HP/DEC/Compaq

I recently bought a VAXStation on eBay, and it arrived today; it's in good shape, powers on and appears to get through the self-test. However, I'm having some problems, and I'm wondering if anybody can help me with them:

• I don't seem to be getting a picture out of the video card (PV21X-GD high-resolution color board.) I'm using an LCD monitor (Samsung Syncmaster 193p Plus) that is supposed to support sync-on-green (and that definitely supports the resolution and refresh rate used) with a makeshift cable setup (RS/6000 3W3-to-BNC cable plus 3xBNC-to-VGA cable - I gather that the RS/6000 has red and blue switched around, but I accounted for that and anyway it should only affect the colors, not the ability to form a picture.) But I'm not getting anything - the monitor OSD is claiming "no signal," not even that it's out-of-range. Is there some trick to this that I'm missing?
• More problematically, I can't get to the console over the serial port, either. I have the baud rate set correctly on my terminal, but I'm not seeing any output at all. Do the console functions only work over the MMJ RS-423 serial port and not the DB-25 RS-232 one?

Don't assume that green is in the same place. You need green to get to green, before figuring out if red and blue are the wrong way around. Try each of the three BNCs out of the 3W3 to green on the VGA cable. If it's going to work, it'll work with just the green hooked up correctly. Then you can work on straightening out red and blue.

You should at least see something during the self-tests. You might want to check that the graphics board is correctly fitted in its connector - it's not uncommon for VAXstation 4000 graphics board to move during transportation.


The only suitable serial console port is the MMJ port - the DB-25 is a different port (there are four serial ports on the machine, two for keyboard and mouse, two for regular operation). While the keyboard and mouse can be either connected directly to the system or to an extender cable which itself connects to the 15-pin multiplexed connector, the console and so-called printer port connect to distinct ports.
You might also want to check the status of the S3 switch on the front panel, which selects between glass and serial console.

Yeah, I got out the multimeter and verified continuity on the cabling; everything is going where it should, so the problem's either at the monitor end or the VAX end. Wish I had an oscilliscope...


I reseated it myself, it's in there as firmly as I could get it without undue strain...


Thanks for clearing that up. Is converting RS-423 (as I read the MMJ uses this) to RS-232 simply a matter of wiring?


I've had it in both positions, corresponding to my attempts to use the serial port or monitor as the console...

You can get DEC adapters or make your own (use a 6-position modular jack, cut the tab off, epoxy on the side). You can also get a MMJ cable and wire a DE9 or DB25 on the other end. The connections are available online - you just need to connect the "-" sides together and to ground and then use the "+" on the 232 signal lines.

The "S3" position is documented in the VAXstation guides. Use Manx and you can download them.

Yep, I already got the service manuals off Manx. I'll see about getting an MMJ cable made...

EIA423 is not exactly the same as EIA232... specifically it has a lower voltage swing, ±6 V instead of ±12 V. So it's safest to use level converters for this application, although you might be able to connect to rs232 without burning anything out.

I can take another look, but I'm pretty sure that the official DEC adapters are just passive.

The MMJ adaptor on my VS3100 is just passive. I use a Solbourne S3000 as the console, just for yuks.

Well, a guy on the Vintage Computer Forums made me an adapter, so as soon as that gets here I'll at least be able to get it up and running. Graphics will have to wait until I can get a known-compatible monitor, but luckily there are a few the folks on comp.os.vms recommended that can be had quite cheaply.

Okay, my serial adapter got here this morning, and she's booting to the console over the serial port It's actually got the full 104MB of RAM; this was more of a score than I'd realized! Still having some trouble, though. For starters, SHOW DEVICE doesn't seem to list the hard drive, so I'm assuming some SCSI voodoo is in order. Joy. :/ (That, or my 68-to-50-pin adapter doesn't work - entirely possible, as I've never actually used it before. I need to get my PC SCSI controller installed so I can verify some of this stuff...)

Furthermore, while it recognizes the CD drive just fine, when I try to boot from it ( b/r5:10000000 dka400: , according to the OpenVMS VAX install guide ,) it loads from disk and then just sits there. It might simply be taking a while, but there's no further disk activity, and the two times I've halted it in the middle, it's shown the exact same PC value, which kinda suggests that it's just sitting idle at that address...is there something I'm missing, here?

Internal or external SCSI? Is it one of the drives that "just works" with DECs?

Internal. It's a newer drive (Ultra2 LVD SCSI,) and I'm getting conflicting reports from the folks on comp.os.vms on how friendly later VAXStations are with newer SCSI equipment. However, I did verify that A. the drive works (in my PC, on the controller's 68-pin connector,) and B. the 68-to-50-pin adapter doesn't (on the controller's 50-pin connector.) This is not a terrible surprise, as I grabbed the cheapest Chinese bare-board adapter off eBay (I've since learned my lesson about doing that,) and then never used it for anything, so I had no idea if it worked to begin with.

Now I just need to get a halfway decent one...

The issue is likely related to the fact that newer SCSI drives (U320 definitely, can't recall about U160) don't have to support narrow operation - many do, but some don't. Check your documentation and make sure that your drive supports single-ended narrow ops (and jumper it that way just to be safe).

Also check out your CD-ROM drive. Recognizing it from the console firmware is not sufficient to indicate that it works. I use a Toshiba XM-4101 (AKA Sun SL-CD in a common disguise) often, can't recall if my Plextor worked on the VAXes or not right now (but that's another safeish risk).

The CD-ROM drive is a DEC RRD-42 - it's compatible with the VAX, but according to the folks on comp.os.vms it can't handle CD-R media, which would be the source of the problem for me. I have a Plextor drive on the way that supports 512-byte sectors and that some promo material claims is Alpha/VAX-compatible.

Yep. The original Hobbyist CDs are pressed so they weren't a problem, but unfortunately no longer available. I've never done it, but some Linuxes have MOP support for DEC netbooting available.

Well, I'd rather just get another CD drive working with it if possible, but I'll keep that in mind. Netbooting's always been a PITA in my experience, though, and I can't imagine it's easier on older equipment.

The last couple of VAXstation installs I did I used a InfoServer 1000 so I didn't have to mess with finding the VAXstation SCSI cables and putting in a local CD-ROM. Pretty convienient, really, once it's set up.

This thread started me thinking. I know the VAX servers were great for uptime and the ability to handle multiple users. What was the smaller VAXStation line used for? Was there a niche market or something?

VAXstations are also reliable, though they use more desktop-grade support componentry than the bigger VAXes (NCR 53C90 SCSI, LANCE Ethernet, the like) so they don't run as well under heavy users.

They provided a VAX-compatible workstation that was originally competitive speed-wise and would interface with the DEC services and run VMS but with a graphics head and 2-user "workstation" license. Much of the silicon was shared with the MicroVAX 3100 series as well, so there wasn't that much of a design penalty.

Nowadays they provide an entry into VAX-VMS for people who don't want to deal with a pedestal or rack machine. Yeah, a VAX 6000 is a sweet machine, but I don't have one because of size, noise and power. I do have two VAXstations and a VAX-4000.