28 Aug
2025
28 Aug
'25
11:29 a.m.
On 8/28/2025 1:07 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
Nothing recognizable. A really small jbl in one spot but not like it
was a company logo. Maybe the guy who designed the board. There is
Rev. 1 along one edge.
Western Digital WDX-GEN,
Interesting. I always thought the original PC controllers could do
all of it and it wasn't until the 3.5 came out with a suitable
controller that we lost all that. So, now that I have an ISA MB
again is there any controllers available that can do everything?
I think there used to be an Adaptec that did it.
Guess I need to get it working and find a suitable controller
before worrying about it.
bill
On Thu, Aug 28, 2025 at 5:51 PM Bill Gunshannon via
cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
That explains the weird little cable stretching over some of the boards
and getting in the way. :-)
I finally got the missing keyboard and now it is time to try
and revive it.
I restored one some months back. Mine is 100% IBM boards and options....
The portablePC has a normal XT motherboard in it. The standard video
board is the CGA one, with the composite output (on the 4 pin
connector originally designed for an RF modulator) feeding the
internal amber moniitor. This is actually a Zenith unit.
Note that if you want to remove or open up the monitor and PSU you
need Bristol Spline tools.
Does it make me a true geek if I say that I actually have a set of them?
And tamperprrof Torx for
the PSU cover. I
had to take the latter apart, the mains input filter capaciitors were
being antisocial and breaking down. I replaced them before they filled
the worshop with magic smoke
PSU seems fine.
A couple quick questions.
It has a board in it called IBM PC INTERFACE with the numbers
170-18-165 and CIL18-16 printed on it. It has a 50 pin connector
on the bracket end. If I take it out the machine dies almost
immediately doing the POST. Tried Google with no luck. Anybody
remember what it is?
This doesn't sound like any IBM board. Is there a maker's name on it? And how does the POST die? What error code, etc.
Well, lets confuse things even more. Took th3e card out again and
the system tested all 640K and went into BASIC.
Are there any large chips on the board, or is it all small TTL devices?
Looks to be all TTL chips and two fairly large jumper blocks.
Next problem. 1701 error. Light on MFM drive flashes 3 slow
and 4 fast continuously. Being as this machine was known to
work when it was last shut down any suggestions? Could it be
a stiction problem and the disk just isn't spinning up? (Can't
tell by listening as the fan is pretty loud. Not bad just louder
than any good disk I have ever heard.)
I am pretty sure that the only official way to add a hard disk was to
put it in a 5161 expansion cabinet (!) So this must be a 3rd-party
devce, What is the make and model of the hard drive
itself?
No idea yet as it is buried in the system below the floppy. But I
plan on pulling it out as soon as I figure out the mounting scheme
for the disks.
Do you
have a way of powering it up outside the machine? Just power it, with
no ribbon cables connected
Not yet but I will once I have it out. I have tried listening as
close as I can get and I don't think the disk is spinning. Sure
sounds like stiction to me. And I no longer have my disk mallet as
broke quite some time ago. :-) Would like to get it out and try
cycling the power to it a few times and maybe even using the heat
gun. Ah, the things we dealt with back in the day. Will not be
a surprise to me if it is a Seagate Disk.
And then one other not related to a problem. Being an original
PC owned by users and not geeks is it likely that the floppy
controller is one that can handle other formats (like TRS-80)
and maybe even 8"?
The original IBM floppy controller is a 3/4 length card. Theres an
edge connector at the front for the ribbon cable to the internal
drives and a DC37 socket on th bracket for the external drives. Mostly
small ICs with one 40 pin device (NEC 765 or Intel 8272, they're
essentially the same).
This board is strictly double density, standard data rate only. It
won't do 8" data rates. It won't do single density. And just to wrap it up. What are the chances of
finding an
external drive or even a cable that could be made to connect
to an external drive?
Very easy to make the cable using an IDC DC37 plug, 34 way ribbon
cable and the sockets/edge connectors to fit your drives. I am sure
there are instructions on the web.