< > (Oh and an HSC50 whatever the heck that is!)
<
< Hierarchical Storage Controller.
< Waist high filing cabinet sized box, HEAVY too.
< Basically, it's a PDP8 I think, running a little o/s called CRONIC
PDP11, used the T-11 chip. NOT PDP-8.
I believe CRONIC was an application (control program) and ran under a
truncated version of RT-11.
Allison
>Hmm.. This should be easy. Install /bin/cat. The cat, as usual, will eat
>the fish.
>
Haven't tried that yet, but the /bin/cat/ folder is on the unaccessable
HD...
>Seriously, something is overheating. If you can get to the board with it
>in the machine, can you detect any semiconductor that's too hot. Where
>does the smell seem to be coming from - the HD controller, the machine's
>PSU, or where?
>
I'm figuring that the smell is coming from the HD controller board, getting
sucked through the P/S's tiny 1" fan, and blown out the top of the computer.
The HD controller is plugged in right next to the P/S. I think one of the
chips on the HD controller blew, because it was one of the common ailments
of the 1400.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
>First, check if there's a fish stuck in your laptop. Second, have you
>looked closely at the controller card to see if there is any obvious
>melting of parts, or blackened spots? Check each component for excessive
>heat (excessive meaning if you touch it and it instantly burns your
>finger). Have you tried the hard drive in another machine? Be careful,
>if the hard drive is at fault here you may end up frying fish with another
>controller card.
>
I've found that the fish smell is from some capacitors on the controller.
There's no sign of overheating, other than a few plastic labels (on the
chips) are a bit curled on the ends.
I really have no way of testing the HD, since it's one of those weird 26-pin
type like the Zenith laptops used to use. The only other computer that I
have that it may work in is an old WANG WLTC, and the drive in it is 10 MB,
and made by JVC, where the one in the Tandy is an Alps.
I think that the HD controller was one of the 1400's faults (other than the
power supply). I've already worked on two 1400's with blown P/S's and HD
controllers. What I've noticed is that the HD controller will quit, then
the power supply will blow out (usually a microfuse).
The 1400HD was basically just a 1400FD with a factory-installed HD upgrade
kit. I currently have the floppy from the second 1400 in the one I'm trying
to fix, but there's some stuff on the HD that I'd like to get off of it, but
have no way of doing so.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
Max Eskin wrote:
>I saw an odd machine in a thrift store today, a machine labelled a PS/1,
but it
>looked nothing like the PS/1 valuepoints, or any other PC I've ever seen.
It
>looked like a cross between a PCjr and a soap dish. One 3.5" floppy drive,
huge
>ugly vents and IBM logo on the front, on the back are ports for mouse,
>keyboard, VGA, 2400 bps modem, and parallel printer. It also has a little
fan
>and some sort of slot cover that fell out. Where is the power switch? Where
>does the power connect to?
That's the original PS/1, a 286 with an almost totally closed architecture.
Needs the special monitor to give it power.
I happened to pick up a lone monitor like this last week. Pity I'm in
Australia though.
I've only seen a couple of these around here in the last few years.
Hans Olminkhof
