2 Aug
2009
2 Aug
'09
12:55 p.m.
--- On Fri, 7/31/09, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:
The 2nd and 4th suggestions are good ones. The first one isn't likely
to lead to any fault finding skills in the immediate. The 3rd one is
Err, the IBM< Technical Reference (the 'first one') is the manual that
contains the official motherboard schematics.
P.S - get
a copy of "Inside the IBM PC", Peter Norton.
Has to be PC-era.
I don't agree
Get a copy of the IBM PC Technical Reference Manual.
Schematics
Source code for the BIOS
Maybe one of Scott Mueller's R&U absolutely goofy!! LOL LOL. What possible help would
the bios sources
provide for someone trying to troubleshoot a mobo?
A Heck of a lot, actually. If the processor is running, you then hook a
logic analyser to the address bus to see _what_ it's running. Now, if the
early self-tests fail, you can then follow the execution of said test
routines with the logic analyser, look up the appropraite bits of the
BIOS source to find what has failed. Done it myself several times
The point is _most_ of us aren't going to plumb
the depths as you or
someone like Chuck did in the old days. When your paycheck depends on
it, you'll go the extra mile (and this in itself necessitates a lot of
FWIW, I've never been paid to fix anything, but I routinely do things
like this.
skill and/or formal training. And other likeminded
individuals to engage
And I've never had any formal training in electronics or troubleshooting.
in brainstorming sessions). I bought the tech ref for
the tandy 2000 as
soon as I could, but all it helped me with in the first 6 months was to
determine the value of a capacitor that self immolated in the p/s. The
average person is not going to learn how to troubleshoot a uP board by
reading the tech refs from the getgo, IMHO. I suggested the Sam's
And I suppose the 'average person' is not going to figure out how to get
a PDP11 going armed with just the schematics (printset). But that's
exactly what I did. The obvious conclusion is that I am not an average
person.
Photofact things offlist (can you say test points?).
Hopefully as good
would be some of the texts that taught troubleshooting as a certificate
course.
I've not seen the Photfacts for the PC, but I have a SAMs manual on
repairing the Commodore 1541. It's OK as far as it goes (which is a lot
further than most similar books...), but sometime you're going to get a
fault which is not really covered, and then you have to use the
schematics, use test gear, and think about it. Which you might as well do
for any fault.
-tony