AIX

i tried the diag cd's version 5.1 and 5.2. neither of them boot.
there is a lot of activity on the cdrom drive when i either hit F5 or set the boot device to the cdrom, but no boot. does that mean that all the 5.x versions of aix do not like my 7248? i can only hardly believe this, because i believe in the company where i work there are such machines with aix 5.

any more suggestions?

If at all it will boot 5.1 only with one of the latest microcodes for that workstation, perhaps only the last one IBM made available.
Starting point for your search: http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/firmware/gjsn
With an old firmware you might be stuck with some 4.x oslevel.

I don't think the F5 thing works on the 7248, too old.
Do you have the SMS diskette?

now i tried installing 4.1.3, unfortunately with the same result.
no booting off the cd.
what else can i try?

Do you have the SMS diskette?

yes, i have.

"no booting off the cd.
what else can i try?"

Another set of media - diag CD and 4.1.3 media don't work.
Another CD drive - just about any old scsi CD drive should be OK.

If you can still boot the system, does the CD drive work OK?

When it fails to boot from CD what do you get on the console?
What sort of console do you have, LFT / Graphics / Serial - if so then what type, win pc with hyper term, etc. If serial what settings do you have on the software / emulator, baud, bits, parity, stop bits?

I'll try to remember to look out some 7248 books for you but don't hold your breath, I may not be able to find any these days.