VAX questions (3100/76)

From: 9000 VAX <vax9000_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sat Jan 22 21:12:57 2005

On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 22:04:09 EST, Saquinn624_at_aol.com <Saquinn624_at_aol.com> wrote:
> Thanks for everyone's help in the past- adamg helped me get my Apollo running
> and Dwight Elvey gave me more info on the Polymorphic Card (don't have a kbd
> yet- nor any firmware so that project is on hold for a while). The S-100
> manpage is great-the only manuals I couldn't find were the IDS modem and the
> Digital Systems 8" floppy.
>
> Now I'm trying to get my first VAX up, and it's having SCSI issues.
> (VS3100/76, 32MB, no GFX option, no kbd/mouse, no drives,10bT tranceiver
>
> With the cable plugged in (no devices), bus A fails with FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF
> FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFF03 FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF.
> If you take off the cable from the KA43, it passes the test. Presence or
> absence of the terminator on the bus makes no difference.
What cable are you using? I once owned a VAXSTATION 3100/76 and later
I sold it to the US army through ebay. The SCSI cable on the back has
a different pin out. If you use a standard 68 pin SCSI cable, you
surely will get errors.

vax, 9000

> If it were not for the fact that it works without the cable, I would assume
> that the system board was dead, and probably toss it (it doesn't look easy to
> replace the 5380s) but I don't want a VAX to die unnecessarily, and I'm not
> sure where to go from here as far as troubleshooting.
> When I got it, the SCSI cable was unplugged so it might have been yanked on
> before someone realized there were clips, but it doesn't appear obviously
> damaged.
>
> Does anybody know how Digital marketing explained the 68-pin SCSI and MMJ as
> improvements, or did they even try?
>
> -Scott Quinn
>
Received on Sat Jan 22 2005 - 21:12:57 GMT