16 May
1999
16 May
'99
4:27 p.m.
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 01:58:51 -0500
Reply-to: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: GRiDCASE 1520 update
X-To: ClassicCmp <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Greetings,
I got the (assumed) GRiDCASE 1520 doing something today!
In fact, it's running an Apple ][ emulator right now. :)
The hard drive was totally hosed. Seized. Dead.
HD that calls itself JVC that trails 26pin after it is dead on the
road nearly virtually always! Hated them. Many machines are
banging around in trashcans that had this dead HD. That was years
before I came across this CC list. :-( Dead JVC 26 ususally spun
freely but doesn't want to do anything or trease you with bit of
spins.
I figured they'd be the same drive, but methinks I
was wrong. With the
Toshiba's drive in place, the GRiD now powers up the drive at the
appropriate time, and I guess the drive passes whatever test it needs to
pass, and then the GRiD is able to boot from floppy. But I haven't been
able to access the HD yet. It just makes unpleasant noises when I try.
Needs to LLF it and put s/w on. That nasty noises you heard is GRiD
franically trying to boot it up but s/w is not in right places!
Anyway, the GRiD didn't complain about the clock
not being set, even
after an hour of being turned off. But the clock also didn't advance in
that time. The battery says it's non-rechargable, but I'm still hoping
it will recover. :)
No no no... better replace it anyway! Most likely lithium and you
can read the specs on that cell before you have closed it up?
BTW, what a freaking pain working in the Toshiba is, compared to the
1000XE, 3100/100 easy, 1600 Yuk! So many odd little-bitty parts and
thousands of screws of all sizes. I have done on IBM TPs
(excellent in obtaining parts even for 5 years old notebooks!), Toshs
(design and support sucks now), Compaq totally sucks now in
everything. Digital is sorta ok and mildly weird but easily gotten
around them. Don't ask me to work on Znote 625 or to rebuild those
cells in them! (int. standby/cmos pack used quad AAAA cells, no way
to find them had to use discs and chew out bit of plastics and lot of
force to bend plastics against it's wills to fit this new pack.)
Epson notebooks is out out out! Ditto Samsung sx-25 that acts like
286 10 with 20MB hd. ?1?
Or maybe I'm just used to the GRiDCASE's
innards now. :)
Don't get too attached! Explode your mind after going thru all
these
said series I done. :) Best tip: memorize all the screws that each
one is removed that associates to which hole. I get lot of
impressions and comments that I can remember what screws belongs to
by looking even after few days or weeks. Or tape em down to
cardboard in right "places" on near-outline of the parts if you have
poor memory. Maybe needs ECC memory grey matter graft module? :-)
--
Doug Spence
Wizard