no display output during boot up of 715/100

[Peter Kielbasiewicz]

I have a 715/100 workstation which boots up to the dtlogin screen from its internal disk.
I can not see any display output though until the login screen disappears.
I only see the 8 yellow softkey icons but I get no boot rom messages nor do I see the output of the UX startup sequence.

Any clues anybody, how I could get into the boot admin menu to install a new unix rev?

I already tried to disconnect all devices except keyboard and I even took out the RTC battery, but I do not get any boot up messages displayed. I also hooked up a terminal to serial 1 and tried the TAB key to try different graphics resolutions but the system does not react to anything.

Peter

[S.K. Chan]

The EEPROM on yr wkstn might be messed up, not sure how can that happened, maybe it was reset and if that's the case you got 2 options :-
1. Connect ascii terminal and you should be able to see the bootup message and then change the concole path. (looks like this doesn't work for you).

or

2. "Dark typing". Hit esc key to interrupt bootup, you need to guess how long before you can hit the key. Then enter this (you will not be able to see what you type) :-:

path console graphics_1.1

Double check what's the right console path from another 715 (if you have one).

[Peter Kielbasiewicz]

Sorry for not beeing precise.
Fact is, that until the desktop login appears, the machine does not react to keyboard input at all.
As I already mentioned, even the TAB key does not work and this normally is the very first input that is processed (well before the ESC key)

[Wodisch]

Hello Peter,

I guess your "console path" is set to one of the serial ports.
Check with set "setboot" command.

HTH,
Wodisch

[Peter Kielbasiewicz]

Thanks a lot. The last reply gave me the clue.
I tried hooking a terminal to serial 2 and there it was.

[John Bolene]

Really strange.

Maybe port 1 was used for modem dialin at one time.

Port 1 is the preferred console port if there are no graphics devices on the machine.

[Diana O. Carter]

I have TWO 715/80 computers with the same symptoms. The systems were working. I shut them down, turned power off, and carefully moved them to another room (along with 23 other computers, but that's another story).

The systems were off for several hours. After plugging everything back together, I powered the systems up and got the same symptoms - lights flash, beeps beep, but the only thing I see on the monitor are a prompt at the top and the eight soft keys at the bottom. No response from the keyboard.

I have a VT320 and tried plugging in to each of the serial ports in turn and rebooting. Got no results there either. I'm thinking it could be a configuration issue on the VT320.

Can anyone tell me what the setup should be (baud rate, bits, parity, etc.) on the serial terminal?

Also, does anyone have a clue as to root cause? Is there a battery that needs replacing?

[Peter Kielbasiewicz]

Hello Diana,
standard settings are 9600 baud, 8bit, no parity, SW handshake or none.
You also need to make sure that you have the correct cable. A frequent error is to have the wrong send/receive line connection.
For the settings, it is possible to change them in the 715's BOOT ROMs. But if nobody fiddled with the ROM, it should have the aforementioned settings.