Hi guys, it's nice to see you're all still in down here! I've been away for a long time, just until yesterday when MCA fever hit me again and I acquired a Bull DPX/20 200 workstation, which seems to be an OEM manufactured IBM 7006 (-41x?). At least thecase and mainboard are the same.
Unfortunately the box is pretty stripped: no HDD, no CD-ROM, no drive cages, but a floppy drive, a POWER Gt4xi graphics adapter with the evil 3W3 connector and... no RAM!
The seller gave me 8 pieces of Kingston KTM-9595/32 which he believes to come from "some RS/6000", but the 7006 keeps yelling some
c01 100 200 300 411
c02 100 200 300 412
c03 100 200 300 413
c04 100 200 300 414
codes at me, which I translate to "bad RAM in slots A, B, C, D" using the 7006 operator guide.
Looking that Kingston RAM up shows it is at least used for the 9595 server. No reference to the RS/6000 though. Some refer to it as parity, others as ECC.
Can anyone tell if this is the right RAM for that system?
If not, which one do I need? FRUs would be really helpful.
Also, if anyone is sitting on a stash of bored drive cages, I could help him out...
Eventually I'd like to restore this beautiful beast to an operational condition. It had been asking so sadly...
Thanks, peace and out,
Christian
So little remaining memories, so many questions...
I assume, it *could* run my ancient copy of AIX 4.3.3, would happily interact with my PC style Model M, and any SCSI CD-ROM drive would be just fine for the start, right?
And with this video thing... The card is a 11H4913, so it is a "POWER Gt4xi (1-5) 24-bit Graphics Card", according to some awesome know-how site.
Is its companion, the "Processor Card FRU 52G1343 (Placed in Lower Numerical Slot than Graphics Card)" actually required for the operation?
There is an empty MCA slot right next to it, so I assume the processor card missing.
If I recall it right, it's not as simple as dropping in an XGA-2, hmm?
So little remaining memories, so many questions...
I assume, it *could* run my ancient copy of AIX 4.3.3, would happily interact with my PC style Model M, and any SCSI CD-ROM drive would be just fine for the start, right?
And with this video thing... The card is a 11H4913, so it is a "POWER Gt4xi (1-5) 24-bit Graphics Card", according to some awesome know-how site.
Is its companion, the "Processor Card FRU 52G1343 (Placed in Lower Numerical Slot than Graphics Card)" actually required for the operation?
There is an empty MCA slot right next to it, so I assume the processor card missing.
If I recall it right, it's not as simple as dropping in an XGA-2, hmm?
Will the 7006-42W board (finally found a label on it!) boot from an additional MCA SCSI adapter? Which ones are supported on this machine?
I have a spare Future Domain MCS-600/700 / IBM PS/2 SCSI-2 from a 9576 that I will give a try, but that's probably not what it wants, is it?
What are my options? Will it take Spock, Corvette, Passplay, Cheetah and friends?
I just measured the SCSI control lines /BSY, /ACK, /RST, /MSG, /SEL, /C/D, /REQ, /I/O, with and without a drive attached.
Turns out, they all stay low at all times, so most likely, the host controller has deceased.
The planar PCB looks clean and intact, no burnt fuses or blown capacitors, so probably not much to win there.
What are my options? Will it take Spock, Corvette, Passplay, Cheetah and friends?
If yes, will I need to look out for any special revisions?
Sad thanks,
~Christian
Repeat the procedure with the SCSI cable disconnected and and again tell
us with which display code the system stops.
Assuming that the Bull DPX/20 200 is a direct match for an IBM 7006, then it won't work with any of the PS/2 SCSI adapters, it will want one of the RS/6000 SCSI adapters, and it will probably only boot from a 4-1 (FRU 51G9425).
Wolfgang Gehl schrieb am Mittwoch, 3. November 2021 um 22:37:15 UTC+1:
Repeat the procedure with the SCSI cable disconnected and and again tell
us with which display code the system stops.
Thank you Wolfgang, but the issue remains:
With a known-good SCSI drive at ID 0, external SCSI disabled, termination at the HDD on/off, no adapters at all, the system hangs on
262 (keyboard error) in maintainance mode
233 (boot from IPL) in normal mode
with or without the SCSI cable being plugged.
If the SCSI cable is plugged, the disk won't spin up.
While probing the SCSI bus, I didn't even see anything on the control lines - not even a glitch on power-up.
ekb...@vnet.ibm.com schrieb am Mittwoch, 3. November 2021 um 22:18:32 UTC+1:
Assuming that the Bull DPX/20 200 is a direct match for an IBM 7006, then it won't work with any of the PS/2 SCSI adapters, it will want one of the RS/6000 SCSI adapters, and it will probably only boot from a 4-1 (FRU 51G9425).
