Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sri-unix!rbbb@RICE.ARPA From: rbbb@RICE.ARPA Newsgroups: net.unix Subject: Re: UDA50/RA81 problem -- HELP ! Message-ID: <12393@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Mon, 20-Aug-84 00:00:12 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12393 Posted: Mon Aug 20 00:00:12 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 16-Aug-84 01:50:03 EDT Lines: 31 From: David ChaseBefore running off and badgering your DEC field service people, why not look for yourself? Open the front of your machine, and look in the Unibus. The UDA50 occupies two hex slots, and has all sorts of gory lights and cables. If you find two boards numbered M7161 and M7162, then you have an OLD UDA50. Those are known to sometimes drop offline without any pattern or warning (we had one that would run for weeks without this problem). If the two boards are numbered M7485 and M7486, then you have a NEW UDA50, and it should NOT mysteriously drop offline. Should you have an old UDA50, then you should get it upgraded. The upgrade replaces almost every board involved, and requires that you REFORMAT your disk. The OLD UDA50/RA81 diagnostics are NOT compatible with the NEW boards. The NEW hardware should still work with existing drivers. (It does for us). A good tool to use in this operation (backup, reformat, restore) is DEC Standalone Backup, since it moves the bits much faster than existing unix utilities. We used it, and it worked great. You MUST use a version from VMS 3.4 or higher (there is an ominous-looking bug fix in the release notes for 3.4, though we didn't and had no problems). If you have any questions on this, direct them to rbbb@rice.arpa; I have little knowledge of unix device drivers, but lots on hardware, diagnostics, and VMS BACKUP (my friend). If DEC field service does not believe this, refer them to the "UDA USER GUIDE", number EK-UDA50-UG-002. That (plus sad experience) is where I got my information. drc