26 Oct
2009
26 Oct
'09
1:13 p.m.
The ususal reason for that pronouncement is the backplane is summarily
messedup beyond belief. In some cases due to shorts or other "errors"
large sections of wire wrap being cooked. (I presume this is an early
10 and not a 20). That also means that any board plugged into it is
suspect as well. Many hours of proble and verify, unpowered!
Repairable yes, lots of work big time yes. Worth fixing during it's
commercial days, rarely.
At a minimum it should be kept intact as an example if parts cannot be
used to restore another.
Allison
Tony Duell wrote:
Sounds like he needs educating into the behaviour of classic computer
enthusiasts :-)
Put it this way, if I was nearer, I'd be inclined to try to accept that
as a challenge. It would take me more than a year, sure. I would spend a
lot of time reading documentation for a machine I've never worked on
before, sure. But even if I say so myself, I am _darn sure_ I'd get it
going in the end. And the same applies to a dozen other people I know.
-tony
If it were in the hands of someone who actually carecd
about it,
could it be
made to run?
The "never run again" comes from the DEC service engineer. He told the
Kiel official people (and me) that it would be possible (if the docs and
cables etc. were still there, of course) to get the system back to work.
But for that he would need at least one year of work (3 month to move
the system from one building to another, with 4 people!!). He is sure
that nobody else would be able to get it running. And he is not