I had a customer who plugged in his IDE cable's middle connector (HDD one
end, motherboard on the other) into the sound board's IDE pins, because "it
looked like it fit."
Some people will do ANYTHING!
manney
----------
> From: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
> To: Manney
> Subject: Re: Video connectors (was: CGA Modes (Wuz: Win 3.0
> Date: Tuesday, February 03, 1998 10:40 PM
>
>
> <example, certainly is. I'm not saying we don't need 15 pins; I say we
ne
> <15 THICKER pins, and since this connector is typically the only connecto
> <on the back of a VGA adapter, there's plenty of room.
>
> Par of the resoning was that it should have a connector that is not like
> any other. if it were a standard db9 or db15 you'd have people plugging
> into the serial port screaming it don't work. It's bad enough that you
> have people that will force things no matter what.
>
> Allison
>
In a message dated 98-02-04 13:25:22 EST, you write:
<< Hi. There's this guy, in Bahrain, who's got a PS/1 386 2MB RAM, that's
been
"sitting in his closet." Now, he wants to know what it would be worth. I
want to know what it'd be worth, too. (There's going to be arguements....
I'm sure.) Anyway, condition is currently unknown, but assumed in working
condition. >>
post the model number and i can give more info about it.
david
I recently purchased an Altair 8800b from the original owner. He told me
that last he used it (1984?), he was having trouble reading from the disk
drive, and he was sure that it needed alignment. Apparently an alignment
disk is required.
I suspect an oscilloscope as well.
I have two questions;
1) Can someone explain the process of aligning a disk drive, what is out of
whack, and how tricky it is for a rank electronics amateur like myself
2) Where can I obtain an alignment disk, if required.
Oh, I forgot to mention, the drive is an 8", the Altair model that has the
same basic case and look of the Altair itself. This repair is one of the (I
suspect) many that will be required to bring the Altair back to life.
I've managed to get it (almost) firing up during the self-test stage, but
one of the address lines doesn't behave (the light doesn't come on on A2
when I flick the switch that should light all of them, yet the light is
operational at other stages). I'll get to that one later.
Looks like a long, slow process. But worth it, no?
Cheers
Andrew
>
>I thought the multiplexed NeXT "Zilla?" used the SCSI ports...
>
Zilla's copyright 1990, (so off-topic, please excuse me.). It uses regular
ethernet networking. It's on my NeXT, but I've got no further information
and no contacts about it. (If anyone else does, please contact me by email.)
- Mark
(I can remember the simpler functions (multiply, divide & the
> like) but how to use the thing for calculus & whatnot I'm sure has
> "slipped" my mind... (lame) Pun intended ;^>
Lame is right -- you're slipping.
You can'y use 'am for calculus...you must be thinking of trig.
>
> And tho we did have some TRS-80 Model 4's (and an old IBM Series/1) in
high
> school, I did use it occasionally during geometry / algebra class when
> necessary -- took it to college a few times to, but just to watch people
> gawk... ;-)
I went through Navy Nuclear Power School in '76, and they were
required...even tho' calculators were cheap, then.
Texas Instruments was naming some of their calculators "SR" (for Slide
Rule) up until the mid-80's, at least. My first one was the SR-10...the LED
"wedge". $110, IIRC
Was that TI's first?
manney
The manual/documentation I have gives a procedure you can follow (manually
flipping the switches all the way) which is a self-test. Following the
procedure you can check if your 8800b is working correctly. Using this
procedure I tracked down several problems (loose wires to fron panel) but
still have the address light problem.
I'll track down the procedure and explain further, if there is any interest.
I appreciate the comments about the alignment problem, and can see how
basically I should be concentrating on the Altair first. So thats what I'll
do.
More soon.
Andrew
-----Original Message-----
From: Allison J Parent <allisonp(a)world.std.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, February 05, 1998 4:24 AM
Subject: Re: Altair 8800b + drive alignment
><From CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Wed Feb 4 11:40:41 1998
>
><> This repair is one of the (I
><> suspect) many that will be required to bring the Altair back to life.
><> I've managed to get it (almost) firing up during the self-test stage
><
><"self-test stage"? Is this a turnkey model with a boot in ROM,
><or not?
>
>ALTAIR 8800b (with altair disk controller) used a boot program or a boot
>rom card and DID NOT have anything resembling PC self test(or any
>diagnostics).
>
>Allison
>
>
<From CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Wed Feb 4 11:40:41 1998
<> This repair is one of the (I
<> suspect) many that will be required to bring the Altair back to life.
<> I've managed to get it (almost) firing up during the self-test stage
<
<"self-test stage"? Is this a turnkey model with a boot in ROM,
<or not?
ALTAIR 8800b (with altair disk controller) used a boot program or a boot
rom card and DID NOT have anything resembling PC self test(or any
diagnostics).
Allison
<I keep an 8" floppy disk in the front of my store to amaze people ("Jus
<fold it twice and stick it in your drive...it holds a lot!")
<
<Just how much do (did?) they hold? (I'm sure there were different data
<densities...just a range is all I want!)
standard single sided single density was 128bytes*26 sectors*77 tracks
or 256k.
The high end is double density two sided and around 1mb.
Allison
I used to support these machines but its been a while. i think the hard drive
is proprietary, but i do remember someone somewhere mentioning adding a really
big hard drive and getting it to work. send me another notice via private mail
reminding me, and i will check on it when i get back to work.
david
In a message dated 98-02-04 00:20:43 EST, you write:
<< Yes, its a 2011-c34. I have no problem booting from the rom. I hear
the hd spin up but then it slows down again and the light stays on. I
get a 1701 error and an indication to press f1. After pressing f1 the
computer boots from either the floppy or the rom.
I wish I could have made backups first but it was doa when I got it. Do
you know if the parts (hd floppy) are interchangeable with ps/2
hardware?
Thanks for the software source tip. >>
<>They may work muost just pull the 360k drives from an XT.
<
< Aren't SA 400's single density? XT drives are Double Density. Yes,
<they'll probably work but the media wouldn't be interchangable.
Sa400 would do FM (single density) and MFM (double density). the 360k
drive also do single density. It's the 1.2m 5.25" drives that are weird.
< Do you have the old NS* software that will run on the Alrair?
By default yes.. and no. The stuff will run on an altair but the IO
which is personalized for my NS* with it's two serial ports. there
is no way I can personalize it for the altair as I have no clue of the
IO (serial boards used and their addreses). The NS* motherboard
(backplane) has two serial ports and a parallel port plus a few
other useful things so their configurations were easier to be certain
of. You need to track down a set of NS* manuals or copies.
FYI: NSdos requires a minimum 16k of ram starting at 2000h it does not
use ram below 2000h (or care). Also it assumes the ports start at 00
and the port devices are 8251s with hard jumpered baud rates.
If you are going to configure an altair you need manuals, more manuals
and it doesn't hurt to be able do digital design to understand what they
did. You see the docs with early altairs were not amoung the best. Most
of what you may need to know often had to be extracted from the printsets
by understanding the logic. then you have the non-altair boards plugged
in that manuals are very handy for too. If the boards require extra or
specific software (some terminal interface or video display boards) the
hadware and software manuals may be needed.
Allison