test-drb April 2007

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ISO Syquest SQ306

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Does anyone have a SQ306 they don't need? circa '82 mfm 5 meg removable cart drive

17 years, 2 months

IRIS Indigo PM2 post-portem

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

I recently acquired a SGI IRIS Indigo R4k machine that was nonfunctional. After a bit of troubleshooting I tracked it down to the PM2 (processor module daughtercard, R4400 + oscillator + 1MB cache), which has visible damage to two of the cache RAM chips (smoke holes and cracks). I am trying to trace back the likely sequence of events that lead to this happening so it doesn't happen again. AFAIK in the R4400SC the cache memory is attached directly to the R4400 with the exception of the power leads, and the R4400 has all cache control logic integrated. The PSU voltages have been checked and are within specs, with no excessive ripple. In my experience, chips do not blow up without an external cause that drastically increases the current flowing through the chip, however I also have zero experience with SRAM chips failing in a "spectacular" manner. Is this possible/likely? The other option seems to be the R4400 dying and taking the cache with it. Any ideas on where to proceed from here?

17 years, 2 months

govliq: LG01 DEC printer (San Antonio, TX)

by dj.taylor＠starpower.net

At 09:49 PM 4/15/2007, you wrote: >>Has anyone here successfully bid on and received anything from >>govliquidation.com? Their site has every bit the ease-of-use I'd >>expect from a government facility. The purchase and shipping process >>looks equally intimidating. > >I purchased a number of IBM 2316 disk packs mentioned on the list a >couple of months back. I am VERY HAPPY I drove to Norfolk to pick them >up. > >Those lazy assholes driving the forklifts could not be bothered to >actually LIFT the pallets off the floor when moving them - they just >pushed them along the uneven warehouse floors. I was seen running >across the warehouse when I saw one of the priceless packs bouncing >and skittering almost off the pallet. While this was happening, one of >the shippers had no problems about putting one loaded pallet on top of >another and shrinkwrapping it, all to a delightful sound of crushing >metal and cracking plastic. > >-- >Will I also purchased something from Norfolk, the experience was good. I was happy to get an expensive piece of laboratory equipment for $50. However, the whole process is not set up for the middle-aged amateur electronics hobbyist. I purchased a laboratory spectrometer that I picked up myself. The auction description said it weighed 350 lbs, I thought I could deal with that. It turned out that it wasn't lbs, it was kg!!!! I had rented a minivan to haul this home, but I remember standing outside the warehouse in the cold and mud wondering how in the hell I was going to get this thing in the minivan, and if I did how was I going to get it out once I got home.... The crew at the warehouse was not willing to help, they were pretty worthless. They were there to run the fork lifts to load the bulk lots onto tractor trailers that were coming to pick up. There was one fellow there who was a shipper who helped though, he pointed out the asian fellow who ran the warehouse and he was willing to come out and use the fork lift and some muscle to help me get the instrument into the minivan. I was very relieved. The spectrometer is still on my car port, it will take some doing to get it in the house. [Ramps, pulleys, dolleys, etc - lots of physics - simple machines] I was impressed with the efficiency of the paperwork handling, very well organized. Doug

17 years, 2 months

Mac SE?

by trag＠io.com

>Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 17:57:13 +0200 >From: Joost van de Griek <jvdg at sparcpark.net> >On 4/15/07 5:39 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote: > >> One of the Freecyclers here is having no luck giving away a Mac SE >> (not the SE/30). Is this considered to be a collectible? With an >> 8MHz 68000 and 1 MB of memory, I can't see that it'd actually be >> useful for a lot these days. > >SE's are plentiful and I wouldn't consider them collectible. They're also >uglier than the Mac 128K/512K/Plus, while lacking the SE/30's "incredible >power in a small package" appeal (SE/30's make great servers when packed >with RAM and *BSD). > >Unless you "gotta catch 'em all" or you want a compact Mac to play around >with and there are no other models to be found, skip it. However, except for the logic board, the SE is compatible/identical with the SE/30. So, if you need parts for your SE/30, or have a good SE/30 logic board and need a chassis, then a Mac SE is an excellent and usually affordable sacrificial victim. The one caveat to the above is that the first revision SEs came with an 800K floppy drive while later models came with the 1.44 MB "superdrive" and the SE/30s all came with the 1.44 MB floppy. So some early SEs' chassis will differ from an SE/30 in the floppy drive. Oh, and an aside which some may find useful. Most SE/30s have leaking electrolytic capacitors by this time. So if one does decide to collect an SE/30 (or if one has one sitting unused) it would be a prudent move to desolder the SM electrolytic caps, clean the motherboard, and install tantalum caps in their place. Many SE/30s no longer have working sound or simply fail to boot up at all because of leaking caps. Left untended the goo from the caps will/can disolve important traces, pads, solder or pins on the logic board. Jeff Walther

