I am new to the Alpha, but let me share my limited experience.

We need history. Did it suddenly fail after working properly, did it fail
after hardware or software changes, or was it DOA when you got it? Alphas
will refuse to work with some video cards. When I make hardware changes, I
make them one at a time.

SRM may not boot on an Adaptec 2940. You may have to replace the card with a
Symbios or Qlogic SCSI host adapter. The Adaptec 2940 was installed in
machines meant to run WINNT on ARC.

Be sure the cables at the back are hooked up correctly. On some models the
PS/2 port nearest the power supply is for the mouse, and on others it is for
the keyboard. When you check the serial output be sure you are plugged into
sio0 or COM1. I had to check the manual to discover I was plugged into the
wrong serial port. On some consumer PCs they cheat and actually label the
ports!

Check whether the jumper is set to disable the ROM write protect. If so, it
is very possible that a ROM image has been damaged.

To check the serial output I connect the first serial port of the Alpha to
the first serial port of my Intel box running FreeBSD and enter:
tip -v cuaa0c

On NetBSD or OpenBSD this would be:
tip -v cua00c

It will echo "connect".

I then switch on the Alpha.

To cancel tip enter:
~.
You will not see the ~ when you enter it.

Paul Smith

> -----Original Message-----
> From: port-alpha-owner@netbsd.org [mailto:port-alpha-owner@netbsd.org]On
> Behalf Of hg/jb
> Sent: Sunday, 12 November, 2000 13:54 PM
> To: port-alpha@netbsd.org
> Subject: Re: PC 164 Question
>
>
> b wrote:
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I have a PC164/500 mhz 21164 board in a machine that won't do anything
> > whatsoever.  No beep codes, no terminal to the serial, etc.
> Being new to
> > Alpha's, I'm at a loss.  The memory gets warm to touch as does
> the cpu.  The
> > cpu fan runs and the led on the 2940 card lights but thats it.  Are the
> > cpu's prone to failure or should I suspect the board?  I have
> ruled out the
> > power supply by subsitution. Any comments would be appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> >
> > B. Thompson
> > Wyoming Internet Resources
>
> I have one doing the same thing.
> I took out the memory, and got the beeps, put in some 32bit mem, got the
> beeps so something is happening.
> I have not put in a supported - to my knowledge - vidio card but
> my screen does click like something is happening.  I am planning on
> using an S3 video card to see what I get BUT so far, no console on the
> serial lines either....Hmmmm.
> Maybe this will stimulate something, I am adding the port-alpha folks
> to the distro to see if this jogs a few hints.
> Good luck with yours B. Thompson.
> jb
>