11 Dec
2004
11 Dec
'04
3:42 a.m.
Hi crew. Question about a Gridacase 1520. Is anyone familiar with
these laptops? This is a 286, really good shape. It won't boot, dead
as a doornail. The guy at the thrift shop told me it was working when
it was brought in the day before, now I see that two (or one) chips
are missing from under the flap in the top left right above the
keyboard. I figure they were lifted between dropoff and my buying it.
Any ideas if these chips, which I think are application roms, would
prevent the thing from booting? If so, is there such a thing as a
replacement available from someone here or elsewhere? The thing must
have been the first Toughbook or something, and I'd love to see it
working.
Thanks for any info anyone can share.
(does anyone still need a gmail invite? I have lots. )
Brian Mahoney
11 Dec
11 Dec
3:55 a.m.
Climbing back through the cobwebs, I find some information. The 1520
was still when GRiD was making them out of magnesium. The flap just
above the keyboard was for EPROMS. On those EPROMS you could store DOS
files, as big as the memories could hold. I used them in 27010's.
Depending on how many sockets there were, you could even split bigger
files across more than one EPROM. GRiD had a program called ROMBUILD
that would take the files you feed it and create ROM images to burn into
the ROM's you would then plug into those slots. You could make the
ROM's into bootable devices as well, using ROMBUILD.
I sent that program to someone who put it online in the Yahoo group for
Grid computers. So you should be able to get it, along with a scanned
copy of the typewritten instructions on how to use it.
There were several versions of the Gridcase, from 8086 versions through
386SX versions. By the time the 486 came about Grid was making more
conventional looking plastic laptops and soon after that was sold to Tandy.
The 1520 should boot from a floppy or its internal hard drive. If it
powers up but doesn't access the floppy drive, try hitting the "F" key
right after the BIOS <beep> on powerup.
Good luck. The Gridcase was a very cool computer. Lots of military
use. And where I work, DaimlerChrysler Engineering, we used lots of
them in vehicles because of their ruggedness.
Brian Mahoney wrote:
Hi crew. Question about a Gridacase 1520. Is anyone
familiar with
these laptops? This is a 286, really good shape. It won't boot, dead
as a doornail. The guy at the thrift shop told me it was working when
it was brought in the day before, now I see that two (or one) chips
are missing from under the flap in the top left right above the
keyboard. I figure they were lifted between dropoff and my buying it.
Any ideas if these chips, which I think are application roms, would
prevent the thing from booting? If so, is there such a thing as a
replacement available from someone here or elsewhere? The thing must
have been the first Toughbook or something, and I'd love to see it
working.
Thanks for any info anyone can share.
(does anyone still need a gmail invite? I have lots. )
Brian Mahoney
9:40 a.m.
I have a couple of Grids like that but I don't remember the exact model
numbers. Only one of mine has the ICs inside the door. I'm pretty sure that
they emulate a system disk (A: drive). Mine don't have floppy drives so the
ROMs are the only way to boot one if it loses the CMOS settings. I've been
wanting to pull the ROMs and try them in the other Grids and make copies if
they work but never got around to it.
Joe
At 12:42 PM 12/11/04 -0500, you wrote:
Hi crew. Question about a Gridacase 1520. Is anyone
familiar with
these laptops? This is a 286, really good shape. It won't boot, dead
as a doornail. The guy at the thrift shop told me it was working when
it was brought in the day before, now I see that two (or one) chips
are missing from under the flap in the top left right above the
keyboard. I figure they were lifted between dropoff and my buying it.
Any ideas if these chips, which I think are application roms, would
prevent the thing from booting? If so, is there such a thing as a
replacement available from someone here or elsewhere? The thing must
have been the first Toughbook or something, and I'd love to see it
working.
Thanks for any info anyone can share.
(does anyone still need a gmail invite? I have lots. )
Brian Mahoney
10:41 a.m.
