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From: terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Old (Real) Data General Nova 3
Message-ID: <1990May29.211016.290@spcvxb.spc.edu>
Date: 30 May 90 01:10:16 GMT
References: <451@isgtec.UUCP> <1990May25.085617.22242@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <1990May29.025253.15707@hellgate.utah.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: St. Peter's College, US
Lines: 31

In article <1990May29.025253.15707@hellgate.utah.edu>, tjones%sunset.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Ray Jones) writes:
>     Some friends and I recently acquired a DG Nova 3, with 10 Meg Disk Platters
> and ~32k onboard ram.  Don't ask me why we did this.  Probably because we're 
> stupid.  Anyway, the problem is, we can't get it started.
>     We'd like to get the beast (Actually we've named it BERTHA.) started, but
> nothing we've tried has worked.

  Ok, you asked for it 8-}

  You've got front panel switches in groups of 3 (octal), right? Your 10Mb
disk should either be a 4234 disk (Diablo 44) drive, or a 6045 (I think
that's right, it's been years) DG-built disk. In any event, it's device
code 33. You need to set the front panel switches to 100033 (left switch
up, middle ones down, 5 right switches UUDUU) and lift Program Load. This
should start a boot sequence to your disk drive. If all is well, you'll
get asked for the date and time (at least you will if you're running RDOS
or a derivative). The prompt is "R;", believe it or not.

  If that doesn't get you going, look at the front panel lights. If you
don't have a RUN state, or the lights just blip and die when you do the
program load, you are probably missing some boards. Check for empty slots
in the backplane. As I recall, slot 0 (not really a slot) was the power
supply, 1 & 2 were the CPU, 3 was MAP, 4-something were memory, and the
rest are peripheral controllers. Empty slots before the last used one
must have 2 grant jumpers installed, but I don't recall exactly where...

  The useless things I remember...

	Terry Kennedy		Operations Manager, Academic Computing
	terry@spcvxa.bitnet	St. Peter's College, US
	terry@spcvxa.spc.edu	(201) 915-9381