MicroVAX II

From: Tothwolf <tothwolf_at_concentric.net>
Date: Sat Nov 23 18:15:00 2002

On Sat, 23 Nov 2002, Antonio Carlini wrote:

> > I had time to troubleshoot further, and somehow managed to get it to
> > at least make it to '6', but couldn't get it to progress past '9' the
> > next time (when I had a console cable connected). I'm
>
> 9 is "Identifying console terminal". It's supposed to give up after six
> seconds and skip to step 7. If it identifies ther terminal, it will go
> to step 8 instead and query the language.

It's supposed to give up after 6 seconds, but in my case, it doesn't...

> 6 is the RAM test.

Right, and it took a *long* time when the system was initially able to get
though all of the tests.

> You said uVAX II but what cards are in there? If it finds a video card I
> think the sequence might change a bit.

Its nearly a stock DEC MicroVAX II. No graphics hardware at all (which
would have made it a VAXStation II).

Board complement, as installed and as originally configured by DEC:

Slot Module Cardcage legend Option
1 M7606-AF M7606-H2 KA630-AA
2 M7608-BP M7608-B2 MS630-BB
3 M9047 M9047 grant card
4 M3104 M3104-C1 DHV11-A
5/upper M7546 M7546-E1 TQK50-AA
5/lower M7555 M7555-C1 RQDX3
6-12 empty
13/lower RQDX signal distribution board

Slots 1-4 are Q/CD, 5-12 are Q/Q, and 13 is power only.


I've since pulled all the boards, installed a M7625-AA (KA655) and M7621
(MS650) 8MB memory card by themselves, and got a chevron prompt. I also
got a memory error and a message stating normal startup is not possible.
'show memory' showed 0MB of ram installed. I tried another 8MB board with
the same results. I also tried 3 different 16MB boards, but the LED
display showed 'F', and of course, I didn't get a chevron prompt.

I'm *really* leaning towards a power supply problem. I did already clean
the power supply (I did that while cleaning the rest of the system). Does
anyone know where I can find the pinout for the power supply connectors?


> > Also, what is the story on the FCO on the power harnesses for the
> > backplane? The two harnesses in my BA123 are made of a gray ribbon
> > cable pressed into orange connectors.
>
> I *thought* it was the early BA23 power harness that had the issue, not
> the BA123. A bit of googling through newsgroups (comp.sys.dec or
> comp.os.vms) should nail that down somewhat.

Google turned up mostly vague info describing the affected harnesses, but
I did see references to both the BA123 and BA23 harnesses having been
FCO'd. The same references also mentioned the replacement harnesses have
white connectors and individual wires instead of a webbed or ribbon type
cable. To me, those white connectors sound like AMP or Molex connectors
with individual pins crimped onto each wire instead of having the wires
pressed into an IDC type connector like the harnesses currently installed
in my BA123.

-Toth
Received on Sat Nov 23 2002 - 18:15:00 GMT