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From: IHERSHMAN@NYBVX1.BITNET (Ittai Hershman)
Newsgroups: mod.computers.vax
Subject: (none)
Message-ID: <8512031015.AA06866@ucbvax.berkeley.edu>
Date: Tue, 3-Dec-85 05:16:20 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8512031015.AA06866
Posted: Tue Dec  3 05:16:20 1985
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We purchased six MicroVAX I's before the MicroVAX II announcement.  I
can't complain -- it was part of a DEC grant...  In any case, when the
II was announced we ordered the I to II upgrade kits which we have since
installed.  For those that don't know, the upgrade kits consist of a new
CPU board with one meg of memory, a RDQX2 controller and a new CPU
console distribution panel.  There are no changes made to the backplane.

In any case, we quickly realized that DEC's smallest configuration of
the MicroVAX II had two meg of memory for a reason.  Our upgraded
MicroVAX II's with one meg would chug along fine for one user, but start
a DECnet process up and watch the system swap!!!  We decided to try
EMC's four meg board since the rest of our VAXen use their memory
without any problems.  At first all seemed fine, but on closer
examination we noticed that although the system saw all five meg, four
meg would show as bad pages (static).  This is what should happen when
the board's ENABLE/DISABLE switch is set to DISABLE; it wasn't.  We
called EMC and they sent us a replacement board (overnight).  I tried
the second board and had the same problem.  I called again -- they
were/are baffled.  The boards work fine in their MicroVAX II's, but not
in our MicroVAX-I-upgraded-to-MicroVAX-II's.  I then called National
Semiconductor and Chryslin, which both offer four-meg uVAX-II boards,
and they assured me that as far as they knew their boards would work.  I
am reluctant to start evaluating any other vendor's boards.

Any educated ideas out there???  I am particularly interested in anyone
who has attempted to add memory to MicroVAX II's which were upgraded
from MicroVAX I's.