5 Oct
2007
5 Oct
'07
8:19 p.m.
On 06/10/2007, Bryan Pope <bpope at wordstock.com> wrote:
But the schematics can help you fix a problem.. Even if you are only
following the connections, it may help to show you which component
failed by what the problem is and what is still working.
How? Given I have no analysers and wouldn't know how to use one if I did?
The Amiga cost me a copy of NT4 and a Compaq server Ethernet card. Its
accelerator and Squirrel SCSI cost me ?25 together. Hard disk, RAM,
cables and software were all free. If any of it dies, I'll scrounge
other bits.
As an operating system aficionado, I want to know a bit about AmigaOS
works, as it's widely held as a classic design. I've no desire and no
need to know how to fix a duff Amiga, though.
And thusly were the wise words spake by Liam Proven
But I don't and wouldn't even /attempt/ to fix anything that old. I
have a couple of vintage machines, and I'd like to keep them running,
but personally, that's more or less enough for me.
I read with great fascination the discussions in this group, but for
me, getting my first computer in 1982 or '83, I'm not really
interested in owning anything before the early-1980s 8-bit home
micros. And since there were many dozens of makes and I have
absolutely no use for any of them, I confine myself to the few I still
have. In the later '80s, there were a much smaller number of much more
powerful 16- (or 32-) bit machines. I've got one of each of the big
ones: a QL, an Amiga, an ST and several Acorns - an Archimedes and an
A5000 and a RISC-PC.
Apart from that, it's all Macs and PCs.
That suits me fine. They were all free or /extremely/ cheap. If one
dies, I'll try to find someone who wants it & I'll get another one.
Things like logic analysers would be of little to no use to me on the
machines I work with, which contain no discrete logic at all, just a
few SMT or BGA VLSI ICs. They are, for the most part, impossible for
human hands to repair, and if they were, it wouldn't be economical.
So, I don't.
I'd vaguely like to know how to run a metal smelter, how to forge and
cast metal, how to do carpentry and whatnot, but they're archaic
skills of no actual /use/ to me. I'm afraid tracing a duff RAM chip or
replacing a serial line driver is in the same bucket in 2007.
On 05/10/2007, Bryan Pope <bpope at wordstock.com> wrote:
Errgh.. I was *not* talking about anything modern!! :( :( Is not
this a *vintage* computer email group?! I was referring to things
like C= PETs, 4040s and other systems from that era! ie stuff you
can test with equipment that does not mortgage your house.. And thusly were the wise words spake by Liam
Proven
Er, hardly, when a modern chip has several tens of millions of gates on it!
I make my meagre crust working on machines of, on average, 2-3GHz of
processing power, 1-2 gig of RAM and about a quarter to a half a
terabyte of RAM. I fear when one of those goes wrong, probing for a
duff transistor will do me little good!
Fascinating. The snag is, I know very little about electronics below
the level of a broad knowledge of TTL, the rudiments of circuits and
gates and so on. I have a bit of theory, no practice. I could not
diagnose a faulty chip or anything; my troubleshooting consists of
All you need to start with is a logic probe. Then for simple logic
chips like AND, OR, NOT you would place the logic probe on the one
or two inputs o see if they are high or low. Then from that you
would know what the output should be. For chips that were a little
more complex you would use the truth table from the datasheet for
the particular chip to see what the output should be for each
combination of input(s). I know for the Amiga Commodore provided schematics...
I know a few dozen characters of Chinese. I also know that I could buy
a Chinese dictionary, but it wouldn't tell me anything! :?) So now you will be able to write a TCP/IP stack for a
vintage computer? ;)
No. Why would I want to? I'm not a programmer. I can program but I'm
/rotten/ at it.
How computers work is pretty much the same since the
beginning.. they
have just got faster over time. (and a lot more sterile, IMHO)
I'd have to agree, yes. But learning to service a Model T - or, given
my personal predilections as a biker, a Rudge or Douglas or AJS -
would not be much help in running my ZZR1100. The owner's manual says,
pretty much, check oil, chain tension, brakes and lights; otherwise,
take it to the dealer. That's what I do.
If I repair my PC badly, I might lose some data. If I repair my bike
badly, I might die. I already have a metal arm, a metal leg and badly
damaged inner ears from a severe bike crash. I don't want another. I
leave it to the pros.
--
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