test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

Maxtor full-height 5.25" drives of death

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

XT2190s, XT1140s, some of the early ESDI disks... I have 6 XT2190s at home, and maybe one of the damn things works. Does anyone out here know, beyond speculation, what some of the common failure modes of these drives are? I'm not opposed to open-HDA surgery. And I probably won't do anything. But the question of WHY this line of drives in particular sucks so much has haunted me for some time... - Ian Honorable mention: CDC Sabre, Wren. -- Ian Finder (206) 395-MIPS ian.finder at gmail.com

8 years, 6 months

Panasonic Electronic Filing System - document scanner storage on MO disks

by david4602＠gmail.com

Hello, all - Has anyone run across the subject system - a mid-90s Motorola '030-based document scanner/retrieval system? KV-F520 seems to be a model of the unit, along with LF-7300A or LF-7304 5-1/4" MO drives. I have a hold of some media that I can read, and can see the moral equivalent of files in Panasonic's own format - I suspect it's thinly veiled TIFF or maybe a capture format of their own making. Has anyone else run across this before? - David

8 years, 6 months

VCF PNW 2018: Pictures!

by mbbrutman＠brutman.com

For your viewing pleasure ... https://photos.app.goo.gl/QPfZ4WXPdIdUo5gn2 -Mike

8 years, 6 months

What are these memory modules?

by mattislind＠gmail.com

Can anyone tell me which system these belongs to? https://scontent-arn2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/28058349_10155950589854985_86… /Mattis

8 years, 6 months

Seeking RL02K cartridge

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Aaron Jackson > I am wondering if anyone would be willing to sell me an RL02K cartridge > for a sensible price? There are a bunch listed on eBait for not wholly unrealistic prices; I wouldn't buy a bunch there, but it you only need one, for testing... Not sure if any of the ones for sale there are the moment are in the UK, though. (I recall some a few months ago, so it's not impossible, and worth a check.) Noel

8 years, 6 months

VCF PNW 2018: Pictures!

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: geneb > they've got a DPS-8 maintenance/operator/? panel ... It's fully > operational and is connected via some magic hardware to a Raspberry Pi > running a Multics emulator. Technically it's an H6180; the DPS-8 is a later generation of hardware in the same family. More here: http://www.chiappa.net/~jnc/tech/multics/MulticsPanels.html Alas, as can be seen there, the DPS-8's don't have those wonderful panels with a zillion lights and switches; just boring modern machines! :-) Noel

8 years, 6 months

qd32 trouble

by jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com

Hi all, Would anyone here be able to help me troubleshoot my qd32 controller? I have a pdp11/73 that's mostly working, boots 2.11bsd from rl02 okay, but I need my big disk to work so I can load the rest of the distro. I've been following the manual for the qd32 to enter the geometry of my real working Fuji m2333 (jumpered correctly according to the manuals), but when I load the special command into the qd32's SP register that's supposed to load the geometry table I entered in pdp11 memory to the qd32's novram, I get a bad status value from the qd32's SP register and it remains unresponsive when I try to store the geometry. If I go ahead and try the built-in qd32 format command, it responds similarly. When I pull in mkfs >from tape (vtserver) and try anyway, despite the failures, to run mkfs on the m2333, I get an !online error from the standalone unix mkfs. The disk does respond (the select light flashes and I can hear heads actuating), but without geometry and format, I'm obviously dead in the water. I understand that there used to exist some Emulex qd32/pdp11 diagnostics that could help the situation, but my previous attempts to find copies have come up short. Any suggestions on how to proceed? thx jake

8 years, 6 months

Seeking RL02K cartridge

by aaron＠aaronsplace.co.uk

Hi all, Inspired by CuriousMarc's recent video, I cleaned and fixed my RL02 heads. Not with an ultrasonic cleaner unfortunately, but in a warm IPA bath. It worked! Loading a crashed pack is obviously not a good idea, although I cleaned the cartridge well, and figured with bad heads and a bad pack, I might as well try it. The heads no longer crash and appear clean after loading, but the cartridge, of course, cannot be read as the first track has been destroyed from the initial crash. I think the crash was cause by bad heads before I got the RL02 drive. I posted some pictures of the process here: http://aaronsplace.co.uk/blog/2018-02-19-repairing-crashed-RL02-heads.html I am wondering if anyone would be willing to sell me an RL02K cartridge for a sensible price? After the cleaning I am guessing my alignment will be slightly off, but >from what I have read in the manual, this is will probably just result in the read/write speed being reduced as the heads have to move slightly when switching between either side of the platter. Am I right in thinking this or completely wrong? Thanks, Aaron. -- Aaron Jackson PhD Student, Computer Vision Laboratory, Uni of Nottingham http://aaronsplace.co.uk

8 years, 6 months

VCF Southeast, East, West -- dates announced

by cctalk＠snarc.net

Here's some news! VCF Southeast is April 21-22, VCF East is May 18-20, and VCF West is August 4-5. Exhibit registration is OPEN for Southeast and East. For details please see www.vcfed.org.

8 years, 6 months

New home for old computing books - free on collection (UK)

by james＠attfield.co.uk

I am having a re-org of the workspace and have decided to release a number of books acquired over the last 3/4 decades but I am in a quandary as I can't store them, don't think the local Cat's Protection League can handle them and I am reluctant to consign them to the skip. While I appreciate that they may not qualify as true vintage currently they will be before too long, like PL/1 primers were years ago when folks were skipping them. I have between two to three dozen (some big) and won't impose here by listing them all but they include such nuggets as 'Secrets of Windows 2000 Server', 'MTS Programming in Visual Basic', Kernighan's 'Software Tools in Pascal', 'Understanding and Programming COM+' and 'Developing Professional Applications in Windows 95 and NT Using MFC'. I have most if not all of the accompanying CD's. I am afraid my 'Introduction to Programming using Fortran 77' and 'Lepton and Baryon Number Violation in Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology' along with my Amiga development manuals are not up for grabs (cold, dead hands, etc.) I can't expect anyone crazy enough to take the whole lot (but free for the collection if you like and welcome) but does anyone know anywhere who would take them and keep them for posterity? Just can't stand the thought of good books being destroyed. Please post here if you can help then we can take it off-list. James Attfield Proud owner of: Amiga 500 (x4), Amiga 1500 (x2), Atari 1024 (maybe), BBC Model 'B', Amiga 3000, Amiga 4000, Cromemco System One Proud builder of: Imsai 8080, North Star Horizon, Processor Technology Sol-20, Nascom-I, Nascom -II Proud past seller of all of the above plus: Cromemco, Vector Graphic, Compucolor, Ohio Scientific, Commodore (PET, VIC-20, 64), South West Technical Products KIM-1, Osborne-1, Exidy Sorcerer, ITT 2020, Dragon 32, Apricot, Comart, IBM (maybe)

8 years, 6 months

Jump to page:

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb