14 Feb
2006
14 Feb
'06
2:35 p.m.
On Monday 13 February 2006 02:34 pm, David Griffith wrote:
I'm trying to restore an Osborne Executive, but
there seems to be
something wrong in the CRT circuitry. The machine powers up and beeps,
but I see nothing on the CRT. Fiddling with the CRT pots does nothing.
I hear none of the expected noises from the CRT circuitry, nor do I see or
smell anything burnt. Can someone here point me in the right direction?
First question is, do you have that jumper plug in place? The one that bears
a sticker about not removing it while power is on, or something to that
effect. This is visible on the front panel, and if it's not there you'll
get exactly nothing from the monitor at all. The plug I refer to is visible
at:
http://ripsaw.cac.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/Osborne/Executive4L.jpg
just to the right of the two monitor knobs and to the left of the reset
button.
If it's missing (I've encountered this on some O-1s), you can possibly jump
from top to bottom of the board in a few places and get
things working.
If this isn't the problem, then what you're most likely seeing is bad
capacitors in the monitor itself. Mine worked the last time I had it on,
but there was just a little bit of jitter to the display. I wouldn't be
surprised if it didn't work the next time I tried it, but then I have a
spare monitor tucked away that I picked up some years ago.
There's also that composite video output over on the right -- try plugging
that into something, either a TV with composite input or if you don't have
one handy the video input of a VCR to use its modulator to feed into the TV.
I happen to have a Zenith 12" amber monitor that I used for this purpose as
well.
If you don't get any display at all, then there may be problems with the
logic board, though getting the beep makes this sound less likely.
If the monitor itself is the problem, I remember reading in some issues of
"FOGHORN" years back that there were certain capacitors in the monitor
assembly that would cause problems, though I don't remember which ones they
were.
The monitor itself was apparently made by Zenith, but I have not yet been
able to locate a schematic for that portion of things, though I have
complete tech info on the rest of the computer. If anybody knows where I
might find a schematic of the monitor as well I'd sure like to hear about it.
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin