[mod.computers.vax] X-off Problem

MORSE@NSFVAX.BITNET (01/08/86)

We are having a problem with our VAX that DEC cannot solve.
Perhaps someone on the net has some information?

We have a VAX 785 running VMS.  It has two DHU11's.  Terminal
access is at 9600 baud and goes through a MICOM 600 port
selector.  What happens is that one of the ports refuses to
accept characters, meaning you cannot log on to it.  After every
character (or couple of characters) the port transmits an X-off
to the terminal, and the terminal refuses to transmit anything
more to the VAX.  The user sees the Username: prompt, but after
the first character of their username is echoed back, it appears
as if everything is hung.  If the terminal is set to ignore the
X-off, the user can log on and the session is completely normal
except that the VAX continues to send X-off's every few
characters.

This appears pretty infrequently, but usually one line will go
weird within a week after a boot, which seems to clear up the
problem.  Once a line exhibits the problem, it remains that way
until a system boot.  The problem does not hit one particular
line, it seems relatively random.

Anybody every see this before?  Any ideas?  It's getting to be a
pain to disable the ports at the port selector.  DEC has pretty
much given up, although they suspect it is something the MICOM is
doing.

Thanks in advance,
Mike Morse

National Science Foundation

BITNET:   MORSE@NSFVAX
CSNET:    MORSE@NSF

info-vax@ucbvax.UUCP (01/08/86)

Runing a 750 we had the same problem with a dz.  It truned out to be a
combnation of things.

The unibus had a flaky pin that woudl short to the one next to it.  This would
cause spiks to be sent through the board (after a spike we could not talk 
to the bord.)   This eventualy damaged the bord.  DEC replaced it several 
times.  After a coupel of trys we put it in a diffrent slot.

Dec eventuraly gave us a new backplane because we had trouble with another
slot.  It took 2 years to get every thing fixed.

Good luck.