test-drb February 1999

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

178 participants
709 discussions

Story time boys and girls (Was Re: I need a ST-419 hard drive)

by gareth.knight2＠which.net

Joe wrote: > No, I'm not sure. I'm just using the initialize command in HP BASIC and >the format command in HP CPM. That's the only "tools" they give you. I >have no idea how to do a low level format on these. This made think of a problem my friend was trying to solve a while ago. His boss asked him to fix a 386 because of a quite spectacular Windows 3.11 crash. My friend couldn't even format the hard drive using the traditional MS-DOS format programs so he tried the Packard Bell diagnostic disk that had come with his old 486 (terrible machine, everything was built into the motherboard). It turned out that it was doing a low-level format which killed the IDE drive. I've never understood why Packard Bell who sold many of their computers to novices would ship something that could damage the hardware. To save face my friend just said the Windows crash had messed up the machine and I let him have one of the 40Mb hard drives I owned at the time. -- Gareth Knight Amiga Interactive Guide | ICQ No. 24185856 http://welcome.to/aig | "Shine on your star"

25 years, 4 months

attention MITS fiends . . .

by edick＠idcomm.com

I'm trying to make room for a child and her progeny in my basement, hence have moved some items into the carport . . . Since todays weather is good, I'm out sifting through the stuff looking for items of interest, and find I have a MITS modem board. Would this be of interest to anyone? Dick

25 years, 4 months

Cromemco Dazzler

by edick＠idcomm.com

There are supposed to be three of these board sets, though I saw one or two for the first time in 20 years yesterday. One appears to be complete with doc's and software, though the others, which I know were "played with" by my associates, may not be as complete, and some duplicating may be called for. I'm pretty certain that I can lay hands on two of these sets more or less right away, including one set of doc's and software, which I believe I held in my hands yesterday. The quandary arises out of the fact that there is at least one other board set, and i don't have a running CP/M box, since I'm not a collector. I've had a couple of modest cash offers, but would rather leave $$$ out of the equation if possible. If you have anything swappable, I'm interested in single-board computers, preferably small and simple, with documentation and firmware so I can USE them for something. If you're a Cromemco addict, you may be interested in the fact that I have a couple of functional PERSCI floppy drives, which were commonly available (though EXTREMELY expensive at the time) with the Cromemco systems back when Computerland used to sell them. These are single-sided (model 277) drives, of which one is packaged as an external unit complete with power supply, while another enclosure is in some less-than-functional state and extensively disassembled. I've recently looked at the power supply and noted that the regulator circuitry is missing. I also have parts of a third unit which is useable as parts only. What's probably more interesting is that I have the maintenance documents for these PERSCI drives. These are voice-coil-driven rather than stepping-motor-driven units, (for which provision was made on the later Western Digital floppy controllers) capable of stepping microseconds rather than milliseconds. I also have quite a few enclosures, power supplies, cardcages, motherboards, and other boards, mostly CPU's, FDC's, memory and I/O, some as yet unassembled, some under repair, some fully functional. Does this give you any suggestions? regards, Dick ---------- > From: Lawrence LeMay <lemay(a)cs.umn.edu> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: Cromemco Dazzler > Date: Saturday, February 20, 1999 9:30 AM > > [Charset ISO-8859-1 unsupported, filtering to ASCII...] > > I was digging throught the pile of "stuff" from days of old, and find I > > have a board-set (S-100) which is a Cromemco (remember them?) Dazzler video > > board set. I don't remember using this for anything. What probably > > happened is that I read the doc's and determined it was indadequate for my > > purpose and set it aside . . . the box (the cardboard box in which it was > > pacakged by Cromemco, looks like sh*t but the contents were apparently > > unharmed by the passage of 20 years, of which most were spent in the junk > > pile. > > The Dazzler produces a 128X128 resolution color raster image on a color > monitor, or TV set if you use an RF modulator. It was the second board > that Cromemco produced. > > > > > Is anyone interested? > > > > Sounds like something interesting to put in this Cromemco computer that i'm > upgrading, so i'd be interested in it. Do you have the documentation, or > any of the software (the game of life, kaleidoscope, dazzle writer) > > -Lawrence LeMay

25 years, 4 months

XEBEC external hard drive

by edick＠idcomm.com

Some weeks ago, I promised someone on this forum the XEBEC hard disk drive I had removed from an enclosure I bought at a local thrift store. I couldn't find it that day and indicated I'd have to do the easter egg hunt, but now have lost track of who asked me for it. Any takers? Dick .

