test-drb April 2002

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

280 participants
1162 discussions

Shoddy Hardware (Was: Re: WW fixtures (was Re: "New" PDP-8))

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

On Mon, 1 Apr 2002 18:52:52 -0500 "Douglas H. Quebbeman" <dquebbeman(a)acm.org> writes: >> Anyone notice how commodity PCs have screws that have clearly > been *cast* onstead of *turned/Machined*? Everytime you thread > one into a hole, you generate a nice supply of metal shavings. > > Not good. > > To get back on topic, when did this trend start? The IBM PC, > PC/XT, and PC/AT used machined/turned fasteners. Lots of classic > non-consumer hardware used various "captive mechanisms" instead > of plain old screws and bolts. > > And how about sharp edges inside a chassis? Older hardware tends > to have spent a little time in the hands of a whitesmith, who > added lots of finishing detail like smooth edges that don't cut. I think this started when we (the U.S.A.) began importing parts made in communist countries. Jeff ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.

22 years, 9 months

Computers Manufactured in 1986

by blacklord＠telstra.com

> > Amiga. > And it's the best one (subjective) out of all the others so far mentioned. An A1000 can still happily run just about anything you can throw at it, plus it's emminently expandable. cheers, Lance ---------------- Powered by telstra.com

22 years, 9 months

Computers Manufactured in 1986

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Roger Merchberger [mailto:zmerch@30below.com] > (under OS-9) 512K Ram, hacked easily to 2M (recently hacked > to *64Meg*!!) Ok, when I get a CoCo 3, I want it to have 64M of RAM. How's it done? :) Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

22 years, 9 months

Computers Manufactured in 1986

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Dave McGuire [mailto:mcguire@neurotica.com] > What wonderful machines these are. The first ones, though, shipped > with 10MB drives, not 40MB, and it was SYSVR2, not 3. I don't doubt the 10M disk, but I've never seen anything below 3.0 for it. I have 3.5 on mine, with a 3.0 dev kit. Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

22 years, 9 months

DEC field veterans: what's KA64A's self test #21?

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

> Gunther Schadow wrote: > >do you know what the KA64A's self test #21 is? I have two of these >boards that just won't come up, they both stop at > >#123456789 0123456789 01 After an extensive trawl of the manuals, I think I've found something. This is, as you have said, failing test 21. This is Backup Tag Store Parity Error Test. Not a happy CPU, I would guess. I have no idea how repairable this is. To verify (for sure) you should have the yellow LED off (self-test failed) and the red LEDs below that reading OFF, ON, OFF, OFF, OFF, OFF, ON (which is 21 in BCD - no, I don't know why!) >system self test and get me to a console prompt, I get the error >that these two boards didn't get to console mode. What could be >wrong here? They almost certainly need the tender care of a soldering iron and a new chip or two. I have no schematics for these (I doubt that anyone other than the DEC repair centres ever did have these). Antonio

22 years, 9 months

IBM PS/1 Recovery/Install diskettes available

by r_beaudry＠hotmail.com

Hello all, A bit too new to be on topic, but... I was scrounging through some stuff yesterday, and unearthed a set of original diskettes for an IBM PS/1. One of the disks is labelled "IBM PS/1 Recovery Diskette" There are 13 more diskettes labelled "IBM Original PS/1 Software, Diskette X of 13", where X of course goes from 1 to 13 :-) They are also labelled "Version 2.2" and the latest copyright date is 1993. If anyone wants these diskettes, first come, first served, no charge except shipping... I did test them by copying them onto my hard drive, so they are readable... Rich B. _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

22 years, 9 months

Pr1marily Contented (Longish)

