system hang (blue screen) while starting up

[jess_14]

Hi all, we have a test system which would want to do re-installation of the OS.

This is what we have gone through:
(1) boot from cd-rom
(2) hang at jumping to bootstrap code
(3) re-doing (1) & (2) several times
(3) reboot the system
(4) hangs from the start - blue screen

We have tried on ctrl-p, ctrl-c..halt. Yet nothing changes, the blue screen remains. Any ideas of this?

Thanks in advance!

[Hein van den Heuvel]

Is is a nice kind of blue?
Any disturbance like useful messages?

Are we indeed tryin to boot OpenVMS here?
(and which version eventually)

What system? Alpha? Itanium?

Any concrete output to share, or shall we just guess.

Did it ever work? What changed?

Can you make the system report devices/config?
Care to share?

What boot command used?

Regards,
Hein

[Steven Schweda]

Aside from the obvious requests for (any)
useful information, you might see if the
thing (if it is an Alpha system) is talking
to some serial console port instead of to the
workstation graphics display which I might
guess you're using.

>>>show console

[Mobeen_1]

Please also see if you can perform a hard break and if that gets you to prompt.

[jess_14]

Any disturbance like useful messages?
- nothing came out

Are we indeed tryin to boot OpenVMS here?
(and which version eventually)
--Yes, openvms V7.3-2

What system? Alpha? Itanium?
--HP Alpla


Did it ever work? What changed?
-- Yes it is working, we want to re-install the system again as for testing purpose. Booted from CD-ROM hang and we re-boot the system, and it is not coming up again.

Can you make the system report devices/config?
Care to share?
- not able to go to the console. Coz it just hang without any error msg.

[Steven Schweda]

> --HP Alpla

Not a very complete description, is it?

> (1) boot from cd-rom

> Booted from CD-ROM [...]

> - not able to go to the console. [...]

Huh? How do you boot from a CD-ROM if you
can't get to the console (">>>" prompt)?

Please try to provide a useful description of
this system, including what you're using for
a console.

> >>>show console

Still wondering...

[jess_14]

As mentioned i'm able to boot the cd-rom at first, it hangs at this line: jumping to bootstrap code

After that we rebooted the system, then nothing came out. Only a blue screen

p/s: done the reboot for many times, still the same.

Any commands (other than those i tried out) to halt the system and get it to the console prompt? Thanks for your input~

[jess_14]

Please also see if you can perform a hard break and if that gets you to prompt.
-- may i know how to do this?

Thank you!

[Volker Halle]

jess,

your Alpha system (what type ?) should have a HALT button somewhere. Please note that you can NOT use CTRL-P on the 'blue screen' (VGA display).

It may help you a lot, if you would use the serial console ( after >>> SET CONSOLE SERIAL and >>> INIT ). This would also allow you to force a crash and record any messages, which may show up.

Volker.

[Volker Halle]

Jess,

what does >>> SHOW CONSOLE report ?

Maybe it's already set to serial ?! This might explain what you're observing on the VGA screen...

Volker.

[jess_14]

screenshot of the blue screen.

[Volker Halle]

Jess,

is this VGA terminal connected to a KVM switch ? This may make things even more complicated.

Please consider to use the serial console and make sure you use COM1 (not COM2). But this all depends on your type of Alpha system, which you have to net revealed...

Volker.

[Mobeen_1]

Please hit the break button on server and as Steven mentioned...this should get you to what we call as chicken prompt :)...i.e

>>>>

then you perform

>>>> show console

[Hein van den Heuvel]

>>>Apr 23, 2010 08:59:41 GMT N/A: Question Author
screenshot of the blue screen.

Now that my friends, is the first real screen shot I have seen in years!
This is a keeper. Check it out.

Jess, we realize this is all new to you, and it can be daunting. But it is really difficult for us to imagine what you have been doing /typing / seeing.

What we have so far is that you put in an OpenVMS CD, hit the power button, drive lights flashed and the VGA screen turned blue.

- What is the exact system name?
- Have you typed anyting, and where?
- Did you attach a keyboard to a keyboard or USB port on the system?
- We (me) suspect that you should NOT be using that VGA screen/keyboard
- You should connect a 'real terminal' (VT220, whatever) or a terminal emulator (Hyperterm, recent PuTTY with serial support) to a DB9 - SERIAL PORT, then power up.

By using a Hyperterm or Putty session, you can stop using the camera for screenshots.

Hope this helps some,
Hein

[cnb]

Ah yes, now THAT's a blue screen!

Yep. Bypass the KVM and directly connect to the system serial port as suggested by everyone else.

***Exactly *WHICH* Alpha Model are you trying to boot?*** If you are unsure look on the front or the back of the system for the system serial number tag, there should be a model number like DS- or DH-, etc... Or a name...ALPHASTATION, ALPHASERVER DSxx, ESXX, ASXXXX on the front bezel somewhere.

It makes it easier for us to help you.

Rgds,

[Andy Bustamante]

Please provide the model of KVM. Most don't support OpenVMS very well. Remove it while troubleshooting as previously suggested.

Also please provide output from the following at the console, SHOW FRU, SHOW DEVICE, SHOW BOOT*, SHOW CONSOLE

Second, how long does the blue screen last? Is there disk activity during this period?

[Stanley F Quayle]

You might have gotten the thing into the BIOS mode (for booting Windows NT) instead of the SRM mode (for booting VMS). The Multias I used to have would sometimes come up wrong because the NVRAM battery needed replacing...

[Khee Chan]

To *jess*

If you really want all the highly knowledgeable folks to help you properly instead of engaging in speculation, please reply with the following info:

1) Exact model of your Alpha system
2) Make & model of CD-ROM drive used to boot
3) Also is the CD-ROM drive SCSI or IDE?
4) What are the outputs before you see "jumping to bootstrap code"?

Without the above info, my WILD guess would be that you are trying to boot off an IDE CD-ROM drive installed in an early model Personal Workstation. The early PWS (the ones without a Qlogic SCSI controller on the logic board) have braindead IDE chipsets and do NOT boot OpenVMS CD's off the installed IDE CD-ROM drive in spite of initial indication that the boot process has started.