RRD43-AA Problem
Robert Jarratt
It powers up OK and VMS show it as online and wrtlck. However when I try to
mount a CD the error count goes up and the command eventually gives up with
a "%MOUNT-F-MEDOFL, medium is offline" message. I suppose the inevitable
conclusion is that the drive is faulty, but before I give up on it I thought
I would ask here for advice, is there anything I might try to see if I can
make it work?
I did an ANALYZE/ERROR and a typical error entry for the device is:
ERROR SEQUENCE 325. LOGGED ON: SID
0A000005
DATE/TIME 23-JUN-2007 11:51:36.04 SYS_TYPE
04010102
SYSTEM UPTIME: 0 DAYS 00:27:25
SCS NODE: VAX VAX/VMS V7.3
DEVICE ERROR KA420 CPU FW REV# 6.
RRD43 SUB-SYSTEM, UNIT _VAX$DKA400:
HW REVISION 34383031
HW REVISION = 1084
ERROR TYPE 05
EXTENDED SENSE DATA RECEIVED
SCSI ID 04
SCSI ID = 4.
SCSI LUN 00
SCSI LUN = 0.
SCSI SUBLUN 00
SCSI SUBLUN = 0.
PORT STATUS 00000001
%SYSTEM-S-NORMAL, NORMAL SUCCESSFUL
COMPLETION
SCSI CMD 00000000
0000
TEST UNIT RDY
SCSI STATUS 02
CHECK CONDITION
EXTENDED SENSE DATA
EXTENDED SENSE 00030070
0A000000
00000000
00000057
0000
MEDIUM ERROR
UNABLE TO RECOVER TABLE-OF-CONTENTS
UCB$B_ERTCNT 04
4. RETRIES REMAINING
UCB$B_ERTMAX 00
0. RETRIES ALLOWABLE
ORB$L_OWNER 00010004
OWNER UIC [001,004]
UCB$L_CHAR 1EC54008
DIRECTORY STRUCTURED
FILE ORIENTED
SHARABLE
AVAILABLE
ERROR LOGGING
ALLOCATED
SOFTWARE "WRITE LOCK"
CAPABLE OF INPUT
CAPABLE OF OUTPUT
RANDOM ACCESS
UCB$W_STS 0000
UCB$L_OPCNT 00000008
8. QIO'S THIS UNIT
UCB$W_ERRCNT 0094
148. ERRORS THIS UNIT
IRP$W_BCNT 0000
TRANSFER SIZE 0. BYTE(S)
IRP$W_BOFF 0000
TRANSFER PAGE ALIGNED
IRP$L_PID 00010013
REQUESTOR "PID"
IRP$Q_IOSB 00000001
00110000 IOSB, 0. BYTE(S) TRANSFERRED
00110000 IOSB, 0. BYTE(S) TRANSFERRED
It says "medium error" but I have tried with a couple of CDs I know to be
OK.
Thanks
Rob
Peter 'EPLAN' LANGSTOeGER
>I have recently acquired one of these drives for my VAXstation 3100 (M38).
>It powers up OK and VMS show it as online and wrtlck. However when I try to
>mount a CD the error count goes up and the command eventually gives up with
>a "%MOUNT-F-MEDOFL, medium is offline" message.
Is this an original CD or a selfburned one?
Older drives like this quad-speed (?) one are very picky with the medium.
It seems the reflection of modern material is too less to work reliable.
Use a more modern drive or an original CD instead...
--
Peter "EPLAN" LANGSTOEGER
Network and OpenVMS system specialist
E-mail pe...@langstoeger.at
A-1030 VIENNA AUSTRIA I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist
Uusimäki
Have you checked that the jumpers for the block size (512) and parity
(on) have the right settings?
Robert Jarratt
"Peter 'EPLAN' LANGSTOeGER" <pe...@langstoeger.at> wrote in message
news:467d971c$1...@news.langstoeger.at...
The CDs I used were all originals. I can't use a more modern drive because I
want one that the VAXstation 3100 will boot off. I have a Sony CDU-55S that
I can use once VMS is running, but the machine will refuses to boot off it.
I think the firmware is very sensitive to the actual model of drive I am
using.
Regards
Rob
Robert Jarratt
"Uusimäki" <uusimaki@nospam_exdecfinland.org> wrote in message
news:467d87e4$0$15298$9b53...@news.fv.fi...
> Robert Jarratt wrote:
>> I have recently acquired one of these drives for my VAXstation 3100
>> (M38). It powers up OK and VMS show it as online and wrtlck. However when
>> I try to mount a CD the error count goes up and the command eventually
>> gives up with a "%MOUNT-F-MEDOFL, medium is offline" message. I suppose
>> the inevitable conclusion is that the drive is faulty, but before I give
>> up on it I thought I would ask here for advice, is there anything I might
>> try to see if I can make it work?
>>
>> OK.
>> Thanks
>>
>> Rob
>
> Have you checked that the jumpers for the block size (512) and parity (on)
> have the right settings?
>
>
>
There is no jumper I can see that governs the block size, VMS reports it as
having a 512 block size in any case. I had been trying it with the parity
jumper on because the manual says that this is the position for DEC
workstation mode. With the jumper off I found that it works, but the manual
says that this is DEC PC mode. Oh well. Now I just need to check that it
will actually boot off the drive too.
