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.

[Kevin T. Fairbanks]

Sorry, yes it is counting down. This happens on each boot, so I would not think it is line noise. If it were line noise, wouldn't it happen randomly? The terminal is setup correctly as far as communication settings, baud, stop bits, etc.

The system runs fine, with no loss of time or any other resources. We have been having hardware failures on other parts of the system, such as an AUI and a serial card. Knowing that 30 is memory helps. What does DZ stand for at #29? Thanks!

[Volker Halle]

Kevin,

the DZ-11 is an asynchronous serial line multiplexer. Does your system have one installed ?

Volker.

[Kevin T. Fairbanks]

No DZ-11 installed.

[Hoff]

There looks to be some sort of a character mismatch between the terminal configuration and the host console and the host console language setting. Since you have no DZ, that's very likely the "No DZ" flag. Since the box counts down to zero, POST passes (and a true failing POST doesn't typically do that) and since there's no DZ and thus there's an informational flag expected here. Ignore it. Better yet, rather than spending cycles here, look to start replacing this decade+ VAX with something a little newer; though this isn't a failure, decade-old gear does fail. Either a spare VAX, a newer spare VAX, or an emulation, or a port to OpenVMS Alpha or OpenVMS I64 (boxes seen circa US$300, plus licenses).

The VAX 4000 model 100A manuals are available, BTW.

http://vt100.net/manx

Look for the VAX 4000 Model 100,100A,105A,106A KA52/53/54 CPU System Maintenance manual, since you're looking at the POST for a VAX 4000 model 100A. I don't immediately see the Option Not Installed option flag for the console POST, but I expect it's listed in one of the manuals.