Well, at least the Ardent Tool states that the 7006 should happily accept the Corvette in no perticular revision, also for boot:
https://www.ardent-tool.com/IBM_SCSI/SCSI-FW.html#RS6000_Boot_Support
(at least, if you read it in an optimistic way...)
it seems you're right and the onboard SCSI is not working. My point is
to get past 262 in service mode, just to make sure, the system continues
POST even without a working SCSI subsystem.
Since there is no monitor and no video card you might as well just pull
the keyboard off.
Give your system a boot device and connect the floppy drive. Disconnect
the SCSI cable and tell us what happens.
211 IPL ROM CRC comparison error (irrecoverable)
Hi Christian,
a CRC error indicates that the inital program load data stored in ROM is corrupted.
Am 04.11.21 um 21:11 schrieb Christian Holzapfel:
211 IPL ROM CRC comparison error (irrecoverable)
Whether and how such a problem can be solved, I cannot say.
Unfortunately, I don't have a 7006 replacement planar either. That means
I can't help you any further.
Wolfgang
Gurp. Get a copy of the correct ROM? Like that is even likely?
I'll try to read out mine and identify some checksums or seemingly corrupted areas.
The IPL ROM image can be disassembled and decompiled with Ghidra without any troubles - at least Ghidra doesn't complain about any corruptions during analysis.
Turns out IBM uses some weird implementation of the regular CRC-32 checksums. Can't tell if the implementation is normal, off-standard or just weird-looking through the decompiler.
Guess I could identify the memory regions that are included in the checksum check, and what the final value is compared to...but what for? To find out my ROM is corrupt?
Digging into PowerPC assembler is fun, but it won't help me recover the intact image :-/
Maybe someone in continental Europe has a 7006 and could lend me his EPROM for a readout? I'd return it immediately, I promise. Shipping costs and surprise gifts are on me!
ISTR some IPL-ROMs and the like had a kind of safety built in, that is: a copy of the image in a secure, non-erasable portion of its memory. In case of terminal corruption of the working copy, one could copy the safety-copy back into the erasableportion and be back in business.
Maybe??
JWR schrieb am Montag, 8. November 2021 um 09:43:29 UTC+1:portion and be back in business.
ISTR some IPL-ROMs and the like had a kind of safety built in, that is: a copy of the image in a secure, non-erasable portion of its memory. In case of terminal corruption of the working copy, one could copy the safety-copy back into the erasable
Maybe??
Hi Jelte. I didn't see any duplicate copy of the BIOS inside the EPROMs address space. This is where you expected it, right?
Shame it didn't work out.
The IBM document "RS/6000 Diagnostic Information for Micro Channel Bus Systems, Version 4.3.3" mentions a set of diagnostic diskettes.
And with this video thing... The card is a 11H4913, so it is a "POWER Gt4xi (1-5) 24-bit Graphics Card", according to some awesome know-how site.
Is its companion, the "Processor Card FRU 52G1343 (Placed in Lower Numerical Slot than Graphics Card)" actually required for the operation?
There is an empty MCA slot right next to it, so I assume the processor card missing.
If I recall it right, it's not as simple as dropping in an XGA-2, hmm?
This is the full error code list. I had to use my phone's slow motion video recording function to capture the quick ones.
Some look pretty fatal to me, indicating some serious planar failures, if they're not exaggerating:
211 IPL ROM CRC comparison error (irrecoverable)
215 A low voltage condition is present (irrecoverable)
290 IOCC POST error (irrecoverable)
What baffles me is that none of my HDDs likes to spin up when connected to the internal 50-pin SCSI port.
I've disabled the external port (due to lack of a proper terminator), tried two different 50-pin cables and two disks.
They all spin up fine without the SCSI connected, so power is there.
Tried some 9.1 GB SCA drive with an adapter, and an IBM DALS-3540 (540 MB, set to ID 3, spin up, termination on).
Is there a special cable required, is the planar toast or am I missing anything else?
Even with the external SCSI port set to "disabled" and active termination on the internal bus, a proper termination plug for the external connector is required.
Sysop: | Keyop |
---|---|
Location: | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK |
Users: | 295 |
Nodes: | 16 (2 / 14) |
Uptime: | 09:54:38 |
Calls: | 6,644 |
Calls today: | 4 |
Files: | 12,190 |
Messages: | 5,326,468 |