HP 3000/37

Hi gang, Went with Joe Rigdon last weekend and picked up a HP 3000/37 that he had spotted. The unit was mounted in a short cabinet with several 670H drives. It had been sitting partially covered in a scrap dealers yard in the Orlando area. Thankfully, it's not the rainy season so, it was still in pretty good shape. When I got it home and opened the computer up, it really wasn't that dirty inside. I just dusted the boards off, checked the connectors for corrosion, and reassembled it. The switch on the front panel was gummed-up and stuck in the off position. I broke it trying to work it loose and had to do some microsurgery to get it working again. I opened up each of the 670H drive cabinets, dusted them out, and reassembled. When plugged in, everyone of them gives a green light. A couple of them sounded a little funky during their first spin-up but, they all seem to be working now. Obviously, they had been sitting for a long time and were reluctant about going back to work. I can relate to that :-) All in all, I got (8) 670H, (6) 7963B, and a 7936 (I think that's correct) drive. The 7963B can support multiple drives in the same cabinet but, these only had one drive each. The 7936 is a big sucker. Similar to the 7937 "Eagle" drives. I've previously had trouble with Eagle drives so, I haven't even tried to power that one up, yet. These are 8" belt-driven monsters that are sensitive to shock and inactivity. The belts get all gooey and are a pain in the butt to clean. Last time I tackled one of these, I strained my back trying to put it back in the cabinet. That particular drive crashed within a week and really pissed me off. I mounted 3 of the 670H drives in the cabinet with the 3000, connected my tape drive, and powered everything up. After much dinking, I was finally able to install the OS from the MPE FOS tapes. I'm still a rooky at MPE but, after threee days of tinkering, I got it to work... YIPEE!!! Let me tell ya, over the last few days, I have learned a LOT about installing that OS. Still having trouble configuring the system with a line printer. Not sure if the problem is with the printer, the configuration, or me (naw couldn't be). When I connect my HPIB printer, the system has trouble finding other devices on that chain. That printer was working with my /42 but, it was on a port all by itsself. The /37 doesn't have as many I/O ports as the /42 so, my options are considerably more limited. Anyway, I finally have a "Classic 3000" that doesn't double as a space heater. Both me and my air-conditioner are happy. Many thanks to Joe for turning me on to this *great* find. See Ya, Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com>