OpenVMS Console Count with lowercase y with umlaut

[Kevin T. Fairbanks]

During boot of a VAX 4000-100A running OpenVMS 6.2, the console counts up from 00. The section looks like:

00…01…02…03…04…05…06…07…08…09
10…11…12…13…14…15…16…17…18…19
20…21…22…23…24…25…26…27…28…29
.
.
.
>>>

When it gets to 29, it looks like:

29…yyy30

The “y”s have umlauts above each one (diaeresis).

Where would I look to see what this means? Thanks!

[Steven Schweda]

> When it gets to 29, it looks like:
> [...]

It looks like that on _what_? You could have
odd-ball terminal settings (parity, for
example).

Of course my snazziest VAX counts down from
95, so what do I know?

[Kevin T. Fairbanks]

It looks like that on _what_?

This comes up on the console terminal.

[marsh_1]

kevin,

but what is your console terminal a vt ? a decwriter ? emulator on a laptop ?

[Kevin T. Fairbanks]

It is a VT420 terminal.

[Steven Schweda]

> It is a VT420 terminal.

I was starting to think that that tooth would
_never_ come out.

So, I'd expect it to have a "Set-Up" ("F3")
key which could lead you to a description of
the settings for the relevant serial port...

[Hoff · Accepted solution]

The sequence counts upward?

That's not the POST.

The POST counts down.

If it counts upward, it's something else.

Please post what you've expunged here; the sequence from the banner and the power-up POST onward.

Test 30 is memory, and test 29 is the DZ.

And then the usual question and suggestion for old VAX boxes that have gone weird: is the TOY battery shot? This can cause loss of system time and loss of settings, and other weird behaviors. Check the network and the disks, too.

Usual console setting is 9600 baud 8N1 for VT420.

[Steven Schweda]

> The POST counts down.

You mean my old junk is still typical? Whew.
I was starting to feel bad. (Worse than
usual, anyway.)

Never trust anyone who says "looks like", I
always say.

[Willem Grooters]

We've that (ÿ) as a normal character in Dutch. That may trigger something?

How fast does the counter grow, and to what size?

(a general question, somewhat off topic perhaps, but triggered by this question:
is it possible to run a (small) program in the console, and if so, could you find out what program is running? )

[Richard Brodie_1]

Small y, diæresis / umlaut is 255 in latin-1 (all bits idle state)

I would vote for it being line noise.