Hi just wont to say hello fro Germany.
That I have a Cromemco System 2 to in Use (But lack of Software)
Also 10 MB or I believe 5 MB HDD is not working correctly
It would be nice if we could xchange Info on these Very Huge and Old
Computers >>>>32 Bit in 1995 I don't think so Cromix 1977 <<<<<<<
Thanx
Ingo
<Remember, all older MFM, ESDI and some early SCSI drives always need
<annual or bi yearly LLF job.
I have a st506 that I formatted once and never again and it still works
fine. I do however run a program that checks it for bad sectors, haven't
found many over the years. The need for reformats is urban legend and I
have a bunch of RD52/53/54(mfm) and a potload of st506 and st412 drives
that haven't been reformatted unless moved to a different system where
the controller was incompatable with the former format.
However to qualify that I've seen many systems with power down problems
where they would write garbage to the disk causeing a need for reformats.
I've also seen system with power and heat problems. Optimally the drive
should run over a narrow temperature range that is centered at the
temperature they were formatted at. most time they are asked to run
much hotter and that means the stepper is not centered on the thermally
repostioned tracks. This can be made worse by reformatting the drive
as cold as it will warm up and all the track centering will be off leading
to errors and a likely reformat.
Later voicecoil and other servo positioned drives are immune to this as
the servo track or embedded servo information will insure it tracks with
temperature and bearing wear.
Allison
I know someone with 4+ DEC DSSI drives, you haul them away. Contact me if
interested.
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
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As part of my recent haul from Temple Univ., I got two versions of RSTS/E.
I can't seem to get my PDP-11/34 to read the disk packs. Can RSTS/E be used
on an 11/34? If not, does anyone want these packs? Also, the LA100/180
boards and the Printronix boards are up for grabs.
Rich Cini/WUGNET
<nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use)
ClubWin! Charter Member (6)
MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
============================================
Those .wav file are now online, at http://209.174.127.164/stuff/
The trailing / is important, the DNS is still broken {grumble grumble...}
spinup.wav is the drive spinning up, hdd.wav is the normal operation.
There's 900KB and 750KB. Have fun!
Oh, and you get to hear me in those...
-------
This one's VERY interesting...
Shop teacher brings up a 486 with a dead harddisk.
Opening it reveals a full-height, 350mb MFM harddisk. Atasi model 630.
It looks like an RD53, it even has the little spinner underneath that looks
like a fan... Anyway, he's got the control cable half-on, and backwards, and
the drive params are greviously wrong. So I reseat the cable, set the prarams,
connect the power to the drive and power the machine on. Spin up sounds normal,
until the heads load... CH-THUNK -BUZZZZZ- CRRARRRGGGH BUZZ- CLUNK - ETC.
THe drive sounds like it's come apart inside! But it apprears to be
working... So I boot DOS from it and load defrag. Quite a few bad sectors.
Defrag gets underway. CH-CLUNK BUZZZZ CRRRAAAARRRGH etc.
This doesn't sound good... But the drive is still working fine! It's dancing
across the table as it goes, but it seems to be working fine...
So now I'm gonna make a .wav of this, this sounds really great... Expect it
online sometime soon!
BTW, I'm gonna run Norton Calibrate over it, just to see if it's toast or not...
-------
No, we're talking rock-steady picture, but garbled
If the cursor is at the bottom 1/2 of the (logical) screen, you NEVER see
what you're typing
If its at the top half, you see about 20x what you're typing.
Its definitely not a TV adjustment problem.
Thanks, though!
Andrew
>Hi Andrew:
>Here is what I would look for and try to adjust --- Horizontal
>frequency.
>This sounds like it is some multiple of the desired (for the monitor)
>rate. That's what's getting the multiple images across the width of the
>screen.
>Also (maybe first, but definitely in conjunction with the above) look
>for 'Vertical' frequency/lock. This one is what is getting you multiple
>images in the vertical direction. Memory says that the adjustment is
>"roll down (image) and just return the adjustment the other direction
>till it locks in place."
>The 'horizontal lock' is a much courser adjustment.
>
>(This is all standard TV/Monitor adjustment stuff. If anyone has any
>specific advice different from this, by all means, give it a try.)
<Robinson!)...is there any point to having a screen saver on a machine wit
<an LCD display? That is, is there any advantage to having the LCD pixels
<all black (or black with a distraction running around the screen) as
<opposed to steady, showing the last thing you did?
< - Mark
LCD life is way out there in hours if one proviso is met at the design
level. NONE of the elements should see a DC bias of any sort, failure to
meet that requirement insures destruction by deplating the elements and
contaminating the LC fluid. High temperatures can be destructive as well.
My experience I have a 18 year old 5x7x16 pannel that still works great.
Allison
