(last updated: 13-Aug-2017)
The current configuration is in its original 'as acquired' condition.
| H9278-A | A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q22/CD | 1 | M7620-BA : KA650-BA : uVAX III CPU (11MHz) | |||
| 2 | M7621-AP : MS650-AA : 8MB RAM | ||||
| 3 | M9047 : bus grant | (empty) | |||
| Q22/Q22 | 4 | M7516 : DELQA-M : Ethernet cntlr | M9047 : bus grant | ||
| 5 | M7169 : QDSS Base | ||||
| 6 | M7168 : QDSS 4-plane | ||||
| 7 | M7546 : TQK50-AA : TK50 cntlr | M9047 : RQDX3 : MFM/Floppy cntlr | |||
| 8 | (empty) | (empty) | |||
20-Feb-2006
This unit was part of a large pickup in Longmont, Colorado.
01-Mar-2006
In some pre-pickup photos, the previous owner pointed out that the Rorschach blotch on the top of the case was the result of a wine bottle spontaneously popping its cork! He also hinted that the machine may be damaged as a result, but was probably useful for spares.
Still, you never know what you'll find, and I was determined -- once it was safely delivered to its new home -- to find out how bad it really was.
Cleanup started with the removal of the 'big box' from inside the BA23 shell. Setting the box aside, I first began with a quick vacuuming of the inside and out of the shell. Then I started on the stain with a 'baby wipe' and discovered that the spill was coming off very easily once wetted. The whole enclosure shell was completely clean within five minutes! Not at all as bad as expected.
Indeed, there was some leakage through the seam between the shell halves onto the big box inside, but it was pretty well localized to the area immediately on top of, and above, the power supply section. It cleaned up just as easily, but the box, being bare metal, was stained by the wine's acidity. Still, no real harm done at all. I removed the don't-go-any-further bracket and found a still sticky, but almost dry, film underneath. Again it cleaned up very easily, and I replaced the backet with the two mounting screws.
Further cleanup involved a careful, topical vacuuming and then a straightforward disassembly of the major components inside the big box. I removed the housing around the fan controller circuit board, then removed that too. I removed the mass storage devices. And I removed the power supply sub-assembly. Everything was vacuumed and all the non-electronic surfaces were carefully wiped down. I left the card cage as is for now.
The system was not at all dirty, really. Just a little accumulated dust (well, actually quite a bit of dust inside the power supply!) and the wine spill. It really cleaned up very nicely and without too much fuss.
01-Mar-2006
I wanted to test the power supply, but safely. I disconnected all cables from the power supply which included the backplane, the fans, and the mass storage devices. I switched the system on, but had no response. This made sense, since I could see that this was a more modern switching power supply, not the old linear style, so without a load, the switcher wouldn't operate. I didn't want to apply power yet to the card set, so I left the power connection to the card cage disconnected, but hooked up the fans and the drives, leaving the data cables detached. This provided enough load to get the switcher to operate, and when I re-applied power to the system, I got good fan speed (initially a high RPM, then an immediate reduction to a lower RPM). The RD54 hard drive spun up in a few seconds and I had a power/ready indication on the TK50 drive. So the power supply is happy!
Until I can become more educated about this system, how to operate it, and what software I can expect to see -- and of course, I still need the proper keyboard -- I don't want to try to boot the system. I want to know what its behavior should be at boot up, and I want to be prepared with the means to immediately take a snapshot of the drives contents. I am not yet aware of the possible tools that might be available for this, or whether I'll have to come up with something on my own. I definitely want to preserve whatever is on the hard disk before doing anything that might be destructive to the configuration or any data.
06-Sep-2006
Using a DB9-to-DB25 converter cable, that also triggers the console port, I connected a VT100 to the system. I set the WRITE-PROTECT switch on the front panel to protect the drive's contents from any accidental erasure or modification.
Once I sorted out the correct configuration of the controls on the rear panel, I powered up the system. I immediately saw the famous countdown sequence (23..22.21.. and so on). So the CPU is viable and working! As a matter of fact, the system boot ROMs apparently are set to just dive right in and boot from the hard disk, which it started to do! Luckily the WRITE-PROTECT switch was engaged, and no harm done.
