Personal DECstation 5000/25

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Personal DECstation 5000/25

Configuration

Machine Personal DECstation 5000/25
Model PM30A-AA
Serial AB21302PPD

Documentation

EK-PM30E-RB-003 Personal DECstation 5000 User's Guide
EK-PM30F-MG-004 Personal DECstation/DECsystem 5000 Series Maintenance Guide

Pictures

Notes

The Personal DECstation 5000/25 entered my collection some time around 2005 when it came with some other machines. It was immediately relegated to storage because of the fact that it wasn't a VAX.

2013/03: After reading about DEC's Ultrix operating system, and remembering this machine in storage, I decided to put it on the bench and see what is going on. Upon powering up, I soon discover that the Dallas DS1287 clock chip has failed. Unfortunately, it's soldered to the motherboard. It lives just below the CPU card, and there's no clearance to install a socket, so the replacement will have to be soldered in.

Other than the clock chip, the machine appears to be in good health. All other self tests pass. I am able to pass a boot string and get the hard drive to boot up. The operating system complains of a missing (second) drive and drops to single-user mode. From here, I was able to grab the /etc/passwd file and pass it through John the Ripper to decrypt the passwords.