Pretty sure that the roms that work in one work in them all. I've
interchanged them with many different models. Not ALL possibilities, to
be sure, but there was only one ROMBUILD program that I know of.
Joe R. wrote:
I have a couple of Grids like that but I don't
remember the exact model
numbers. Only one of mine has the ICs inside the door. I'm pretty sure that
they emulate a system disk (A: drive). Mine don't have floppy drives so the
ROMs are the only way to boot one if it loses the CMOS settings. I've been
wanting to pull the ROMs and try them in the other Grids and make copies if
they work but never got around to it.
Joe
2:02 p.m.
Maybe that's what's up with mine, since I am pretty sure it's lost the
CMOS settings. I took the cover off today, astonishingly clean and new
inside, but couldn't find the battery. The HD is 100 megs, which is
pretty unusual from what I've seen.
Couple more questions: There is the PS which takes a regular power
cable and pops out with the push of a button. There is another outlet,
much like a transformer outlet, which came with a cord. Was this for
the external floppy?
As far as the PS is concerned, I'm wondering if it got fried somehow
with being plugged into the outlet but not in the laptop. Strange
setup, really. You could hold the PS in your hand, plug it into the
wall and then into the laptop. Can't believe that in the field it
would be that easy to fry it, though.
All in all it's a damn fine laptop, and this one looks as if it has
never been used. It is spotless! Thanks for the info, crew. If anyone
can add anything, feel free.
2:21 p.m.
That series of computers had a battery that fit into the same space as
your power supply. Your power supply was made to substitute for the
battery, same contacts inside as the battery pack, but more convenient
for those who preferred to use AC power. You could, if you wanted, use
the power supply you have externally using a cable from it to the power
connector on the back. As I recall, it was a typical barel-type
connector and a straight through cable. In that configuration it would
charge the battery if you had that plugged in.
100 MB hard drive does sound large for that vintage, but it was probably
a standard 3.5" IDE drive inside and could be swapped with a larger one
than the factory supplied.
Not sure what you mean by "transformer outlet". Look on the side where
the hard drive is, right, near the back. Is there a 25 pin D-connector,
female? If so, that is for a floppy drive to connect up externally.
I doubt that the PS could fry by being plugged into AC without being in
the computer. But I can't say that I've ever tested that. You should
be able to power it up with a simple DC power supply connected to that
barel connector on the back. Isn't it labelled with voltage and current
requirements?
Brian Mahoney wrote:
Maybe that's what's up with mine, since I am
pretty sure it's lost the
CMOS settings. I took the cover off today, astonishingly clean and new
inside, but couldn't find the battery. The HD is 100 megs, which is
pretty unusual from what I've seen.
Couple more questions: There is the PS which takes a regular power
cable and pops out with the push of a button. There is another outlet,
much like a transformer outlet, which came with a cord. Was this for
the external floppy?
As far as the PS is concerned, I'm wondering if it got fried somehow
with being plugged into the outlet but not in the laptop. Strange
setup, really. You could hold the PS in your hand, plug it into the
wall and then into the laptop. Can't believe that in the field it
would be that easy to fry it, though.
All in all it's a damn fine laptop, and this one looks as if it has
never been used. It is spotless! Thanks for the info, crew. If anyone
can add anything, feel free.
12 Dec
12 Dec
3:39 a.m.
Thanks Dave! I figured it out with your help. The PS won't work when
in the battery slot, but it will when it's a brick hooked up with the
second power cord, the one with the barrel connectors on each end.
However there is a bad connection inside the PS and this only works
with pressure on one side, even then it is sporadic so I have to test
continuity in the cord or take the ps apart and look for something
there.
Anyway, it boots, thank goodness, not to a prompt but until it finds a
hard drive error which means I have to configure it. F1 doesn't seem
to work so maybe the cmos is blank and it can't see the keyboard,
which isn't set out like a normal board.
