RA60 hard error on 4.2BSD

[Ron Saad]

>>      uda0: hard error, disk transfer error, unit 0, grp 0x0, hdr 0x26aec
>>      uda0: hard error, SDI error, unit 0, event 0353, hdr 0x0
>> The second error repeats about 6 times.
>> 	What do these errors mean?  ...
> 
> While working on a System V driver, this happened a lot.  The field
> service person had just declared the hardware to be perfect, so I also
> assumed it was a problem in a not-yet-quite-bugless driver.  I worked
> for weeks (off and on) to make the driver more and more perfect.
> 
> The problem was hardware.  One of the boards in the drive itself (the
> interface to the outside world, i think) had to be replaced.  For a day
> we ran on the opposite side of the dual access.  We found this all out
> when it got so bad we went back to DEC.  Our regular field service
> person then came out to run diagnostics.  She found the problem
> immediately.  (*sigh*)
> 
> Try swapping the drive cables in back from "A" to "B", and spinning
> up the drive with the "B" button pushed in, rather than the "A".
> See if that makes a difference.  Then get your field service to run
> lots and lots of diagnasties (on A) to show your advisors.
> 
> 	Joe Yao		hadron!jsdy at seismo.{ARPA,UUCP}

*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR LUNCH ***

We are rather new on the net, so I missed the original article. I tried
to contact the author of the 'solution' several times via mail, but
never got a response, so I assume my message never got there.

We have been having the same problem with our UDA50-RA81-RA60 system.
We are running a VAX 11/780 with 4.2 BSD. Since the problem occurred on
a Sys-V machine also, I assume it's not the drivers.

Our service people have replaced every board on the system (all the
RA60 boards, the uda50, the personality module on the RA81), all with
no success - the problem keeps occurring. It wouldn't be so bad if it
just crashed the system, but sometimes UNIX does not recover, and just
hangs there till I come in and force a reboot.

If anyone out there in wizard-land can give us more information, it
would be greatly appreciated (the service people are now going to
replace the power supply boards ...  :-)

If the person who posted the problem originally has succeeded in
solving the problem - PLEASE tell us how ?
-- 
------------the opinions expressed above etc. etc.  --------------

					Ron Saad  (4Z4UY)
					Sys Adm -  Center for Advanced
					Technology in Telecommunications
					Polytechnic Institute of New York

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