other useful commands are 'show
mem' to see how much memory is installed and 'show dev' to see what devices
are there.

--Chuck
Received on Thu Mar 29 2001 - 23:19:07 BST