<Is it possible for a RQDX3 to be bad, and trash a RD53 (Yes, I know what
<terrible drives they are) to the extent they can't be formated in a VS200
Yes and no. Yes I've had drives a VS2k would not touch but the drives
were otherwise ok. The PDP-11 formatter would however format them. Most
of the drives I have that the VS2k didn't like were formatted on my CP/M
crate using a teltek card(oddball format) or the older PC mfm controllers.
You could have an incorrect hookup, power problems or other things going
on. Are the RD5x's powered from the same powersupply as the rest of the
system (in the same box)?
RQDX3s do fail though the failure modes can be vary varied as they have
their own PDP-11/memory/eprom on board. If it passes self diagnostics
it's a 98% safe bet, if it's self testable it's ok. That does mean there
are parts that selftest cannot verify.
<So my question is, am I just having very bad luck or is the controller m
<problem?
I think your suffering from a multitude of things and with an apparent
lack of docs to reference too. Your trying to attack it was if it were
a PC and it's not even close. Those drives generally don't fail that
suddenly and my expereince is they are generally reliable. But when you
start with a box of junk it's hard to get to a know working point.
Me I have Q-bus PDP-11s that can boot faster and off a wider variety of
devices so any testing is done that using good old RT-11. I also have a
set of diags for that platform so testing things like disks, tapes and
interfaces is doable either with diags or by using them. At some point
I have know good boards and questionable seperated and can move the known
good to the uvax. PDP-11 and uvax Qbus commonality can be handy.
Allison
The person I've been getting a bunch of DEC stuff off of has a whole pile
of TU-58 tapes that he would like to get transfered over to something he
can read. I'm wondering if there is anyway I can attach the TU58 drive
I've got for my PDP-11/44 to my MicroVAX II and copy these tapes for him.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |
<I'd say it's not so much a matter of there being "no need for them"
<(front panels), so much as the fact that machines are so fast any more
<that I'm not sure how much use they'd be, especially with
<multi-tasking operating systems. Before the address and data LEDs
<stabilized with any useful information, it would be somewhere else.
In some respects that is true even back then when instruction cycle
time were in the 2-10uS bracket. You did get to see the average
addresses that were freqently accessed. However, front pannels also
posessed the ability to stop the cpu, and single step or single
instruction advance it. A true front panel on a PC would have to be able
to do that and that is no small trick considering the caches, Dram refresh
and other dynamic timings.
< -Bill Richman
< http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r
< (Home of the COSMAC Elf Simulator!)
Cosmac ELF sim? Humm, I still rin one of those chips for fun.
Allison
Hi!
Anyone know what a HP 935 is? I assume it to be a Hewlett Packard laptop
of some sort, with an LCD display, but I don't know if it is MS-DOS,
CPM/M, a full laptop or one of the Tandy Model 100 computers, or what. :(
A mining company just offered me a pile of them (along with my choice of
their old computers), but I figure I should know something about them
before I make the journey.
Thanks heaps,
Adam.
Is it possible for a RQDX3 to be bad, and trash a RD53 (Yes, I know what
terrible drives they are) to the extent they can't be formated in a VS2000?
I'm still trying to get my VAXstation II/RC up and running, and I was
trying to load it with a questionable tape today. I booted with a
standalone backup tape and started reloading. I then proceeded to get a
parity error, which I told it to ignore. It sat around for a couple of
hours not doing much of anything, so I halted the system and unloaded the
tape.
Then later on today I went to load it from a known good system tape, only
this time standalone backup wouldn't see the disk. Thinking the drive
needed reformated I pulled it out, and put it in my VS2000, and when I go
to format it I get the following.
>>> t 70
KA410-A RDRXfmt
VSfmt_QUE_unitno (0-2) ? 0
VSfmt_STS_Siz .??
VSfmt_RES_ERR #2
84 FAIL
>>>
I had formated this same drive in this same system early last week with no
problem. I just hadn't had time until today to try loading it. This is
the second Hard Drive that has quite working and I've been unable to format
after placing it in this system. I have yet to actually get the system to
work with a Hard Drive (although the standalone backup recognized the one
earlier today).
So my question is, am I just having very bad luck or is the controller my
problem?
Thanks,
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |
I have two counterpoint unix boxen. I've had these things for years but
have never got around to fixing them up. They both have the IO
subsystem, but they are also both missing many parts. I was wondering
if anyone has experience with these things and mebbe some
documentation. I _do_ have an original 60M QIC of counterpoint unix
that I could dupe if anyone is interested (although I haven't checked
its reliability recently)
Cheers,
Dan
sorry about that rus is the game still, avail.
At 06:43 PM 22/02/98 -0800, you wrote:
>where are you at dan i live in castlegar bc canada i will take it if it
>doesent cost to much
>At 12:22 PM 22/02/98 -0800, you wrote:
>>any body want my coin op pong machine
>>
>>
>
>
>
Well kids and kiddies I got it functioning. The int. fdd wasn't
positioning the heads close enough to the disk to read them.
Fired up the various OS -- TRSdos 2.0 A , TRSdos 4.2 , CP/M
2.25 and the apps. Scripsit, Profile+, Visicalc, several terminal
programs and some CP/M apps. including MBasic and the C asm.
Wheeee !! What fun !! BTW, it says has 64k . Don't know
about that upgrade tho. Next step is to check out these HDD s.
Thanks to all who contributed.
ciao larry
lwalkerN0spaM(a)interlog.com
where are you at dan i live in castlegar bc canada i will take it if it
doesent cost to much
At 12:22 PM 22/02/98 -0800, you wrote:
>any body want my coin op pong machine
>
>
found a homepage for the last home computer ti ever produced it wascalled
the ti 99/8 it can be seen at
http://w3.gwis.com/~polivka/998.html
At 10:01 AM 22/02/98 -0500, you wrote:
>On Tue, 3 Jun 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:
>> On a scarcely related note, has anyone ever seen (or does anyone have) a
>> TI-99/4 (no "a")?
>Andrew Gurudata has a page devoted entirely to the TI-99/4 at:
>
>http://www.vex.net/~guru/ti/ti994nota.htm
>
>
>--------------------------------------
>Rich Polivka
>Alternate e-mail: copguy(a)geocities.com or ti994a(a)technologist.com
>TI Home Computer Page: http://w3.gwis.com/~polivka/994apg.html
>My Ohio Police Pages: http://www.cop-spot.com/~OhioBlue
>------------------------------------
>
>
>