17 years, 2 months

Hawk on eBay

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Out on eBay, a cabinet mount Hawk disk drive. This is the 5MB cartridge/ 5MB fixed disk used by so many OEMS, especially in the early 70's. The parts alone could be worth picking up if you are trying to keep one of these drives going. Billy 270110421676

17 years, 2 months

Hawk on eBay

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I bid on it the first time. He canceled the auction because the pics weren't supersizing. It's close enough to relatives I'll ask him to deliver it there (it's in Madison)

17 years, 2 months

xt/370 e-mail problem and stacked memory chips illustrated

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Al Kossow wrote: CHM has an Amdahl 470 and a Siemens 4004 (RCA Spectra). There were lots of people who built byte-oriented machines with instruction sets similar to the 360 and I know there are people who have Interdata, and Univac 9x00 machines. Memorex built a 16 bit 360 like machine, and I have some docs and software for that. The artifacts of these sorts of machines haven't been preserved very well. Same for Burroughs, Univac and NCR (business as opposed to scientific computers). ---------- Billy: Anything in the Museum on the CDC Omega series? These were true IBM 360/370 campatibles, ran IBM software. And of course there are the infamous systems >from Hitachi that actually worked on stolen microcode from IBM. Billy

17 years, 2 months

Classic Computing in Nevada?

by stimpy.u.idiot＠gmail.com

Somewhat reluctantly, I'll be in Las Vegas most of next week. Are there any on-topic sights to see within, say, 1/2 days drive? I'm guessing probably not, but you never know... -- Pete Edwards "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future" - Niels Bohr

17 years, 2 months

Sydex have some Microsolutions Compaticards for sale (maybe)

by john_a_s2004＠hotmail.com

Hi, I've been reading various threads in the archives about reading and writing to old floppy disks, and the Compaticard has been metioned a few times. I read the following on www.sydex.com: " We do floppy conversion (diskette conversion), we can copy any diskette. We have special hardware for reading non-PC floppies. We are the authors of 22Disk, 22Nice, CopyQM and TeleDisk. We still have a few CompatiCard controllers for sale--please inquire about them. We can supply 5.25 inch and 8 inch drives. If it's on diskette, we can handle it. " Personally I am still thinking about buying a Catweasel card, but am unsure about software for reading and writing hard-sector floppies. I have a Northstar Advantage and am happy to make copies of the system disks (for cost of disks and postage), this uses 10-sector floppies. I also have a AES Superplus IV which is a WP system that uses 16-sector floppies, however the system doesn't allow copies of disks to be be made so once my disk fails / wears out that's it. Having some means to copy disks and store an image file for posterity would be nice, but I am eyeing up the AES for spare parts so wouldn't be sad to give up on trying to copy the system disks (there only seem to be a handful of these systems out there so no great loss there I think). There are plenty of Northstar Advantage owners around, and as long as just one system is working then there is a means of copying floppies for the next guy. Regards, John _________________________________________________________________ Could you be the guest MSN Movies presenter? Click Here to Audition http://www.lightscameraaudition.co.uk

17 years, 2 months

Linux question

by dm561＠torfree.net

A simple question for the Linux gurus from a WIN/DOS simpleton: How do you concatenate two binary files into one? m

17 years, 2 months

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test-drb April 2007