one thing i always do when i get some old machine is thoroughly clean it 
out before i power it up. it might be covered in dust or have corrosion 
on impoartant parts.. especially if its been sitting for years. 
i've had some surprising resurrections of apparently dead machines that 
way.. my favorite example is the ds5k240 that ive had running for years 
now, which when i got it was a dead as a post, even the LED's didnt light 
up. after stripping it all apart and cleaning it, it magically worked 
after i put it back together. anyway.. the old DEC gear is hard to kill, 
so i'd give it a shot. i'd also make sure it's set for a serial console, 
flip the switch and whatnot... 

happy hacking,
isildur

On Wed, 10 Jul 2002, Mike Parson wrote:

> I've had this system sitting in my closet for a few years, rescued
> it from a pile of systems that was going to be trashed.
> 
> This past week, I started to get nostalgic and decided to start
> doing what needed to be done to get it up and see what was there,
> then install NetBSD on it.
> 
> After getting the appropriate MMJ->DB9 cable assembled, I was able
> to get it to the bootrom prompt, but when I tried to do a 'show dev'
> it locked up.
> 
> After cycling power, nothing would go to the console again.  The
> 8 diag LEDs on the back all stay lit, which indicates that we've
> got power, but no instructions are being executed.
> 
> Any hints on what I might be able to do to get it going again?
> 
> -- 
> Michael Parson
> mparson@bl.org
>