DS10 alphabios to SRM

[Colin Butcher]

Hi,

I'm setting up a surplus DS10 for a hobbyist.

I've hit a wierd problem. I cannot get it out of alphabios back to SRM. I've set "VMS console" in the "advanced CMS settings" and saved it. According to the manuals that should take it back to SRM next time around.

I cannot get to a ">>>" prompt. There's no response to the halt button (which I've seen before with other DS10s).

I can't boot from the Alpha firmware update CD either - the alphabios claims it's not bootable, yet the alphabios update will happily read the alphabios file from the CD. Of course, alphabios update doesn't update the SRM or anything - just the alphabios!

Every time it's powered up it goes into the alphabios.

I suspect that there's an entry in the "nvram" file which runs the alphabios as part of the power-up sequence, but how to get at it and change it without access to the ">>>" prompt?

I wonder if there's some utility one can run from alphabios that lets you reset things?

Anyone seen this before? Any ideas what to do next?

Cheers, Colin (www.xdelta.co.uk).

[John Abbott_2]

Hi, Colin,

To clear the nvram...

>>> edit nvram
* 10
* exit
>>>
(Section 2.4 of the DS10 Console guide )

Can't think of what the solution is to the SRM HALT issue trickery at the mo...

sorry, not in the office today, I'll have a dig when I'm back in tomorrow (I've got a ds10 manual)

Regards,
John

[John Abbott_2]

DS10 Console guide... Appendix A m/board jumper settings; one of the three jumper settings control the halt/reset switch (pins 1-2)

J.

[John Abbott_2]

Colin, just looked at an electronic copy I have, to get to SRM on power up...
1. power on the DS10
2. wait 5 seconds
3. hold down the HALT button for an extended period of time (this cancels NVRAM script any any auto boot setting).

Hope this helps
John

[Hoff]

There's a sequence to migrate from the AlphaBIOS/ARC console over to the SRM console in the OpenVMS FAQ. It includes the key mappings, if you don't have the expected PC-layout keyboard connected.

If you've followed that and you keep ending up at AlphaBIOS, then the BB_WATCH nvram battery (usually a lithium cell) has likely failed. Those batteries seem to go five to ten years or so, and the default behavior unfortunately selects AlphaBIOS as part of forgetting everything.

Button behaviors are typically selectable by jumper. Most PC systems use their button as a form of reset, and not halt.

On the AlphaStation DS10, halt-reset jumper is to the immediate left and front of the DIMM slots and nearest the front of the enclosure -- this assumes the I/O bulkhead is at the far side of the box.

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs

[Colin Butcher]

Cracked it. Now seems to be working (and is installing VMS as I type).

I ended up using the fail-safe loader to get to a >>> prompt, then booted from the firmware update CD and updated the SRM. The NVRAM file was cleared along the way, probably by the fail-safe loader process.

The fail-safe loader didn't work with the V7.2 CD's ds10srm.rom file, but in the DS10 directory on the V7.2 firmware CD is a V60_DS10SRM.ROM file - and that works.

Invoking the fail-safe loader requires copying the ROM file to a FAT floppy, renaming the file to be FWUPDATE.EXE, putting it in the floppy drive and setting switch S3-8 to ON on the DS10 main board. Turn it off when you're done.

The main board has a DALLAS chip, so I suspect that the battery in there was definitely uncharged. I may end up changing the DALALS chip too one day. No visible coin-cell battery on the DS10 main board.

What fun.

Cheers, Colin (www.xdelta.co.uk).

[Hein van den Heuvel]

I suspect that the only battery lives in the Dallas chip/package as Colin implies.
That's supposed to hold power for 10 years.

http://www.futurlec.com/Dallas/DS12887.shtml

fwiw,
Hein.

[Colin Butcher]

See above. Thanks for the suggestions!