Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!ur-tut!ur-valhalla!micropen!dave
From: dave@micropen (David F. Carlson)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: VMS is not the evil empire
Message-ID: <426@micropen>
Date: 9 Mar 88 22:44:44 GMT
References: <12067@brl-adm.ARPA> <707@hdr.UUCP> <20469@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Organization: Micropen Dirent Writing Systems, Pittsford, NY
Lines: 34
Summary: classic VAX "can't fix it: it runs UNIX" story

In article <20469@bu-cs.BU.EDU>, bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) writes:
> 
> >What does this have to do with choosing VMS over Ultrix?  Well, at least
> 
> DEC's pathological resistance to providing hardware service on Vaxes
> 
> This has been known for years as the "We can't fix it because it runs
> Unix(Ultrix)" DEC field service standard excuse #1. There are few
> 	-Barry Shein, Boston University

We had a VAX 750 that worked wonderfully with its ra81 (380Meg disk).
Suddenly (over a period of a week) several very strange hard errors
occurred on the drive.  DEC says "can't fix it: it runs UNIX" but they
charge us for the service call anyway!  For several months we used
fsck, ncheck, and low level formatters:  but the problem would reoccur
elsewhere on the volume.  Some sixth months later DEC sends a notice
to all sites with ra81's that the *glue* they used to afix the head assemblies
was defective and would cause all sorts of messes.  After replacing the 
entire HDA (head/disk assembly), which was the only fix, the drive 
hasn't had a problem since.   But VMS diags the tech service people
had ran with no problems!

So VMS must be better. :-)






-- 
David F. Carlson, Micropen, Inc.
...!{ames|harvard|rutgers|topaz|...}!rochester!ur-valhalla!micropen!dave

"The faster I go, the behinder I get." --Lewis Carroll