It has the basic 640K plus about 1400K ram . The 100 meg drive is
unusual and I'm dying to see what's on it. The thing that astounds me
is that this laptop is probably nearly 16 years old and it is far
cleaner inside than anything I use day to day. It must have been in a
lab or never taken out of its case. The keyboard is shiny new and the
drive area is spotless, still with the colored stickers in place.
Pristine, really.
Thanks again and I will post an update once I get the PS problem worked out.
Writing to the roms seemed very interesting, I am curious as to how
much info they would be able to hold. Did they have the capacity of a
floppy? There is a modem inside which would be able to take care of
data tranfer as well as the ports on the back. Tandy used roms in some
of their models, didn't they? I mean to store applications. Acorn too,
I think.
All the best,
BM
On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 23:21:20 -0500, Dave Mabry <dmabry(a)mich.com> wrote:
That series of computers had a battery that fit into
the same space as
your power supply. Your power supply was made to substitute for the
battery, same contacts inside as the battery pack, but more convenient
for those who preferred to use AC power. You could, if you wanted, use
the power supply you have externally using a cable from it to the power
connector on the back. As I recall, it was a typical barel-type
connector and a straight through cable. In that configuration it would
charge the battery if you had that plugged in.
100 MB hard drive does sound large for that vintage, but it was probably
a standard 3.5" IDE drive inside and could be swapped with a larger one
than the factory supplied.
Not sure what you mean by "transformer outlet". Look on the side where
the hard drive is, right, near the back. Is there a 25 pin D-connector,
female? If so, that is for a floppy drive to connect up externally.
I doubt that the PS could fry by being plugged into AC without being in
the computer. But I can't say that I've ever tested that. You should
be able to power it up with a simple DC power supply connected to that
barel connector on the back. Isn't it labelled with voltage and current
requirements?
Brian Mahoney wrote:
Maybe that's what's up with mine, since I
am pretty sure it's lost the
CMOS settings. I took the cover off today, astonishingly clean and new
inside, but couldn't find the battery. The HD is 100 megs, which is
pretty unusual from what I've seen.
Couple more questions: There is the PS which takes a regular power
cable and pops out with the push of a button. There is another outlet,
much like a transformer outlet, which came with a cord. Was this for
the external floppy?
As far as the PS is concerned, I'm wondering if it got fried somehow
with being plugged into the outlet but not in the laptop. Strange
setup, really. You could hold the PS in your hand, plug it into the
wall and then into the laptop. Can't believe that in the field it
would be that easy to fry it, though.
All in all it's a damn fine laptop, and this one looks as if it has
never been used. It is spotless! Thanks for the info, crew. If anyone
can add anything, feel free.
3:58 a.m.
In message <f16f6cf804121209392fa82ab3(a)mail.gmail.com>
Brian Mahoney <mapleleafman(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Tandy used roms in some
of their models, didn't they? I mean to store applications. Acorn too,
I think.
Sounds like you're referring to the "5th Column ROM". All the Acorn
machines
I've seen have RISC OS in ROM anyway (No HDD? No problem!), though.
The 5th Column ROM socket was - IIRC - fitted to all the Acorn A-series
machines up to the A5000. I don't think there was much that ever used it. The
Acorn A4 laptop had a ROM fitted to the 5th-column slot that included copies
of the battery manager (BatMgr), I2C and Portable RMA modules.
Speaking of which, I've got a pair of A4s here. One works fine and doesn't
look too bad, the other is a bit dirty and needs a new floppy drive
(strangely enough, the drive will work after the machine has been running for
an hour or so). Swapping the drive between machines caused the fault to move
with the drive :-/
Later.
--
Phil. | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6GB,
philpem(a)philpem.me.uk | ViewFinder, 10BaseT Ethernet, 2-slice,
http://www.philpem.me.uk/ | 48xCD, ARCINv6c IDE, SCSI
... Take care of the pennies and the Inland Revenue will take care of the rest.
4:10 a.m.
