so on a whim i pulled the CMD card out and put the KZQSA card in:

>>>show dev
[DSSI disks snipped]

SCSI Adapter 0 (761300), SCSI ID 7
-DKA600 (PLEXTOR CD-ROM)

Ethernet Adapter
-EZA0 (08-00-2B-1D-D9-49)
>>>boot DKA600
(BOOT/R5:0 DKA600)

  2..
-DKA600
  1..0..


%SYSBOOT-I-SYSBOOT Mapping the SYSDUMP.DMP on the System Disk
%SYSBOOT-W-SYSBOOT Can not map SYSDUMP.DMP on the System Disk
%SYSBOOT-W-SYSBOOT Can not map PAGEFILE.SYS on the System Disk
   OpenVMS (TM) VAX Version X72T Major version id = 1 Minor version id = 0

Please enter date and time (DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM): 

(yeah, the battery is dead)

-brian