25 years, 4 months

Alpha Micro (was My Lucky Day!)

by edick＠idcomm.com

This outfit built useful microcomputers at a time when microcomputers were really not that useful to the average person. Imagine that! Dick ---------- > From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)ncal.verio.com> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: My Lucky Day! > Date: Friday, February 19, 1999 9:28 PM > > On Fri, 19 Feb 1999, Joe wrote: > > > Does anyone have docs for the Altair 8" drive? I need to find out if > > everything is here and how to hook it up. Does anyone have any good URLs > > for the Alpha Micro stuff? I don't know what all these cards and stuff > > are. There's some very strange looking stuff in it. > > www.alphamicro.com > > They're still around making stuff. Their tech support guys are pretty > cool about answering questions about old stuff, and they even indicated > they would still help me out on this 68010-based box of theirs (circa > 1986) that I picked up a little while back. > > Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > Always hasslin' the man. > > Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 > See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! > [Last web site update: 02/15/99]

25 years, 4 months

Latest finds....

by guerney＠uq.net.au

Sellam said: >VZ200, eh? Interesting. Maybe you Oz-nerds can shed some light on this. >I recently acquired a Dynasty Smart Alec Jr. Its a small computer with a >chiclet keyboard. Almost reminds me of a Mattel Aquarius. Anyway, on the >bottom the label reads that its a model VZ200, made by VTech (or Video >Technology) circa 1982. Is this the same thing perhaps as a Dick Smith >VZ200? As Andrew Davie said, seems so. I have the VZ200 and VZ300 as sold by Dick Smith, and the VZ 200 manual says copyright Video Technology 1983 on the first page. To all "Oz-nerds" (as opposed to Yank-nerds or Limey-nerds?:) - in the book "Programming the Dick Smith Electronics VZ300 Personal Computer" by Tim Hartnell, there is a section on attaching a disk drive (Cat X-7302) via a floppy disk controller (X-7304) which can take two drives. You also need the 16K memory expansion (X-7306). I have the latter, but I have never laid eyes on a VZ disk drive. I assume they are rare - if you had the sort of money I expect they wanted for them in 1986-7 (the system units were still being advertised in Aust Personal Computer in June 1987 for $A169 including datacasette and 4 programs) you would have bought a better computer! The boot screen with the disk drive attached is supposed to say VIDEO TECHNOLOGY DOS BASIC V1.2 READY So has anyone ever seen that? Phil in Brisbane, Australia.

25 years, 4 months

Email Question (fwd)

by donm＠cts.com

Actually, I see both name and e-mail address as you can see below. - don ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 12:08:28 -0500 From: Phil Clayton <musicman38(a)mindspring.com> Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Email Question I've noticed that when send email to Classiccmp my email address shows up instead of my name. However others users have their name instead of their email address. Is this a setting on my end, or is it the way I am setup on this forum.? If its on my end how do I change it? Phil...

25 years, 4 months

Latest finds....

by netcafe＠pirie.mtx.net.au

-----Original Message----- From: Lance Lyon <black(a)gco.apana.org.au> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Saturday, 20 February 1999 7:05 Subject: Re: Latest finds.... > > >Phil Guerney wrote: > >> To all "Oz-nerds" (as opposed to Yank-nerds or Limey-nerds?:) - in the book >> "Programming the Dick Smith Electronics VZ300 Personal Computer" by Tim >> Hartnell, there is a section on attaching a disk drive (Cat X-7302) via a >> floppy disk controller (X-7304) which can take two drives. You also need the >> 16K memory expansion (X-7306 I seem to recall seeing a memory expansion for a VZ computer in a s/h shop just up the road. I'll take a look and post the info if anyone is interested. Cheers Geoff Roberts Computer Room Internet Cafe Port Pirie South Australia. netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au

25 years, 4 months

My Lucky Day PS MINC

by dburrows＠netpath.net

Yes. It is a PDP11 based system with A/D and D/A modules. I have 2 here mostly complete. (missing the RX02's) Dan -----Original Message----- From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Friday, February 19, 1999 7:02 PM Subject: My Lucky Day PS MINC >BTW does anyone have a MINC (sp?) computer? This guy says that he used to >have one and he still has a lot of disks for it. > > Joe >

25 years, 4 months

DEC manufacturer?

by cmcmanis＠freegate.com

Does anyone know if you can purchase "handles" like the ones that appear on DEC OMNIBUS boards? (flip chip handles). One could drill out some old boards and make them but I'd prefer to have a source of new ones if possible. --Chuck

25 years, 4 months

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test-drb February 1999