Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Path: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU!SYNFUL
From: SYNFUL@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU (Marc Shannon)
Newsgroups: mod.computers.vax
Subject: This doesn't make sense
Message-ID: <8610240456.AA14753@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Thu, 23-Oct-86 09:45:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8610240456.AA14753
Posted: Thu Oct 23 09:45:53 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Oct-86 04:26:25 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 36
Approved: info-vax@sri-kl.arpa

Remember me?  I'm the one with the uVAX-I and the third memory board!
Well, I've got a new puzzler for you...

Yesterday, DRYCAS (the uVAX-I) refused to stay alive longer than 20
minutes.  After getting tired of sitting on the console and watching
bugdumps fly by at 9600 baud on an old VT52, I decided to play with the
innards and rearrange the cards to a more sensible order.

The order when the machine was in a more working state was:

   RXDX   Grant   DHV-11   Memory   Memory   Memory   CPU   CPU
   Disk   Contin             1M       1M       1M
  Cntrlr  ------
          DEQNA

Well, figuring that the disk controller was more important than the
DEQNA (especially considering that the beast is more trouble than
it's worth!), I swapped the DHV-11 and the Disk Controller.  Then,
the machine died everytime it tried to start DECnet during the
startup procedure with a four-line error message basically saying
that the DEQNA was messed up (busy or hardware failure or a couple
other possibilities).

Luckily, when I swapped the boards back to the way they were,
everything started up fine and the machine has been up since I left
it last night (around 2am...yawn!).

I'm curious...Why wouldn't that swap work?  It was suggested that the
disk controller might have a built in bus terminator.  Is this true?

--Marc Shannon
----------
Yes, I drink Coke, and I do have black hair, so?
----------
Arpa: Synful%Drycas@TE.CC.CMU.EDU
Bitnet: SYNFUL@DRYCAS