Copyright 1993-2016 by Kevin G. Barkes All rights reserved. This article may be duplicated or redistributed provided no alterations of any kind are made to this file. This edition of DCL Dialogue is sponsored by Networking Dynamics, developers and marketers of productivity software for OpenVMS systems. Contact our website www.networkingdynamics.com to download free demos of our software and see how you will save time, money and raise productivity! Be sure to mention DCL Dialogue! DCL Dialogue Originally published December, 1993 Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction By Kevin G. Barkes "I figure either way I can't lose. If DEC comes through, next month I'll be writing this on my new VAXstation. If not, I'll have lots of stuff to write about." - Kevin Barkes, DCL Dialogue, October 1993. The following story is true. I'm negotiating a deal to turn it into a sitcom. On August 31 the VAXstation 4000 Model 60 I ordered about four weeks earlier finally arrived. Unfortunately, it lacked a CPU power cord, mouse, keyboard, hardware manuals and license PAKs, and it appeared the warranty cards were printed in German. The upgrade from my VAXstation 3100 Model 30 supposedly didn't include a keyboard or mouse, but should have included the other items. The distributor, who just reshipped what they received from DEC, apologized profusely and had Digital express ship the remaining items. They arrived on Friday, September 3. The CPU power cord still wasn't included. No problem; I used the one from the 3100. It seems rather chintzy for Digital to sell a system worth over $10,000 without including these items. We're not talking commodity PCs here; I'm sure DEC's margin on VAXstations is large enough to support throwing a power cord and other trivial accessories into the deal. But I digress. As a database publisher, September is my busiest season, with college telephone directories and other similar publications in various stages of production. Business had been good, and I desperately needed the extra processing power of the 4000; it arrived barely in time. (I hadn't anticipated a four-week wait for a "FastShip" item.) Still, I didn't have time to install the new system until the Sunday night before Labor Day, after I had completed and shipped several time-critical jobs. And besides, as everyone knows, real VAX system managers only install systems on weekends and holidays. Surprise number 1: the monitor was defective. It came up at full brightness and could not be adjusted. Surprise number 2: the system would not boot. Apparently, VMS was not installed on the RZ26B drive as it was supposed to have been. Attempting to boot the workstation resulted in an "invalid file structure error." A lesser person would have been totally demoralized at this point. But hey, I'm not the OpenVMS editor of DEC Professional magazine for nothing; and besides, I desperately needed the power of the 4000's extra VUPs. The amount of work I had would require nearly 40 hours of batch processing time on the 3100. The same work could be accomplished in about 12 hours on the 4000. So I forged ahead. I took the 1.6 gig drive containing my work files out of the old VAXstation 3100, installed it in the 4000, and connected my external peripherals to the 4000's SCSI port. (My boot device is an external 600mb drive.) I had a scare when I realized the workstation side of my 3100's non-standard SCSI cable had different physical dimensions from the 4000's. Fortunately, an extra SCSI cable had come with the 9 track tape drive I got last year, so I was able to connect everything together. The system booted with without incident, and I was able to log on to the system through a PC connected via Pathworks. I tried mounting the RZ26B disk drive; the mount failed because the drive had not been initialized. (One can safely assume that if it hadn't been initialized, OpenVMS probably hadn't been installed on it, either.) So, I initialized the drive and tried to do a backup from tape to the disk. The backup failed with fatal write errors to the RZ26B. A check of the system error log showed parity errors writing to the drive. While I could live without the drive, I had to have a functioning monitor, so I called DEC's 800 service number and requested a service call at about 8 a.m. Labor Day morning. Yes, I knew the system requiring service wasn't the one under contract, and yes, I knew the call fell outside my normal DECservice window, so I would have to pay extra. I didn't have a choice; I had several thousand dollars worth of work to complete and the clock was running. The field service guy maintained DEC Pittsburgh's excellent response record, showing up at my office in less than two hours. There were only two minor problems: he didn't have a monitor and he didn't have a disk drive. Neither part was in stock. He made the trip just to be certain I hadn't misinstalled anything and to see if the items could be fixed by adjustment. Unfortunately, neither could; he promised to order the parts and that someone would be out the next day to install them. There was no charge for the visit. So, there I was on the busiest weekend of the year running a workstation over Pathworks from a PC. Because of the single-user license, I couldn't run more than one multiple logon. The only saving grace was that the 4000 is indeed much faster than the 3100, so I was able to get everything done, although with much inconvenience. Tuesday morning dawned with my DEC Field Service guy knocking on the door. He had made a trip to the airport and picked up the replacement drive; the monitor would arrive later that day on another flight. By dinnertime, the system was properly configured and running perfectly. Once again, DEC had redeemed itself through its field service organization. The VAXstation's been up now for a month with absolutely no problems. I couldn't make up a story like this if I wanted to... incomplete shipments, dead monitor, VMS not installed, dead drive, field service having no spare parts... and for this, I'm spending over $660 a month for hardware and software support. That's like buying two copies of MS-DOS every day. And DEC wonders why it's having problems... Even a staunch OpenVMS/VAX/DEC loyalist like me has his limits. The only reason I continue to run my business on a VAXstation is because of DEC Pittsburgh's superb Field Service organization. It appears, however, that even Field Service is being affected by DEC's realignment of priorities. I find it appalling that I'm paying top dollar for hardware support only to find DEC isn't stocking the parts locally. For the money I'm spending, I could buy four or five 486 Intel-based systems a year. Both times I've purchased VAXstations I've experienced significant shipping delays and other problems. I have a feeling this workstation may be my last VAX and/or OpenVMS system. I certainly don't need this kind of aggravation. ****************************** Kevin G. Barkes is an independent consultant who, despite the tone of this column, wishes all the folk at DEC and our DEC Pro readers a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year. When not faxing nasty missives to Bob Palmer, Kevin lurks on comp.os.vms and can be reached at kgbarkes@gmail.com.