>  I'm still having a problem with my VS-2000 talking to my laptop through the printer serial port.
> 
> On the VS-2k side, pins 8+9 (I soldered them together on the Motherboard!) are shorted the null modem 
> is plugged into the Vax and a straight through cable.

Unfortunately, there is no single "null modem" cable out there
in the big world.  There are lots of null modem configurations!

> I have also tried swapping pins 2+3 and making 5 straight through w/ 8+9 shorted on the VS-2k.

Again, if your null modem is swapping other pins around or shorting
them together, it might just be screwing you over.  Assuming your
laptop has a DB-25 on it for a serial line, you need 2->3, 3->2, and
7->7, in addition to shorting 8 and 9 as you already have.
> 
> I'm still not getting any response! 

What sort of communications program are you running on the laptop?
If you're running one of the commonly available brain-dead communication
programs (this seems likely, considering how all of your messages
have lines much longer than 80 columns in them),
it may be expecting hardware flow control, which the VS2000 will not
be providing.  Get a decent communications program (such as MS-Kermit)
and tell it to "SET FLOW XON/XOFF".

> Do I need to pull the 4-plane graphics card out of the machine for the terminal to work?

No.

> 3. Is there any way I can run the diagnostics on the serial port from the >>>?

Which diagnostics?

Tim.