by dquebbeman＠acm.org

Now that my Prime 2455 is fully operational again, I want to thank everyone who offered advice here. After giving up on repairing the power supply, I decided to buy one. Had I known they'd only cost $100, I'd have bought one sooner. Well, that was my Christmas present to myself for Christmas 2000. It arrives, I install it, press the power button, and see a message from the VCP about it beginning its self-test. Then it completes, and then I get the date & time, and then... Then I get the "ON" LED flashing defiantly at a 2 Hz rate. Time passed, and I began to suspect that more than the PSU had gotten toasted. I intended to start saving money to shotgun the machine, board by board, until I had it running again. More time passed and no savings took place. Well, in steps a lister who I believe wishes to remain anonymous. Said lister faciliated the acquisition of said boards, NONE OF WHICH SOLVED THE PROBLEM! Not his fault, of course... and there is more of this part of the story I'll relate below, that should be of interest to all ClassicCmp listers. But I should thank the lister again, he knows who he is, and without his help, the Prime would still be an emotional singularity... Finally, again in desparation, I posted again to comp.sys.prime. This time, an owner of the same model I have, replies. Over the course of several dozen e-mails, we narrowed down the problem. As it turns out, the replacement PSU was either failing to ground or was in fact asserting a line known as BBUREQ+, which signals a battery backup problem to the virtual control panel. Grounding that pin got the system past the point in the boot where it would flash the LED. I suspect a forgotten FCO... More problems... it says it thinks its a 2450 and it can see it has 2455 parts, not right, won't boot. Swap VCP. Same. Swap in my original VCP. Ok, now it's happyy... nope, now the CPU won't verify. Swap in a second CPU board set. Nope. Ok, go for broke, swap in the remaining CPU board set, replace newly-provided CPU board interconnects (top hats) with my old ones. Replace my VCP-to-CPU cable with 3rd party cable. Now it's verifying the CPU ok, but can't autoboot from drive unit 0. I freak thinking it's the controller. Better that than the drive, tho... The bulkhead cable had gotten munged a bit, so I began to suspect it, and mangle it further trying to fix it. Still no good. Ok, stick a new connector on the cable. Nope. Remove and reseat the external cable to the duplex shoebox. Nope. Try different SCSI unit addresses... hey, that worked... But I can only see one drive. I mess around with various adresses, suspecting a dropped bit in the bad cable. Still can't get them both online. I finally ended up swapping the two unit select switches, or rather, the connectors, so that each drive was using the other's selectors. Then set them for the appropriate values. Bingo! Autoboot to unit 0 and unit 1 is also seen and mounted. So, I'm able to boot it into: Primos Rev. 23.4.Y2K.R1 Primos Rev. 20.0.8 Primos II Rev. 20 and these from either disk or tape. Whew! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Now, on to the part of the story that's widely applicable. Don't underestimate the potential usefulness of a 3rd-party service organization. The company in question services other stuff that they actually make money from. But they make no money from servicing Primes. They have a policy about repairs, as since these days, it's mostly remove & replace. Techs with experience are expensive so customers tend to do their own work. But this firm charges for a part IF and ONLY IF it effects a repair. Now, that's probably standard. But when a part doesn't fix the problem, this firm has no desire to incur the shipping costs of returning the part to them, and they sure as hell can't get the customer to pay for it if it doesn't contribute to the fix. So the upshot of this is that I got to keep all the spares, and the lister who facilitated this will be charged only for the time spent talking to a technician (who found the thing about the LED flash and what it meant *ABOUT 4 HOURS* after I got the system semi-operational as described above). >From the postings here, most of you would be a little better equipped (not much just a little) to financially faciliate a repair operation like this one became. But I suspect that like me, a 3rd-party servce organzation would be about the last thing you'd consider, as a hobbyist. You'd assume like I did that it would cost a fortune. But the technician I spoke to was also a preservationist (although now I forget what he likes!). So before you give up on that old iron and dump it, try calling for service, and when you get the technician, explain to *him* that you're non-commercial and can't afford much. You may just land a bargain. Regards, -doug q

22 years, 9 months

Shoddy Hardware (Was: Re: WW fixtures (was Re: "New" PDP-8))

by dquebbeman＠acm.org

> On Mon, 1 Apr 2002, John Chris Wren wrote: > > > I do have one theory that applies to PCs and cars: If you fail to shed > > blood and appease the gods, it will not work when you're done. > > Absolutely. Although Sridhar and I have discussed the possibility of > offering up chicken blood instead.... Chris Smith and I were discussing repair techniques offline, and the above were amongst the discussed techniques. However, I prefer erecting totems next to the troublesome devices... ;) -Douglas Hurst Quebbeman (DougQ at ixsnayamspayIgLou.com) [Call me "Doug"] Surgically excise the pig-latin from my e-mail address in order to reply "The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away." -Tom Waits

22 years, 9 months

Vector brochure

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Does anybody want a 1976 brochure from vector? I'd prefer that it go to someone that will scan it and post it on the net. The brochure is six pages long and covers the well known S-100 vector boards, Slit-N-Wrap tools, ribbon cable making tools and other computer building goodies from 1976 and includes prices. there's also a price change sheet dated 1978. Picture at <http://home.cfl.rr.com/rigdon14/a6/vector.jpg>. Joe

22 years, 9 months

"New" PDP-8

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Ethan Dicks <erd_6502(a)yahoo.com> >What else would be "useful" from a DECmate board? I agree about Depends on if it's a DMII or DMIII. The dmII had less integration so the 6120, eproms and likely a 6121 plus UARTs are available. The DMIII it will be the 6120 and maybe a 6121 plus 2882 and the eproms, though I'm less sure as it's been a long time since I've had to open one. Allison

22 years, 9 months

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test-drb April 2002