HELP: Alpha 4/233 crashes randomly, fails to boot

From: Matthew Wise <mwise_at_cybercom.net>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 16:34:23 -0500 (EST)

Fellow managers -

Our Alphastation 200 4/233 has taken it upon itself too crash after random
disk-related commands (fsck, ls) and not boot. The box has two BA353
Storageworks expansion boxes filled with RZ28M disk drives and a TLZ07
tape. The problem occurs whether the expansion boxes are attached or not.

The inital crash came unbidden on a slow day after a routine reboot. I was
able after a few tries & failures to boot in single-user mode, fsck and
look at the message log: system messages we're interrupted by a block of
binary-looking garbage. I was then able to boot to multi-user mode, but
crashed moments after that after an ls -l.

The crashes are random & inconsistent. The one message I've managed to
recreate following a crash is like this:

[ ... firmware version &c. clipped ... ]
        pci0 at nexus
        psiop0 at pci0 slot 6
        Loading SIOP: script 800c00, reg 82040000, data 4062eb60
        cam_logger: CAM_ERROR packet
        cam_logger: bus 0 target 0 lun 0
        ss_perform_timeout
        timeout on disconnected request
[The last 4 lines repeat twice, then ... ]
        Reached max abort count, schedueled bus reset

At which point the machine freezes.

I know there's a great deal more information generated by the crash, but
since I can't boot i don't know how to access it. I've called DEC field
service because I assume there's a hardware problem, but I'd like to at
least have a direction to point the field tech in - any suggestions for
recovering more information & getting this machine back up.

Thanks & summary to follow,
Matt Wise
Sametz Blackstone Associates
Received on Mon Jan 20 1997 - 22:50:49 NZDT

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