MicroVAX 2000 power on test error codes for the DESVA ethernet interface

  Here's some info on DESVA (network card)  errors that may be of interest to the few of you out there who have MicroVAX/VAXstation 2000s.

Over the years, my colection of MicroVAX 2000s has grown a little decrepit. Several of them have gotten to be a little deaf on the ethernet.

  Some of them were easy to fix - the coax connector that mounts to the main board has a tendency to wriggle around from the force of attaching and detaching the thinwire cable connectors, which can cause hairline breaks in the solder connections to the board. Reflowing the solder on those fixed them right up.

  But, that didn't improve a couple of the others. The network cards would indicate failure on power up, and also in the TEST 50 command that prints the configuration table

KA410-W V2.3

F...E...D...C...B...A...9...8...7...6...5...4_..3_..2_..1?..

  The "_" after a test ID means option not present. This machine doesn't have options 4,3, or 2. Option 4 is the 8 plane grahics adapter, 3 and 2 are reserved for future use (doesn't seem too  likely at this late a date, nicht wahr?).

  Option 1 is the network interface, NI, and has a ?, which means it failed the test. The summary that prints after the self tests provides a little more info

 ?  E  0040  0000.0045
 ?  D  0050  0000.0005
 ?  C  0080  0000.4001
??  1  00C0  0011.700E

  And TEST 50 provides a configuration table showing the info for all the devices, with the same error infor for NI.

KA410-W V2.3
ID 08-00-2B-0C-F4-51

   MONO     0000.0001
 ? CLK      0000.0045
 ? NVR      0000.0005
 ? DZ       0000.4001
      00000001 00000001 00000001 00004001 00000000 00000000
   MEM      000E.0001
      00E00000
   MM       0000.0001
   FP       0000.0001
   IT       0000.0001
   HDC      7770.0001
      00000000 00000000 00000000
   TPC      0202.0001
      FFFFFF03 00000001 FFFFFF05 FFFFFF05 FFFFFF05 FFFFFF05 FFFFFF05
FFFFFF05
   SYS      0000.0001
?? NI       0011.700E  V1.3 

  The E line in the summary mean the clock isn't correct since the  battery needs to be charged. That shows how much this machine knows - it doesn't even have a battery anymore - I took it out years ago to avoid battery corrosion damage. The D line means that Non Volatile RAM  contents are not valid, which is no surprise, since the NVRAM is maintained by the battery, which, like I said, isn't in there anymore. The C line is complainig that it doesn't like the terminal being used for a console. This isn't a surprise, either, because I'm using the ZOC terminal emulator as the console instead of an Honest-to-Ghu DEC terminal.

  That takes us to the 1 line, the network results. ?? means, bad error for the NI. The next column, 00C0 - don't know what that means. have't ever seen it discussed anywhere,. The third column, 0011.700E, is meant to provide information about what kind of error happened. In the case of all the other devices on a MicroVAX 2000, the meaning of this number is richly documented, all over the place It can tell you a lot about your memory, what's connected to the SCSI controller, or what you have connected to the serial lines. In the case of the NI (the etherenet interface)....no dice. None of the manuals available online detail what the numbers mean in the case of the NI.

  There were a few mentions of a table that tells what the numbers mean, that exists in the second version of the MicroVAX 2000 Maintenance GUide, EK-MVSTAB-MG. It's nowhere to be found online. The first version, EK-MVSTAA-MG, widely available online, doesn't have that info in it.

  Luckily I managed to track down someone who had a copy, who kindly sent me a file of the table . I don't know if he wants his name menioned, but I'm very grateful to get the info.

  So - behold!...here it is. In the case of my error, it shows that the machine did 11 (well, 17 decimal) retries while failing with a Receive Error. That's a clue that the receive connections and circuitry on the DESVA are the place to conentrate my troubleshooting.

                                         Power-Up and Self-Test Error Codes  253

E.13 DESVA Ethernet Network Module (NI)

Error code format: 00XX.YYYY

Where XX is the number of retries over the Ethernet cable before a successand YYYY is one of the codes listed in Table E-17.

254   Power-Up and Self-Test Error Codes

Table E-17  DESVA Ethernet Module Error Codes

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Error                                                                       Error
Codes       Definition                                              Codes        Definition

*****************************************************************************************************

0001      No error                  4008     Bad filter value
1002      Failed initialization     400A     Initialization failed
1004      RX not enabled            400C     Failed loopback
1006      TX enabled                400E     Initialization failed
1008      Initialization failed     4010     Failed loopback
100A      RX enabled                5002     Initialization failed
100C      TX not enabled            5004     OWN not toggled
2002      Initialization failed     5006     No RTRY error
2004      Failed loop               5008     TX turned off
3002      Initialization failed     500A     Initialization failed
3004      Failed loop               500C     TX failed
3006      No CRC match              500E     No RCV MISS
3008      Initialization failed     6002     Initialization failed
300A      Failed TX                 6004     Loopback failed
300C      Failed RX                 6006     Bad CSR0
300E      Initialization failed     6008     No NI interrupt
3010      Failed TX                 600A     Initialization failed
3012      OWN not toggled           600C     Loopback failed
3014      No RX error               600E     Wrong number of                                                          interrupts
3016      No STP                    6010     NI interrupts bits set
3018      No ENP                    7002     Initialization failed
301A      No CRC error              7004     OWN not toggled
301C      No RAM error              7006     No BUFF error
301E      No RINT                   7008     TX still on
4002      Initialization failed     700A     Initialization failed
4004      Failed TX                 700C     TX failed
4006      Packed received           700E     RX failed

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