test-drb November 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

185 participants
940 discussions

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< it did have the drives mounted vertical. As issued, it had an 81-294 < motherboard, and the 81-478 (U-ROM) EPROM. I believe that it had the < in-built modem and real-time clock as well. The Turbo-ROM was a major < improvement! that number doesnt match the the logic. there is no modem. Cannot tell on the Urom and the turborom replaced it. Yes, with turborom using teac FD55F or 3.5" drives I get 781k per drive. I retained the 360k drive for compatability. Allison

25 years, 7 months

Apple I Computer For Sale (fwd)

by franke＠sbs.de

> Anybody else see this one? I wonder what kind of documentation he has to > "support" that "The current value of an Apple I computer is $40,000+" Is > he referring to the one that was sold for a charity? Trolling only needs phantasy (sometimes). >> This computer is for display purposes only -- not for actual >> use as a computer. Though I used it as a working computer in the >> past, the ravages of time has likely make it inoperative. HarHarHar. > Minimum price for starting the bidding is $25,000.00. The current value > of an Apple I computer is $40,000+. Documentation to support this fact will > be provided upon request. A color photo to interested parties will also be > provided upon request. Just request it - I gess he will pull out some magazines with yellow press stly articles about historic computers. Gruss Hans -- Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut HRK

25 years, 7 months

Help Needed With Sinclair 1000

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

somebody gave me this computer who built it and the power supply into a wooden case, complete with a composite tube. this person also hacked a keyboard on it, complete with some crude circuitry on a tinybreadboard that was mounted very haphazardly on a piece of plexiglass along with the keyboard! ah, homebuilt computing at its finest. however, it doesnt work at the moment so once i find schematics, i'll start isolating the problem. david In a message dated 11/2/98 10:32:14 PM US Eastern Standard Time, roblwill(a)usaor.net writes: > Part of it may have been the dippy little keyboard that it had, or the fact > that it only came with 1k or RAM (standard). If it had a larger keyboard, > instead of the tiny plastic membranes, then the idea *MAY* have caught on. > > > I wonder if ther'd be some way to either put a new keyboard on it (say, > from a laptop), or somehow make it into an expansion unit for something > like a TRS-80, almost like a CoCo cartridge.

25 years, 7 months

Help Needed With Sinclair 1000

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Does anyone know what the "ear" and "mic" jacks are for (I know what < they're for, I just want to know WHY they're there). It's the only BASI < machine I've seen with a MIC plug. Or is it to connect a tape deck to? Hook up a tape recorder to it so you can save programs and recover them. Crude but it works. Allison

25 years, 7 months

CRT decay

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Don't CRT filaments degrade with use? I've seen this on other < workstation monitors from Sun and HP, typically ones that were used as It the common characteristic of all valves (tubes) with heated cathodes that over time emission will decay and gain(brightness) goes away with it. < big-ticket item, the local TV repairman had cylindrical devices called < "boosters" that could be inserted in the circuit between the plug on < the back of the CRT and the set's CRT socket to extend the life of a It got back some emission for a while but the overvoltage generally killed the tube. < dim picture tube. I don't really know what it did, but I suppose it < was something like a step-up transformer for the CRT filament voltage. That was it's exact function. Poor emision is something I really haven't seen in years on CRTs. Thats due to improved materials. Burnt phosphor is more common. Allison

25 years, 7 months

PDP-11/44 boot prompt

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Actually, I'm wondering how those things work. Do they read the POST < code off the motherboard, or do they do their own diagnosis? I've < looked at the ads in various magazines, but never thought it had < much potential. POST is in reality a dumb I/O port with a two digit display. The BIOS power up self test writes codes to it depending on errors or success. It allows a bit more informative display if the video board or tube is croaked. Generally I can trouble shoot without one using known good boards as swaps. Allison

25 years, 7 months

Ancient machines turning on (was Re: eBay strikes again...)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< the modern uSoft OSs - win95/98 and NT4. I still get GPFs but nowhere n < the frequency I got them with the dos-based windows. No microsoft OS ha Last reboot of this dos6.22/win3.1 system was three weeks ago when I shut it down to shuffle the drives and replace a dead fan. It's quite stable. Then again I tend to trash apps that don't behave! I've also tamed a few unruly ones with carefull edits or the creation of a proper PIF file. Considering the number of DOS apps I run under windows Setting things up right is a necessity. To me GPFs are applications that under VMS would likely cause an exception exit dump. GPFs are a poor error handling mech for programs trying to do what should or are illegal things. It's easy to blame a weak OS for crappy applications. Dos has few to no protections and ragging on it is unfair. < compared to the stability (weeks and months without rebooting) of Linux, < in turn doesn't approach the bulletproof reliability you expect from VMS The Slakware 3.0 Linux I have on a 386dx/33 that is a good machine but with only 8meg of ram Linux is not that stable. Forget getting xwindows to behave well in 8meg. < I freely admit I learned most of my computer science under Vax-VMS so I < strong bias towards it, but I've also run moderately large scale vaxclus I'm biased as well, I run 7 vaxen here, two of which are LAVC members. I also run RT-11, RSTS-11 and a lot of CP/M systems. < and at least the versions we used... 5.5a, if memory serves, were remark < reliable. To the point where we once had a cluster server loose its dis Solid! I run both 5.4-4 and 5.5 and uptimes are limited by power on times, though in the past I've seen months to years. < I'm not a programmer. I'm a sysadmin/netadmin type. Ease of programmin < secondary to me compared to reliability. A system that crashes frequent < the bane of my profession's existance, because it means instead of spend < time on the entire environment and routine maintenance you spend more ti < firefighting mode. That is why VMS, unix and their kin are used on the enterprize scale. Dos/win was used that way but it was never conceived as a multiuser OS nor as a networking server platform. Using it that way maybe a hackers dream but a sysadmin nightmare. < We were discussing why people don't get attached to PCs as much, and any < machine that bombs frequently or in general causes headaches seems to me < it's not going to be high on people's lists. A machine that is poorly understood and marketed by processor speed hype that shows zippy games. I still don't understand why a kid needs a 300MHz PII to run simcity other than hype. To me it's simpler, one 486dx or PII is the same as another, ther eis nothing to distinguish them. Even the PS2 series was at least different on the bus level. It's a matter of maturity of the system and all of the software. Allison

