HP Viper problems

From: Joe R. <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Sat Apr 24 14:51:19 2004

   Does anyone here have any experience with the HP Viper or HyperViper
cards?

    Now that I have a working HyperViper system I've been pulling out all
the Viper and HyperViper cards that I've has stashed away and testing them.
I found the the software on the working system works fine with the 82321C
Viper cards but not with the 82321B Viper cards. The device loader and
BASIC loader both work fine and they start what looks like a HP 9000 type
boot sequence that shows all the installed devices and does a memory test.
After that completes it SHOULD looks for a HP system file and boot HP
BASIC. The C cards work fine but the B cards never find the system.
Everything is EXACTLY indentical except the card revision. I'm using the
last version of the drivers and according to HP they should work for all
versions of the card but I've checked two HyperVipers and two C cards and
they all work and yet none of the four B cards work.

  FWIW I have another system with an older version of the software. It used
to work but the hard drive in it has been slowly dying and now it won't can
find the system either. It has a B card in it and I think version C
software. The odd thing is that it looks exactly like a 9816 or 9836
booting up. It even displays a message saying that it's a 9816 or 9836C
(depending on which you select with the configuration utility). The later
system says that it's a PC 300 and the boot screen is somewhat different. I
think the difference in due to the newer software but I'm not sure. I need
to pull the card from the old system and try it in the newer one to be
sure. (There is a Boot ROM on the cards and in a real HP 9000 it controls
those messages but I don't think that's the case on these.)

  I tracked down a new sealed package of the Viper software but wouldn't
you know it, it's missing disk 2!!!!

  Does anyone have any original software for these or any experience is
getting them running? I'm also looking for some of the key combinations
that HP uses to emulate the HP keyboard for thing like the Stop and Reset
keys and how to get back to the User keyboard from the system keyboard.

   Joe
Received on Sat Apr 24 2004 - 14:51:19 BST