digital AlphaServer 2100 does not boot

[haslo]

I have got an AlphaServer 2100 (series 5) a major swiss firm did not need anymore. I really do appreciate that - I think I will install Linux on the machine. Now here's my problem:

When the machine starts to boot, it displays the following sequence in the tiny little display above the power button:

test cpu0
test i/o
test [...]
starting cpu 0
console started
test mem bank [0...3]

(hds start up)

probe i/o subsys

(screen flickers)
(BIOS message appears on the screen)
(blue screen)

starting cpu 1

(something i can't read (too fast) in the display)

ISLK DLZ099

then the system hangs...

I have taken out everything that does not seem necessary after the first time this happened. Still plugged in are:

[ul][li]2 CPUs[/li]
[li]2 MEM banks[/li]
[li]i/o EISA card (the power button, HDs and stuff plug in there)[/li]
[li]Video card[/li]
[li]HDs - I also already tried to take them out...[/li][/ul]
What I found out so far is that DLZ seems to be some kind of tape drive technology - Digital Lempel-Ziv. Not that this would help me any further...
It is possible that the server was connected somewhere to such a tape drive. Don't know that.

An additional problem of mine is: I also don't have a user's manual. So some minor additional questions show up:

[ul][li]How do you normally get into the BIOS?[/li]
[li]Do AlphaServers need a special keyboard? (ScrlLock and F1 seem to be switched on my swiss-german keyboard, where these keys absolutely conform with the american type...)[/li][/ul]
Do you think a BIOS upgrade would help? Any help would be appreciated...