17 Dec
2019
17 Dec
'19
8:37 a.m.
Bill,
I am assuming you have done all the usual after a physical move of the system -
reseated all the boards and whatever we called those green blocks on
top of the board pairs, and cables - both ends.
If not, that might be the hint the system is giving you.
That is about all I can think of something more than 40 years since I
trouble shot an /e/
bob
On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 12:10 PM Bill Degnan via cctech
<cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Hi - I am looking for some help.
I have had a PDP 8e with RK05 drives that has run pretty reliably for many
years, but after moving it a strange symptom has come up, preventing it
from operating correctly. I am hoping someone can advise.
Here is an example
1. Power up drives and PDP 8e
2. Load OS/8
3. Load ADVENT
4. Program loads, asks if I want instructions. I can enter Y or N and the
system responds. The familiar scrolling light pattern appears on the front
panel to indicate awaiting input
5. As soon as I attempt an action such as "S" (with no quotes) the front
panel freezes and I have to CTRL+C to exit ADVENT, dumping me to the dot
prompt.
Similar issue when running the MUSIC.SV program. I can load the program and
get up to the point of entering a song, but when I enter a song name the
system freezes on the first note.
BASIC works fine however. Which tells me that I have a CPU problem, not a
RAM problem but this is just my hunch.
Any ideas how to diagnose this? Running MAINDEC programs is always
frustrating. I am attempting to load the main DECX8 SYSTEM EXERCISER to see
if there are any clues from this as to the cause of the freezing system.
.
https://www.pdp8online.com/os/os8/os8_cmd.shtml#DECX8
Thanks
Bill