>A friend of mine just picked up a VAX 4000/VLC (on my
recommendation as a
>nice small VAX) and I thought it was broken, because the 'sho dev'
produced
>"illegal command." Turns out it has had a password set, but of
course the
>seller didn't know that. Anyway, how does one tell the VAX to
"forget" that
>it has a password set? Is there a jumper or something somewhere?
Turn off the power.
Find the two triangular solder pads near
the TOY (it has a clock face printed
on it) and short these together with
a screwdriver.
This is from the VLC/4k60 Condensed Service Information so
I assume it applies to both.
Antonio
arcarlini(a)iee.org
From: Jim Strickland <jim(a)calico.litterbox.com>
>Could you set it up to netboot and copy the disk over before it croaks?
>If it was running VMS I'd suggest clustering it. I'm thinking the
difference
>in performance between having it netboot and run against an NFS disk vs
>running against the mfm drive isn't going to be all that big.
Check and see if it has DECNET on it and copy the disk via that to
another VMS machine. IF not then use TCP/ip to copy the disk.
As a machine you can put a lot of different disks into it and if you
netboot/mop
load it put a small disk in it as SWAP, as swapping over eithernet is
SLOW.
Also the power supply want that 30W load so you have to have a drive.
Possible drives ST225(20mb), Quatum D540(30mb), ST251(40mb),
XT21290(160mb) to name a few. that machine can format drives!
>> versions as well (KA41 - KA49). Fortunately for me the desktop VAXes
take
>> up _much_ less room than the deskside variety, also the drive has
Ultrix32
>> on it and its my only Ultrix based VAX (I've got Ultrix media for MIPS
but
>> not for VAX). I'm guessing that if I moved the jumper back I'd see it
has
>> some sort of frame buffer as well, perhaps it would bring up X even.
It just might!
Allison
From: William Fulmor <wpfulmor(a)dimensional.com>
>I've had very good luck shutting up XT2190's and RD54's simply by
turning
>them upside-down. In my particular set up (old pee cee cases) they also
>run _much_ cooler. That might present mounting and cabling
>complications in your situation. YMMV.
If turning it is a fix then flip the MV2000, they are rather small
anyway.
Allison
From: Don Maslin <donm(a)cts.com>
>Chuck, if it really is an RD54 - aka Maxtor XT2190 - the motor is
>internal and inaccessible. There is, however, a Priam 519 that has the
>same parameters as the Maxtor, and it has rotating parts external to the
>disk housing. I do not know whether DEC used Priam or not, though.
the likely hood is its a Maxtor XT2190, and yes some are very LOUD.
They do seem to keep working even then. the usual source of the noise
is internal bearing being flatspotted due to shock or the motor really
working hard to spin the platter. Make sure the 12V is!
Allison
I need to know where the serial port connector is on a TRS-80 Expansion
Interface. I have two of them. One has its ports labeled, and one of the
ports is labeled "MODEM" but it is simply an edge connector. Is this the
serial port? If so, what's the pinout?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
Does anyone know where a TRS-80 Expansion Interface manual might reside
online?
Thanks!
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
I knew about computers for a long time before I actually bought one for
myself, and from articles and books knew a bit of basic. One of my first
programs was a couple lines of basic I could quickly type in on the demo
computers at Radio Shack. It endlessly printed to the screen a string one
character at a time with about a 3 second delay between characters, "I am a
slow and stupid computer. ". Made a nice pattern on the screen.
Hello ClassicCmp and Port-vax,
A friend of mine just picked up a VAX 4000/VLC (on my recommendation as a
nice small VAX) and I thought it was broken, because the 'sho dev' produced
"illegal command." Turns out it has had a password set, but of course the
seller didn't know that. Anyway, how does one tell the VAX to "forget" that
it has a password set? Is there a jumper or something somewhere?
--Chuck
I've got a newly re-functioning VAXStation 2000 which is equipped with an
RD54 hard drive. The system boots into Ultrix 3.1 however it is _very_
loud. The drive has got a serious whine to it. I'm wondering if there is a
bering or a brush somewhere that I can lubricate to cut down on the noise!
--Chuck
On the subject of early 'fragile' monitors, kill-able by the wrong
refresh rate: I was always under the impression that, being by neccessity
rather cheaply engineered and produced devices... the designers used many
of the long-standing "tricks" from decades of consumer TV practice to "get
by with less". Anyone who has worked at all with (especially 60s-era) TV
sets will know what this means.
The beam deflection circuits in most monitors have magnetic deflection
coils around the neck of the CRT (called the deflection 'yoke) which carry
the vertical and horizontal sweep frequencies and thereby move the
internal electron beam around on the face of the CRT screen. Since the
early monitors were designed to run at very limited sweep rates (or even
at one single sweep or refresh rate) the engineers could use a factor
called "resonance" to get by with less wire in the coils and simpler
electronics to drive them
Basically, the yoke coil is calculated to 'ring' at a certain frequency,
and of course this is the horizontal refresh rate. The circuit is designed
so that at that freq, the yoke is in resonance, and therefore uses less
current to get the job done; hence less wire and lighter, cheaper parts.
The circuit is made to be resonant over just a narrow range of frequencies
(called the 'Q' of the circuit) and if the driving signal strays very far
>from this range either way, the circuit is no longer in a condition of
resonance, it begins to draw large amounts of power trying to do the same
work, and, in a lot of the 'cheap' monitors, the whole thing actually
overheats and burns up while you are looking at the jagged lines and
trying to figure out what to do next.
Any kind of setting (hardware or software) which could alter the
horizontal rate without reagrd to the type of CRT device it's driving is
liable to this kind of smoke-producing behavior. Newer multi-sync CRTS
have spoiled us...
ALSO: Long ago in the Big Iron days... the were some machines in the
Philco line whose power supplies in some configs were marginally
inadequate. It was possible to load the machine (with programs and data)
and trip (or burn) the power units... but this was an isolated case.
Program damage to most older computer systems was mostly caused by making
peripherals do things they shouldn't... usually in cases of the device
handler software being abused or tweaked by The Unwary and causing
resultant mechanical damage.
Cheerz
John
