topic Re: Halt code 7 on Alpha 1000A in Operating System - OpenVMS

Halt code 7 on Alpha 1000A

Dennis de Groot — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 05:50:40 GMT

Hello,

Since this morning we have the following errormsg on our Alphaserver.
No configuration changes have been made to the system in the last few months but we did have a power failure this night.

Suggestions are very welcome as we have only basic knowledge of Alpha configuration.
(this servers runs our former ERP software, only used for previous years lookups).

fe.fd.fc.fb.fa.f9.f8.breakpoint at pc 1241f0 desired, XDELTA not loaded
f7.ff.halt code = 7
machine check while in pal mode
pc = c400
impure area for cpu 0 (at 5200)

Thanks,

Dennis

Re: Halt code 7 on Alpha 1000A

Karl Rohwedder — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 06:00:41 GMT

This looks like a hardware fault.

Re: Halt code 7 on Alpha 1000A

Ian Miller. — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 06:39:23 GMT

Have you been able to reboot after that error?
If so there should be an entry in the error log giving more information on the machine check. This could be examined using
DIAGNOSE/SINCE=YESTERDAY
or
ANAL/ERROR/SINCE=YESTERDAY

Re: Halt code 7 on Alpha 1000A

Dennis de Groot — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 06:59:14 GMT

No, the msg runs, followed by a sequence of numbers, in a loop.
It doesn't even start to load OpenVMS :s

If it is indeed a hardware problem then I'll guess we'll have to get a technician on-site.

Re: Halt code 7 on Alpha 1000A

Ian Miller. — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 07:02:38 GMT

It does indeed sound like a hardware fault - parhaps related to the power failure.

Re: Halt code 7 on Alpha 1000A

Volker Halle — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 07:23:44 GMT

Dennis,

if a machine check (typically a hardware/memory error) happens in PAL code, the machine halts (with HALT CODE 7). If the console environment variable AUTO_ACTION is set to HALT, the system remains at the console prompt. If AUTO_ACTION is set to RESTART, the console restarts OpenVMS and it will take a MCHECKPAL bugcheck, write a dump and reboot. If the machine check happens in PAL code, you will typically not get an errlog entry written, as the hardware does not provide a logout frame.

In your case, it looks like the halt happens even prior to booting. Did you try to power down the machine, wait a couple of minutes and then power-on again ? If you still get the same error, the hardware is broken.

Volker.

Re: Halt code 7 on Alpha 1000A

Dennis de Groot — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 07:40:13 GMT

Yep, that I did try :) I even unplugged the power cord and plugged it back in.

No problem, I'll call a technician then.
Would have been nice if we had gotten it back to work ourselves since the machine's maintaince and recovery contract expired last year.
Luckily when can go a number of days without it :)

Thank you all very much for your fast replies!

Re: Halt code 7 on Alpha 1000A

Antoniov. — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 09:10:16 GMT

Dennis,
welcome to vms forum even if you now you have some problem ... :-(

Halt code are:
0 Bootstrap, processor start, or powerfail restart
1 Console operator requested a system crash
2 Processor halted due to kernel-stack-not-valid halt
3 Invalid SCBB
4 Invalid PTBR
5 Processor executed CALL_PALL HALT instruction in kernel mode
6 Double error abort encountered
7 Machine check while in PALcode environment
8-ff Reserved

It seems some hardware trouble.

Antonio Vigliotti

Re: Halt code 7 on Alpha 1000A

Dennis de Groot — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 07:17:22 GMT

Hello,

Last update before closing this thread!

It was indeed faulty hardware, the technician had to replace the CPU!

Thanks all!

Dennis

Re: Halt code 7 on Alpha 1000A

Dennis de Groot — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 07:17:56 GMT

Hardware fault, replaced CPU