Well Hurricane Jeanne has come and gone. This is the fourth hurricane in
6 weeks and the third that's gone through my area. The DEC and intel stuff
sitting outside STILL hasn't blown away! Not too much damage this time, for
the most part everything that could be torn up was destroyed in the
previous storms. However my roof shingles are finally starting to go. The
power companies are getting GOOD at this. This time they had the power back
on the same day! I think there's going to be lots of houses (or vacant
lots!) for sale in Florida real soon. I went to Home Depot this morning
and it was packed with people buying roofing materials and other repair
items. A lot of them also had "Home for Sale" signs in their carts!
I haven't heard from Glen. I know he was without power for five then
seven days from the two previous storms and I think he's about ready to
leave the state.
Joe
Hi,
I'll gladly admit to having one. What a wonderful old beast. Got it a few weeks ago - covered in grime and dirt, but I cleaned up the main box and all the boards and connectors and it runs like a dream now.
It's an MDS-225, and it came with the expansion chasis, double-density disk drive array, ICE-80, ICE-51 and ICE-41 emulators and software and ISIS-II disks. I ran the ROM-based diags and it all came out okay - including the integral disk drive. I need a cable (or pinouts so I can make one) to attach the disk array. I think I'll need the disk array 'cos most of the disks are double density and won't run on the integral drive.
I haven't cleaned up or attached the expansion chasis yet. I'm currently on the hunt for manuals and have got most of them from the net and printed them out. Great stuff. I love this old equipment. I'm still getting used to it 'cos I've never used a diskette-only based MDS.
My current pride and joy is an MDS-Series4 with ICE-85B emulator. I got another Series-4 also (when I got the MDS-225), but, as mentioned in a previous post, this baby's got a RAM error and I don't have enough spare 2118 chips to replace all the current chips, so I'm trying to isolate the chip, but it's kinds hard with no cct diagram. The CRO doesn't show anything wrong, but as the System Monitor comes up I think I'll write a short program to help isolate the fault.
But, as both systems cost me only $88AUD, I can't really complain - even though their bulk is a challenge to the wife as they are in the family room. I don't think she's an "old big Intel box" sorta lady. :)
Oh, thanks again to Dave for the TD images for the iPDS. I'm having a bit of fun with that thing also. Simply marvellous stuff. I got an ISIS-II users guide - thanks Fritz - so I'll be getting into this too. Ahh.. so many projects and things! I love it.
seeyuzz
river
Hi all,
I got 2 Memory Boards (National semiconductor) several weeks ago (each 1MB).
Somerwhere on the net, someone says, that these can be used in VAX 11/7xx.
Can I use these boards in my PDP 11/24, too ?
I don't know yet, if 32bit boards can be used on 16bit machines and
I'm afraid of putting them in and seeing some smoke when turning on the machine...
Pierre
________________________________________________________________
Verschicken Sie romantische, coole und witzige Bilder per SMS!
Jetzt neu bei WEB.DE FreeMail: http://freemail.web.de/?mc=021193
Bob,
I've seen this work with IDE drives that wouldn't spin up due to bad
bearings.
Freeze the drive in your freezer then spin it up while it's still frozen.
This seems to free the bearings for a short time so the drive can spin up.
I know of a couple people who used this technique to copy the contents off a
dead drive, they required several freeze passes to get all the data as the
drive tends to warm up quickly once pulled from the freezer and powered up.
The speculation has been that the metal contracts when frozen and releases
stuck bearings, this has always seemed an
'Odd' explanation as the bearings and races should contract at the same rate
assuming similar materials.
Of course this is a last resort option and your experience may vary.
-Neil
>Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:11:06 -0500
>From: "Bob Lafleur" <bob_lafleur(a)technologist.com>
>Subject: Reviving old hard drives
>To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'"
> <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
>Message-ID: <DJauNjVuMhvqgStMVhE00000031@dj>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>Is there a repository of information regarding reviving old hard drives?
>
>Specifically, I have a Seagate ST3390N in a Mac Iici that appeard not to
>spin-up anymore. I'm wondering if there are any "tricks" that might get
this
>drive running again? It's got my running copy of Opcode Vision on it, and
>I've not found any newer MIDI sequencing software that runs on current
>systems that I'm more comfortablr with... I'd love to get my Vision running
>again!
>
. - Bob
>The speculation has been that the metal contracts when frozen and releases
>stuck bearings, this has always seemed an
>
>'Odd' explanation as the bearings and races should contract at the same rate
>assuming similar materials.
Surface to mass differences should allow one to cool faster, and although
both may in the end shrink to the same size, one should shrink quicker,
and the initial shrink may be all that is popping it free.
I'm not saying that is why the trick works... I'm just pointing out some
validity in the plausible nature of the idea.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
http://www.virtualapple.com/
Let's you play any game from an online library of Apple ][ programs
directly online using a broswer-based emulator. Requires IE and ActiveX.
Too cool for words.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
On Dec 30 2004, 9:09, Richard Beaudry wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I have a Powermac 8100/80 that needs a RAM upgrade. Lowendmac.com
> says that it can handle 72-pin SIMMs, up to 32MB each. My question
is
> this: does it take the same 72-pin SIMMs as a PC, or does it require
> special "mac-only" SIMMs? Google only showed people still selling
the
> RAM (for outrageous prices), and I couldn't get actual specs on the
> RAM itself.
Ordinary PC-type 72-pin SIMMs should be fine, but I think you need Fast
Page Mode rather than EDO. You don't need parity, but it will do no
harm if you have 36-bit SIMMs instead of 32-bit. lowendmac mentions
80ns, so 70ns or 60ns will also do. I bought 4 x 32MB SIMMs about 4
weeks ago on eBay for an SGI, which wants FPM+parity and gold contacts;
it was quite cheap (under $20). The same seller had quite a lot that
was non-parity, and he even mentioned Apples.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
> however, EDO is required in some Macs that use DIMMs
You are correct.. There is actually a pretty good description of which
and why here:
http://www.macgurus.com/products/motherboards/mbppc6400.php
I had forgotten about the late Alchemy designs with soldered down EDO RAM.
Hello all,
I have a Powermac 8100/80 that needs a RAM upgrade. Lowendmac.com
says that it can handle 72-pin SIMMs, up to 32MB each. My question is
this: does it take the same 72-pin SIMMs as a PC, or does it require
special "mac-only" SIMMs? Google only showed people still selling the
RAM (for outrageous prices), and I couldn't get actual specs on the
RAM itself.
Thanks for any help ....
BTW, the 8100 was introduce in early 1994, so I think I'm actually on topic! :-)
Rich B.
I've talked to the engineers at DMA Systems (removeable HD mfg that was
bought out by Ricoh?) and they indicated they would test run their
drives with no cover (in an open room, not a clean room.) The caveat was
to not be in a dusty or dirty environment. I've done what Jules mentions
and it works well! I did that on a HD just to see what would happen ...
nothing, and it worked fine for another couple of years after I put the
cover back on. There is usually a filter inside the (older?) disk drives
and I *think* it will clean out any dust that got in the drive while the
cover was off.
> Jules Richardson wrote:
>
> Another bonus last-resort trick is to pull the lid on the drive and get
> the platters spinning 'by hand' - just don't touch the data surfaces,
> and there's no guarantee as to how long the drive will keep going (don't
> run the drive open obviously - in fact some drives won't even run up to
> speed when open). Copy data off, then chuck the drive. Someone told me
> of a drive they ran completely open for a couple of weeks for giggles
> before it finally crashed.
