Subject: Re: VS3100m38 oddities.
To: Erno Palonheimo <esp@cc.hut.fi>
From: Brian Chase <bdc@world.std.com>
List: port-vax
Date: 10/02/2000 17:12:32
On 3 Oct 2000, Erno Palonheimo wrote:
> Brian Chase <bdc@world.std.com> writes:

> > If the systems don't have any internal disks, there may not be a large
> > enough load on the power supply for it to operate correctly.  Try plugging
> > in a SCSI hard drive... or actually any drive.  It doesn't have to work in
> > the system.  It only needs to generate an electrical load.
> 
> Same with VS2000, right?  The systems have disks, old IBM 0663 and
> 0664 SCSI units mostly.  Some even have CD-ROM drives...  So this is
> not the cause of the problem.  Any other ideas?

Yeah, the VS2000s are even more picky about this from what I remember...
Well the one that you said doesn't appear to power up at all, that just
sounds like a bad power supply to me.  The one with the long self-test "B"
sounds like it may have memory problems.  In general, I've found the
VS3100s to be quite reliable.  I did have one VS3100/M38 fail on me.  It
was a memory problem, I believe related to on-board RAM or the CPU cache.

My suggestion would be that with the VS3100 with the test B issues, you
first reseat the memory boards.  If that doesn't help, then start pulling
the memory boards (two maximum).  If it's just a bad board, then your
system should still be usable with less RAM.  If the memory errors persist
and even with all the RAM boards pulled, then you've probably got
something wrong on the system board.  In that case, you could swap out the
power supply from the totally dead box with the one you have in this one.

At the very least, you should be able to combine parts from these two
systems to make one working VS3100.

-brian.
--- Brian Chase | bdc@world.std.com | http://world.std.com/~bdc/ -----
The special BAD part of Heaven, where the clouds are made of steel wool
and the angel robes are those backless paper things from the hospital.
 -- K.