Hi all,
We have just taken delivery of 6 Alphastation 200 4/166 machines to
run OSF/1 and are having a few problems in getting them going.
On power up at least 4 of them sometimes do not produce any video
output ( the monitor stays on Energy Save and no picture) It is clear
form the noises from the RZ26L (I assume L is for Load) that the
machines are booting. The symptoms are not exactly reproducable but it
appears that we get normal video if we do not power anything from the
mains Outlet and do not have any external SCSI devices
connected. However if either or both these sockets are in use it is
very difficult to get any video!! Any possible explanation or solution
to this would be very welcome.
We run all our systems with a common nfs mounted /usr so install a new
machine by booting on CDROM, re-partitioning the internal disk to have
a decent sized swap area then restore a root filing system from an
external disk onto the 'a' partition of the internal disk, edit
rc.config to change hostname and ip address and away we go.
However One of the the six refuses to boot when we have the external
disk (an old RZ55) connected. It sees all disks from a sh dev and will
start to boot ( either from an external CDROM or internal disk) until
it does a SCSI scan then we get CAM errors reported about the internal
disk and a complete hang. ( It will boot OK with just the internal
disk and external CD-ROM connected. I have checked the SCSI ID's set the
SCSI-termination variable to external)
The local CSC say it either because the external disk is faulty or we
are using the wrong leads - we need new style leads ( Just what the
difference between old and new style SCSI leads is cannot be
explained). This disk and leads have however worked OK on the other 5
machines. I am now at a loss on how to proceed, are there any console
variables that could prevent an RZ55 working?
I also notice that when at the boot prompt if I remove the
terminator from the external disk there is a sound like a large relay
activating from inside the 4/166 - any ideas what this can be?
Incidentally I was surprised the only documentation supplied was a
small manual for the graphics board.
Thank you in advance for any help/advice.
Tim.
Tim Janes | e-mail : janes_at_signal.dra.hmg.gb
Defence Research Agency | tel : +44 684 894100
Malvern Worcs | fax : +44 684 894384
Gt Britain | #include <std/disclaim.h>
Received on Thu Apr 06 1995 - 16:19:09 NZST