I decided that since no one else was bidding on it, and it wasn't very
far for shipping purposes, I'd go ahead and bid the $50 minimum on the
VAX 4000/300 that was in Ohio a couple weeks ago. When the seller
quoted me a $100 shipping price, I groaned, but not too loudly. It
looked like it wasn't going to be one of my better purchases. It was
even missing the power supply, but I figured I could at least use some
of the memory from it in my other 4000/300.
After forgetting about it and then remembering, and reminding the seller
about it on Tuesday, it arrived today on a 40ft semi trailer. It's
always fun recieving things shipped freight. :)
So the first thing I noticed when I got it home was the 3 L4004-Dx memory
modules (128MB each). I thought things couldn't get any better than
that. The machine was missing its power supply, but as luck had it,
I've got an R400X sitting in my garage that I wasn't using, and it
turned out that the power supply is the same. :)
So, stick in the power supply, hook up a serial console, and power, and
power it up...
KA692-A V2.3, VMB 2.14
HOLY CRAP! I said to myself (and with a slightly different wording :).
It appears that someone upgraded the 4000/300 to be a 4000/700A with
384MB of RAM. Woot! It's even still in good physical condition (it's a
rackmount version, without the pedestal enclosure).
The VAX even still had VMS 5.5-2 installed on it, with this ominous
message:
********************************************************************************
* Restricted System - NO Unauthorized Access
*
********************************************************************************
WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED PERSONS DO NOT PROCEED!
This computer system is operated by MCI WorldCom and may be accessed
only by authorized users. The data and programs which are
<snip>.
I guess I'll be reinstalling VMS on this system, just to be sure MCI
doesn't sue me. ;)
All-in-all, worth the $50+shipping I paid for it. Perhaps the best thing
I've gotten off eBay so far. :)
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCS --- http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
Received on Wed Feb 09 2005 - 22:42:02 GMT