| Author |
Personal Workstation 533au |
GerryB
Member
Posts: 24
Location: Florida
Joined: 26.06.08 |
| Posted on January 01 2009 07:26 |
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Hello,
Recently, my workstation crashed. Looks like some memory error. When the unit powers up the on-board diagnostic LEDs indicate some type of address line problem. Have OpenVMS V8.3A running for some time with no problems and with 1.5GB of memory. In addition to this blessing or curse, the battery died. The unit came up in the other AlphaStation mode for NT and noticed that the memory test there stalled at some point in the test. I reconfigured (and reduced to 512MB ) the memory so that the self-test passes with no errors. When I switch to SRM the LEDs still indicate some address line problem, but OpenVMS seems to run OK. What could be causing this problem of address lines when the thing seem to work OK. What is the correct memory for this machine? PC-100 ECC UNbuffered?
Thank you and a Happy New Year to you all.
Gerry
Edited by GerryB on January 01 2009 07:30 |
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| Author |
RE: Personal Workstation 533au |
brad
Member
Posts: 134
Location: Hopedale, MA USA
Joined: 15.12.05 |
| Posted on January 02 2009 14:42 |
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GerryB wrote:
Hello,
Recently, my workstation crashed. Looks like some memory error. When the unit powers up the on-board diagnostic LEDs indicate some type of address line problem. Have OpenVMS V8.3A running for some time with no problems and with 1.5GB of memory. In addition to this blessing or curse, the battery died. The unit came up in the other AlphaStation mode for NT and noticed that the memory test there stalled at some point in the test. I reconfigured (and reduced to 512MB ) the memory so that the self-test passes with no errors. When I switch to SRM the LEDs still indicate some address line problem, but OpenVMS seems to run OK. What could be causing this problem of address lines when the thing seem to work OK. What is the correct memory for this machine? PC-100 ECC UNbuffered?
[...]
Hi Gerry,
Here's a copy of the service manual:
<http://rabbit.dnsalias.org/~bradh/miata/Service/>
Info about the battery and memory may be found there - the manual is silent about the type of memory, except that it must be ECC. Islandco.com sells PWS memory.
I have a PWS 433au, and even though it is quite underpowered, it's still a nice machine to work on, as are all the PWS. Good luck. |
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| Author |
RE: Personal Workstation 533au |
GerryB
Member
Posts: 24
Location: Florida
Joined: 26.06.08 |
| Posted on January 06 2009 13:41 |
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Thanks for the info, however, I have that info already. I'm thinking that it doesn't like registered (buffered) memory. The diagnostic LEDs still report E4 even though it runs OK. If I add more memory, however, I get occasional freezes. Do you think a re-flash of the SRM would help or would I get some other (like a checksum) indication that something was wrong?
If I could just get OpenVMS V8.3-1H1 for Integrity (Itanium) I wouldn't have to worry so much about the Alpha.
Thanks again.
Gerry |
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| Author |
RE: Personal Workstation 533au |
brad
Member
Posts: 134
Location: Hopedale, MA USA
Joined: 15.12.05 |
| Posted on January 07 2009 15:05 |
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After some searching, I found a reference which said that this memory is unregistered, and PC66.
I can't vouch for the accuracy of what I found, except that I came up with the information from a Google search for " SN-MSP01-HF". It seems to tally with your suspicions, so good luck. I'm thinking that this memory, if still available, is likely to be cheapest on eBay, and probably relatively expensive from any of the 3rd-party resellers.
I bought mine at the turn of the century from Crucial, but they (and others of their kind) no longer stock parts like this. |
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| Author |
RE: Personal Workstation 533au |
GerryB
Member
Posts: 24
Location: Florida
Joined: 26.06.08 |
| Posted on January 24 2009 16:48 |
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I was just wondering if anyone has ever tried putting 512MB sticks into a XXXau personal workstation? I've seen other systems that give a maximum memory stick size but sometimes accept a bigger stick. Anyone know if will work?
If you know, please let me know. Thanks.
Gerry |
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| Author |
RE: Personal Workstation 533au |
GerryB
Member
Posts: 24
Location: Florida
Joined: 26.06.08 |
| Posted on February 07 2009 10:30 |
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Today, I stuck two 256MB PC100 ECC UNBUFF sticks in the PWS 533. Works fine but I still get error "E4" in the LEDs. Works fine though. I was going to re-flash the SRM for the hell of it but I can't seem to find the firmware. Anyone have a link?
Thanks.
Gerry |
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| Author |
RE: Personal Workstation 533au |
brad
Member
Posts: 134
Location: Hopedale, MA USA
Joined: 15.12.05 |
| Posted on February 07 2009 15:46 |
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GerryB wrote:
Today, I stuck two 256MB PC100 ECC UNBUFF sticks in the PWS 533. Works fine but I still get error "E4" in the LEDs. Works fine though. I was going to re-flash the SRM for the hell of it but I can't seem to find the firmware. Anyone have a link?
Thanks.
Gerry
Try this page:
<http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/firmware/readme.html>
You'll obviously have to supply the Workstation model, but you will be brought to a page that has the executable needed. Good luck! |
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| Author |
RE: Personal Workstation 533au |
GerryB
Member
Posts: 24
Location: Florida
Joined: 26.06.08 |
| Posted on February 08 2009 15:20 |
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Thanks for the link. System re-flashed. Error code E4 still prevails. It still runs OK but I guess I'll be on the lookout for a system board. Even better, I'd like a small tower DS20E dual CPU. And of course, my RX2600 would love to be running OpenVMS too.
Thanks again.
Gerry |
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