I dont know about the 7000B series, but this is my experience with my 7000 series: I had no recovery CD, just the old Win98 HDD and some drivers from the internet. I placed a new (bigger and faster) HDD, and just installed WinXP from a XP Prof SP3 CD-Rom, installed the drivers, and installed the latest firmware (The tools package, this includes the scope program) from the Tek website. Did windows update, and now everything runs fine! XP runs that much better than Win 98/2K. You might even be able to run Windows 7. Your HW should be able run Win 7 without problems, but be sure to check if your SW supports Win 7.
I did get some CMOS tools from the old hdd, as I was unable to find it anywhere. This was it.
Windows did not include the drivers for the ppc board and front panel. I downloaded the drivers mentioned earlier on this tread.
How did you determine that NVRAM have correct data? I'd suggest use serial console to check all parameters.
I think I need to focus on the PPC chip itself and see if I can verify the basics such as power supply, clock, and reset based on the datasheet.
How long after power on should it take fro the PPC board to show signs of life on the 7 segment, or console port? Does it boot from the hard drive before, or after Windows boots?
Just in case anyone needs drivers for TDS7000/TDS7000B/CSA7000/CSA7000B series scopes:
Display driver from TDS7000B/CSA7000B
USB Front Panel driver for TDS7000/7000B/CSA7000/7000B
PowerPC board driver for TDS7000/7000B/CSA7000/7000B
I think I need to focus on the PPC chip itself and see if I can verify the basics such as power supply, clock, and reset based on the datasheet.I would follow that strategy also... Check whether the basic conditions for the CPU to run are there.
Have you looked into powergood from onboard DC-DCs? Usually on PC hardware like motherboards and videocards powergood from onboard bucks driving resets to ensure correct ramped voltages and proper power sequence. Might be same case here.