Dmitri Vorobiev wrote:

> After a major upgrade of computer equipment in one of the departments
> of our University I am a happy owner of an old DECStation 5000/200.
> The parts that I have are the following:
> 
> - System unit model PM36A-BC
> - No memory modules, unfortunately -- not a single one
> - TURBOChannel framebuffer PMAG-C
> - LK201 keyboard and Digital mouse with cable
> - VRT19-D3 monitor and video cable

If you find some RAM that will be a very nice R3000 system.  Do you have a disk
box?
 
> I understand that the workstation lacks memory modules, but is it
> normal that there is nothing on the display? In other words, is there
> any sense in looking for memory chips in this situation? Status LEDs
> show 0111 0011.

From the DECstation 5000 Model 200 Hardware Operator's Guide: 

"Four left lights:
Off On On On: If, in addition, the right indicator lights display On On On On,
replace the memory module in memory slot 1.  If the right indicator lights do
not display On On On On, the problem is in the system module.  Replace the
system module and chassis."

That seems like overkill to me.  I don't have a pmax that I can afford to power
off for testing, but I would bet that you're not going to get anything on the
screen without any memory.  I know of few machines that can do that: where is
the system going to store data?  Sure, there's executable code in the ROM, but
there's nowhere to use as a "work area" for data.

After a two minute google search, the lowest reseller price I could find for
memory was here: http://www.jtcomputer.com/products/dec_memory.htm .  It's still
not cheap, so hopefully someone from the list will have some memory they can
offer you.

> I will be grateful for any advices/suggestions/opinions. In case my
> question is an OT here, I am sorry for disturbance I have caused.

Not at all OT as far as I'm concerned.  There aren't too many places to get
hardware advice on DECstations, and if you're going to be running NetBSD then
all the better :-)

-- 
Henry Bent
hbent@cs.oberlin.edu