DId you bid on one of the two VAX4000/300 machines listed by one
seller? I noticed that one was a 4000/300 and one was a 4000/300
upgraded to 700 or something. (He listed the boards.) The 700 was sold
for a little bit higher than $100, lower than $150 (several bids), and
the 300 got no bid at the time I checked. Maybe the seller shipped you
the 700, and the winning bidder of the 700 got the 300 instead. He/She
must be mad, I guess.
vax, 9000
On Wed, 9 Feb 2005 23:42:02 -0500, Patrick Finnegan
<pat_at_computer-refuge.org> wrote:
> 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 Thu Feb 10 2005 - 00:27:20 GMT