25 years, 7 months

CRT decay (OT)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

While we're talking about CRTs, I want to ask if anyone has heard of any problems with Digital VGA monitors, about 4 years old. We installed a lab full of them, and when I turned them on, two lost the magic white smoke, and more have various other problems. >> Is this related to what I am about to ask? Could somebody do a short >> summary of why Fimi(?) greyscale megapixel NeXT monitors fade after > >Fimi monitors seem to be related to Philips, but just try getting a service >manual for one. > >> 20,000 or so hours of use and indicate whether there are any other >> monitors (perhaps some classic) that show similar problems? > >The most likely cause is the CRT cathode is losing emission (basically >it's not sending enough electrons to the screen). But it could also be a >low electode voltage on the CRT, a problem with the brightness control, etc. > >It's time to mention a trick that's saved me a lot of time over the >years, even though it's too late for you to use it. When I get a monitor, >whether new, or part of a classic computer, or whatever, the first thing >I do is pull the case and note down the CRT electrode voltages and any >other testpoints I think might be useful (PSU outputs, etc). If I have a >service manual/schematic, then I note them in there. If not, then it's >normally easy to find the CRT pinouts at least and I write down the >voltages in a suitable place, such as the user manual. Even a label stuck >inside the case. > >Then, if the picture starts to fade, I can check the voltages again to >see if there are any problems. > >OK, if it is the CRT emission (and I've had this happen on large mono >monitors), then you may be looking for a new CRT. There are CRT >reactivation devices (basically they run the heater at about 20% >overvoltage and apply a high voltage, about 200V, between the cathode and >1st grid), but modern CRTs don't normally respond too well. Sometimes >overrunning the CRT heater all the time (it's unlikely you'd burn it out) >will help. There are all sorts of tricks for that, including wrapping a >couple of turns of wire round the core of the flyback and connecting it >in series with the heater supply. If the heater is already supplied by >the flyback, then you need to try the new winding both ways round. The >way that brightens the heater and picture is the right one. > >Incidentally, a lot of micros, video terminals, etc use 12" mono CRTs. >There are basically only 2 types - thin neck, 7 pin, 11V heater and thick >neck, 8 pin, 6.3V heater. A good source of the former is old portable >TVs. If you can get a portable TV with a good tube, perhaps with flyback >or tuner problems, the CRT will probably go into a TRS-80 Model 3 or a >VT100, or.. with only a few mods, if any. > > >> >> >> -- Stephen Dauphin >> > > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

25 years, 7 months

386's available

by kyrrin＠jps.net

If anyone wants what sound like 386SX machines, here's your chance. Please contact the author directly if interested. Thanks! -=-=- <snip> -=-=- >Sender: mann(a)pa.dec.com >Date: Mon, 02 Nov 1998 15:49:01 -0800 >From: Tim Mann <mann(a)pa.dec.com> >Organization: DEC Systems Research Center >X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.05 [en] (X11; I; OSF1 V4.0 alpha) >To: kyrrin(a)jps.net >Do you know of anyone who wants old 386 systems (preferably in the SF >Bay area)? I have one that actually has a CDROM, soundcard, 500 MB hard >drive, and 10 MB of RAM, but the poor old 386 only runs at 20 MHz, so >the machine is painfully slow. > >-- >Tim Mann <mann(a)pa.dec.com>, Compaq Systems Research Center >http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/personal/Tim_Mann/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) (Web: http://table.jps.net/~kyrrin) SysOp: The Dragon's Cave (Fido 1:343/272, 253-639-9905) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

25 years, 7 months

Help Needed With Sinclair 1000

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

That's kinda cool in a twisted Word 97 sort of way. Context sensitive BASIC...I'm wondering if this is where MS got their idea. You see, in Visual Basic 5, it shows the syntax for the function I'm typing, and also can complete it. Why is the Sinclair hated disliked if it had what seems to be a useful feature? >> O.K. How do I enter programs, then, such as >> >> 10 CLS >> 20 PRINT "HELLO"; >> 30 GOTO 20 >> >> if I can't enter things such as the "hello"? > >Once you hit the PRINT key it then allows you to freely enter the string >(or variable) you want to print. In other words, what you can type is >sensitive to the context of the keyword. > >Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Always being hassled by the man. > > Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 > See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! > [Last web site update: 11/02/98] > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

25 years, 7 months

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test-drb November 1998