Thanks
Rob
Michael Kraemer
>
> There is no jumper I can see that governs the block size, VMS reports it as
> having a 512 block size in any case. I had been trying it with the parity
> jumper on because the manual says that this is the position for DEC
> workstation mode. With the jumper off I found that it works, but the manual
> says that this is DEC PC mode. Oh well. Now I just need to check that it
> will actually boot off the drive too.
>
if conventional wisdom fails I'd also
check "trivial" things like the SCSI bus itself.
In particular I found that the pins of this proprietary
external connector may easily be twisted.
VAXstations seem to be picky which CD drive they
accept to boot off. RRD's should work, however
(I succeeded with a RRD40), but maybe an RRD43 is "too new" ?
A list of CDROMs which might also work is here:
Robert Jarratt
"Michael Kraemer" <M.Kr...@gsi.de> wrote in message
news:f5keaf$ta9$00$1...@news.t-online.com...
You are right, the RRD43 seems to be too new, I tried booting from it today
and it did not work, despite the fact that I can use it from VMS. The list
you point to is great, but implies that a 3100 will boot off an RRD43, which
I now know to be incorrect. I am still on the lookout for an RRD42 (I
borrowed one and I know it will boot off this) or an RRD40.
Thanks
Rob
Michael Kraemer
>
> You are right, the RRD43 seems to be too new, I tried booting from it today
> and it did not work, despite the fact that I can use it from VMS. The list
> you point to is great, but implies that a 3100 will boot off an RRD43, which
> I now know to be incorrect. I am still on the lookout for an RRD42 (I
> borrowed one and I know it will boot off this) or an RRD40.
>
You may also watch out for a Sony CDU-561 (55 CA).
DEC systems recognize it as a RRD42.
Rich Jordan
Its been forever and I don't have a working config right now, but I do
know that my VS3100m76 systems were able to boot from 6x Plextor SCSI
CDROM drives in the day. They also were happy with several different
Toshiba 4x to 12x units and a Pioneer slot-drive DR-506S.
My work system is a 1989 vintage VS3100 model 30 which has an RRD47
connected to it, and can boot the VMS OS CD with no trouble. It came
with an RRD40 (which died), then had an RRD42 (which died) before the
current RRD47.
urbancamo
an RRD43 drive and could not boot the OpenVMS CDROM. I replaced it
with a Plextor drive and had no such problems.
This was with an original OpenVMS hobbyiest CDROM, which appears to be
a professional pressed disk.
The DECStation was previously running tru64 5.0.
The drive does not have a 512/2048 jumper, but does say the parity
jumper is a DEC/PC mode switch.
I've also found Pioneer drives are generally pretty good.
Mark.
urbancamo
was able to boot that and a CD-RW of OpenVMS 8.3 without problem using
the Plextor drive
Michael Kraemer
<ma...@wickensonline.co.uk> writes:
> I recently tried to install OpenVMS 8.3 on a DECStation 3000/600 with
to be nitpicking: such as beast does not exist, AFAIK :-)
There's either a Mips-based DECstation 3100 running Ultrix
or an alpha-based "DEC 3000/600 AXP" running VMS or DUX.
> an RRD43 drive and could not boot the OpenVMS CDROM. I replaced it
> with a Plextor drive and had no such problems.
well, this confirms somehow my experience that it is sort of black
magic whether the combination of machine/controller/drive/CD/OS
works or not. I can't confirm Rich's overall good experience,
I've seen CD drives work on one VAXstation and fail on the next one.
The only practical solution for me is to stockpile enough old drives
of different kind in the hope that at least one of it will do.
It's even worse with "real" DECstations, they tend to accept nothing
but original RRDs to boot Ultrix.
> This was with an original OpenVMS hobbyiest CDROM, which appears to be
> a professional pressed disk.
Well, the one I got was burnt and turned out to be unreadable on
any drive after a year or so.
So don't think your home-burnt CDs are "safe", they aren't.
Bob Koehler
>
> to be nitpicking: such as beast does not exist, AFAIK :-)
> There's either a Mips-based DECstation 3100 running Ultrix
> or an alpha-based "DEC 3000/600 AXP" running VMS or DUX.
A DEC 3000 Model 600 with a graphics controller was marketed as
a DECStation.
>
Michael Kraemer
koe...@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) writes:
>
> A DEC 3000 Model 600 with a graphics controller was marketed as
> a DECStation.
>
All technical manuals I've seen so far refer to those machines as
DEC 3000 Model xxx AXP
(or permutations thereof), no matter if they have gfx or not.
The true DECstations are always referenced as such.
Of course, under the hood they aren't that much different,
both have turbochannel, need that weird keyboard/mouse splitter,
and the early versions of OSF/1 appeared like Ultrix to me.
urbancamo
>
> DEC 3000 Model xxx AXP
My manual, to be exact, uses the phrase: DEC 3000 Model 600/600S AXP
I stand corrected. By the way, in case anyone is any doubt, the PMDG-
BA graphics card is still supported in 2D mode in OpenVMS 8.3.
Regards,
Mark.