Can you beleive this S^&^!

[Jay West]

Upon closer examination:

1) It's missing a board in the MEMPRT slot. Probably means the memprt board 
is missing, but could be the boards were shuffled around by someone who 
didn't know what they are doing too and it's another board missing. If it's 
the DCPC or M.E.M. board missing (the only other two boards slots in that 
area) - well, not a great system to say the least. Makes me suspect someone 
pulled the board for other use.

2) There appears to be one controller and one memory board. This machine 
only has 64K (I didn't bother to look up the exact board number - this could 
be a 64KB or 64KW board - HP labeled them both ways over time). Regardless, 
64KB or KW, either way, isnt a lot for an RTE6/VM system. Odd. Almost 
suspicious. Every RTE6 systems I've gotten my hands on has had almost a full 
complement of memory. Also, for small memory cables, smaller daisy chain 
cables were usually used. While not a clear indicator, my first blush gut 
feeling is someone has pulled memory cards from this unit.

3) Two front panel switches are broken. This is very bad. I don't believe 
those switches are repairable, and switches 2 & 3 are quite common targets 
for boot loader use. Wouldn't be fun to try and live without them.

4) The machine is an F series, but, it's missing the Floating Point box. 
Without it, it ain't really an F machine to me anyways. The floating point 
unit on the F is a rackmount box racked right along side the cpu. No 
floating point box, and you almost can just consider it an E series machine 
which is common as dirt.

5) There is clearly something braindead with this unit. It may be as simple 
as the battery backup option is installed but no battery is connected. But 
the "all register select lights on" in the picture is a yellow flag for 
sure.

6) Very low on the I/O card cage. BACI board is good, but as I've found, can 
be problematic unless you have a 246X terminal to go with it. Using a 
regular terminal on a BACI board works for most diagnostics, but definitely 
doesn't work right for RTE and all the RTE utilities. Bus I/O isn't one of 
the more fun cards to play with.

7) Seller lists "lots of hardware and software docs on CDROM". Do I smell a 
bitsavers copier?

8) There is a lot of stuff he lists on the ebay ad that is correct and 
detailed knowledge. But there is a lot of other things mentioned in the ad 
copy that indicate someone who doesn't have a CLUE. Either one is perfectly 
fine, but the dichotomy is a yellow flag to me.

All this for $800 bucks? Ludicrous. Based on a long history of acquisitions 
of HP 21MX gear, I would estimate the cpu with the above deficiencies to go 
for about $120 to $160 on ebay, and that's allowing for uninformed 
overzealous bidders. Honestly, I think such a machine is worth around $40 
bucks.

$800... hell... even $200 for a machine in that state is just... insane.

Jay