| After trying it out of the box (ie, the cpu cards in their metal
| brackets loose, with everything standing on its end), I turned it off,
| felt the foil side of the main card, and found that *something* was
| running hot enough to concern me.  So I managed to take it the rest of
| the way apart, and found it's composed of four pieces: the main cpu
| card (with two chips that look like MicroVAX CPUs from my uVAX-II days,
| which were what were running hot), a piece marked "NETWORK INTERFACE",
| a piece marked "2/4 MB MEMORY OPTION", and a piece marked "VS40X 4
| PLANE COLOR OPTION".  Figuring that if they were marked OPTION, they
| were optional, I laid these last two aside, connected the network
| interface back up with its ribbon cables, and turned the thing on
| again.  (I was careful to stand it so the CPUs, with their cooling
| towers, were in the exhaust airflow from the power supply fan.)
| 
| Now I get something.  Four "ESC [ c" terminal type probes, a banner
| "KA410-B V2.1", a countdown and a failure:
| 
| F...E...D...C...B...A...9...8...7...6...5...4_..3_..2_..1?..
| 
| 
|  ?  E  0040  0000.0045
|  ?  D  0050  0000.0005
|  ?  C  0080  0000.4001
|  ?  6  00A0  0000.4001
| ??  1  00C0  0011.700E

The video cable you are using - does it have a single BNC for a monochrome
VR260 style monitor, or three BNC's for the color monitor (e.g. VR290)?
I've not poured over the manual enough but in the self-test section they
do give some soft error examples and one involves a "monochrome monitor
with the 4-plane color option."  They don't say whether it doesn't work
though.  WRT the 3-BNC cable - they do sync on green so the green to
a mono monitor should work.

These are the self-test tags:

	F	Base Video
	E	System Clock
	D	NVRAM
	C	Serial Line Controller
	B	Memory
	A	MMU
	9	FPU
	8	Interval Timer
	7	Disk Controller
	6	Tape Controller
	5	Interrupt Controller & Ethernet ID ROM
	4	Optional 4-plane Graphics Coprocessor
	3	Reserved
	2	Reserved
	1	Ethernet Network Interconnection Module

	One "?" is written up as ``A single question mark indicates
	a "soft" error.  A soft error does not prevent normal operation
	of the system and serves to report status of the system.''

	e.g. "?  E  0040  0000.0005" means "clock not set"
	     "?  D  0050  0000.0005" means "low battery"

	While "??" is documented as ``A double question mark indicates
	a "hard" error, which is one that indicates a serious problem
	that may affect normal operation and use of some component of
	the VAXstation 2000."

	e.g. "??  1  00C0  0011.7004" means "no thinwire ethernet cable"

| After the E on the last line, I get CR LF ^Q ESC \ ESC [ 4 i ^Q CR LF
| and the text "?15 CORRPTN", then the >>> prompt.
| 
| Of course, I hardly expected it to boot, since I had no possible boot
| medium hooked up.  But when I did have it put together, I got a boot
| failure similar to this, ending with the ?15 CORRPTN banner.  (The
| terminal I have connected takes the ESC \ as a clear-screen, so I
| couldn't tell what came before it.  Now, I have the terminal in monitor
| mode.)
| 
| The CPU chips are running hot enough that, despite being directly in
| the airflow from the fan, I can't stand to leave my finger on their
| little cooling towers for more than a few moments.  Hot enough to worry
| me, certainly.
| 
| I've seen references to a T command, which is not something I'm
| familiar with from the MicroVAX-II; I also have no idea what the boot
| device names are for the VS2000.  Is there a command summary I could
| pick up from somewhere?

	>>> TEST 0		system exerciser
	>>> TEST F-1		self-tests for devives listed above
	>>> TEST 50		configuration
	>>> TEST 51		set default boot device
	>>> TEST 52		set default boot flags
	>>> TEST 53		set default recovery action
	>>> TEST 54		set keyboard language
	>>> TEST 61		Screen of Es (Monochrome)
	>>> TEST 62		White screen (Monochrome)
	>>> TEST 70		Fixed disk formatter
	>>> TEST 71		Fixed disk verifier
	>>> TEST 81		Screen of Es (Color)
	>>> TEST 82		White screen (Color)
	>>> TEST 87		8 color bars (Color)
	>>> TEST 88		8 gray0scale bars (Color)

| Does anyone know whether it's normal for the CPUs to run that hot?

To be honest, I've never tried to run the box with the CPU and FPU
so open.  I believe you also have a uVAX-II/GPX.  I don't recall
whether you mention it being in the big BA123 box or the narrow
tall BA23, but for example, the BA123 when the card cage is open,
trips a switch and an extra muffin fan cuts in to get more airflow.
I recall these two chips sit right up front above the fixed-disk
area and would hopefully be in a good spot for airflow.  Left in
the open, I expect they will get hot - but I can't say how hot is
too hot.

Cheers,

-- Ken