Without appropriate documentation on hand, I did some more power-cycling to learn more about how to use the rear panel controls. Eventually, I had it figured out.
07-Sep-2006
I struggled with an ethernet problem over the past 24 hours. Eventually I worked it out: I had a flakey ethernet NIC in my Debian Linux computer that was serving as my MOP/BOOTP/NFS bootserver. I replace the NIC and all is well again.
I netbooted NetBSD 1.5.3 and, using the utilities menu of NetBSD's sysinst, I configured the network inteface, and then exited to the shell prompt. From there I mounted an NFS export to the Debian system. Then I used dd to make a disk image to a file on the Debian box, and from there it was burned to CD for long term archival. With the ethernet problems worked out, I had no further problems.
11-Jul-2010
Having suffered a number of setbacks trying to netboot my VAXstation II/GPX in order to restore the Ultrix drive, I decided to double check my netbooting setup with another system, this one. I saw similar problems ('Stray interrupt...', etc.) and was unable to get any further. This hints that it is my netboot support stuff that's at fault.
While fiddling with this and that, I wanted to let this machine boot completely from hard disk. I tried, but as described in earlier notes, I see the Ultrix bootloader messages, then the hard disk stalls with the select light on, which eventually goes out, then the system later times out back to the console prompt. Also, I could not get the TK50 drive to respond when I tried to boot from it. Strange, nothing is working. Time for a complete review.
I pulled all of the boards, noted their confurations, and generally tried to make sure everything was connected correctly.
- M7620-BA : KA650 MVAX III CPU : s/n WF811L9039 - M7621-AP : KA650 8MB Memory : s/n ZG80709610 - M7169 : QDSS Base Module : s/n AB811010Y0 : SW 1,2,3 On; 4 Off - M7168 : QDSS 4 Plane : s/n AB81104QTW
M7546 : TQK50 : TK50 controller : s/n END1699 : 3 'solo' jumpers closed; (t2b:r2l) 1,2,5,7 closed; 1,4 ON all other OFF; all OFF - Hardware Revision Level: "50", on=1,4 off=2,3,5-8 - Unit Number: "0", on=[none] off=1-8 - CSR Address: , on=A5,8,11,12 off=A2-5,7,9,10
M7516 : DELQA : s/n AS80301424 - CSR Address: 174440 (default), Sw1-1: on - Mode: Normal (default), SW1-3: on - MOP Boot: Off (default), SW1-4 on - (factory settings): on=SW1-2,5
M7555 : RQDX3 : MSCP MFM/Floppy controller : s/n WF85200240 - Version 4 ROMS: '339E5' & '340E5' - CSR Address: 172150 (default), on=W2,4,5,9,11; off=W1,3,6-8,10 - Vector: 154 (default, no jumpers, software selected) - Starting LUN: 0 (default); on=[none]; off=W12-17 - HEADSEL/REDUCWRTI: on=W23:1-2 and W23:3-4 (RD54 setting)
[NOTE: I pulled the drive and checked it's drive select jumpers, it had jumper C-4, and I changed this to C-3. According to an online reference, the drive should be jumpered C-3 or 2-3. Turns out that this makes things worse, so I relocated the jumper to C-4.]
Now that I've checked everything, I'm going to try again, a step at a time.
First was just the CPU, memory, and DELQA. Powers up fine, but I still see the same errors when trying to netboot.
Next, just the CPU, memory, and RQDX3. Powers up fine, and I am able to boot ULTRIX successfully using '>>> b/2 dua0'.
Next, just the CPU, memory, and TKQ50. Powers up fine, but there is no response from the TK50 when I try to boot from it. It or the controller must be dead.
15-Jul-2017
In the past couple of years, as I fired up this system for reqular usage, somewhere along the way, the hard disk contents have become corrupted. The system will no longer boot showing:
?06 HLT INST
PC = 00000003
Restarting system software.
Loading system software.
which just cycles over and over. At least in this loop the hard disk is being accessed and exercised. I'll need to netboot the machine using NetBSD and restore the original disk image.
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