5 Jun
2012
5 Jun
'12
12:39 p.m.
I took one of the P859 boxes to check out. Power supplies turned out to be
good, so I put in one of the P859 CPU cards (CP7RA). The fluorescent display
briefly displayed "8.", followed by "000000". The expected output,
according
to the manual, is "ooFFFC", after the CPU has run a first self-test. I
swapped out the CPU with one of the other ones, and this one does give me
"ooFFFC". Hit the "0" button simultaneously with the "TEST"
button to run
the microdiagnostics, and got an indication that it failed on accessing
memory. I plugged in a memory board, and now it passes all self-tests
successfully (display "ooFF04"). So, at least this cpu and this memory board
appear to be OK so far. I can push the "IPL" button, and using "INST"
I can
step through the IPL code (the listing is provided in the manual, so you
have a good idea of what's going on).
Nest job is to fix that defective CPU. I wonder if it's doing anything at
all. You might find it's an easy fix in the clock generator or something.
Off course, I'd like to get it to boot something, and the only media I have
are the fixed platters in the three X1215's, and the 10 X1215 cartridges.
If these drives are like other fixed/removable drives I've soprked on,
you can't use the fixed platter unless there's a removable pack in the
drive too.
test the drives with an the unlabeled Philips
cartridge first. I'm wondering
of the "TP00 Test Pack" is the "Servicing disk-pack" mentioned in
the
service manual.
It might well be. I assume this is the head alignemt 'CE' pack. If so, DO
NOT WRITE TO IT!
So, I'd really like to get at least one cartridge drive running, so I opened
one up. There was a bit of dust inside, but not too much, and the disk
compartment seems clean. However, I discovered a problem on the undersize of
the drive.
The drive belt is made out of cloth or nylon, covered in an orange substance
(probably rubber). The rubber comes off in flakes, and a lot of the gooey
stuff is stuck on the pulleys. All three drives suffer from this condition.
I need to find a replacement for these. The belts are a little over 1/2 inch
wide, and the length of the cloth as measured is 35-1/8 inches. I'm figuring
I need a belt with a 35 inch inside circumference. The service manual only
lists a Philips part number, no dimensions for the belt.
Any idea where to get replacement belts?
I assume this is a flat belt, like a tape, not a V-belt.
Belts shoudl eb easy to get, but msot of the time they are not!. I don't
know of a supplier, but I wonded if a google search would help
One thing.. Philips parts are very unlikely to be a sensible number of
inches. They would use metric measurements almost exclusively (to the
extent that their '19"' panels are not qwuite the same as, say, DEC ones.
35.125 inches is 892.175mm I wonder if it actually should be 890mm or
something like that. Or perhaps 280mm (or 284mm) diameter.
-tony
Cheers,
Camiel