New subject: CLEAN computers Re: Grid 1520
At 12:39 PM 12/12/04 -0500, you wrote:
The thing that astounds me
is that this laptop is probably nearly 16 years old and it is far
cleaner inside than anything I use day to day. It must have been in a
lab or never taken out of its case. The keyboard is shiny new and the
drive area is spotless, still with the colored stickers in place.
Pristine, really.
I was offered a complete HP-150 system last year but had to go get it.
It turns out that is was in the Florida Regional Crime Lab. I went and
picked it up and it was THE cleanest computer that I've ever seen. It
looked like it had just come out of the factory and was spotless inside and
out. Not even any stickers on it. It turns out that it had spent it's life
inside a lab hooked to a gas chromatograph or some such were NO
contamination could be tolerated. It was real shame to bring it home and
stuff it into the outbuilding with all the other computers. Anybody else
run into situations like this?
Joe
5:40 a.m.
New subject: CLEAN computers Re: Grid 1520
I got an IBM AT this summer that was as pristine a machine as I've ever
seen. It looked like it had just come out of the original packaging.
In fact, that was the only thing absent to make this a perfect score.
There wasn't a single blemish or even a spot of dust on the case or
monitor. The insides were as clean as a whistle and the original
battery and, even harder to believe, the original CMI hard drive were
still installed and working.
It even had the IBM drive protect card in the disk drive and the
original IBM keys dangling from the lock.
Of course it came with all of the original manuals and software.
I received an Apple /// and an Apple //e in similar but slightly more
used shape earlier in the summer and a couple of PowerBooks in their
original boxes last month, so I guess it has been a good year!
Erik Klein
www.vintage-computer.com
www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum
The Vintage Computer Forum
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Joe R.
Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2004 10:10 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: CLEAN computers Re: Grid 1520
At 12:39 PM 12/12/04 -0500, you wrote:
The thing that astounds me
is that this laptop is probably nearly 16 years old and it is far
cleaner inside than anything I use day to day. It must have been in a
lab or never taken out of its case. The keyboard is shiny new and the
drive area is spotless, still with the colored stickers in place.
Pristine, really.
I was offered a complete HP-150 system last year but had to go get
it.
It turns out that is was in the Florida Regional Crime Lab. I went and
picked it up and it was THE cleanest computer that I've ever seen. It
looked like it had just come out of the factory and was spotless inside
and
out. Not even any stickers on it. It turns out that it had spent it's
life
inside a lab hooked to a gas chromatograph or some such were NO
contamination could be tolerated. It was real shame to bring it home and
stuff it into the outbuilding with all the other computers. Anybody else
run into situations like this?
Joe
8:39 a.m.
New subject: CLEAN computers Re: Grid 1520
On Sunday 12 December 2004 13:10, Joe R. wrote:
At 12:39 PM 12/12/04 -0500, you wrote:
inside and out. Not even any stickers on it. It turns out that it had
spent it's life inside a lab hooked to a gas chromatograph or some such
were NO contamination could be tolerated. It was real shame to bring it
home and stuff it into the outbuilding with all the other computers.
Anybody else run into situations like this?
I had a machine that came out of the office at a McDonald's restaurant and
the dust bunnies that were inside were so greasy that it took sereral
passes through the dishwasher to get it clean.
The hard drive still smells of fries.
--
Collector of vintage computers http://www.ncf.ca/~ba600
Machines to trade http://www.ncf.ca/~ba600/trade.html
Open Source Weekend http://www.osw.ca
6 Jan
6 Jan
8:52 a.m.
New subject: CLEAN computers Re: Grid 1520
Mike Kenzie wrote:
I had a machine that came out of the office at a
McDonald's restaurant and
the dust bunnies that were inside were so greasy that it took sereral
passes through the dishwasher to get it clean.
The hard drive still smells of fries.
Well, if we're going to switch gears from the clean to the nasty, try reading
my old DOS PC's diary (http://www.oldskool.org/shrines/diary). Spiders, steam,
smoke...
--
Jim Leonard (trixter(a)oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
12 Dec
12 Dec
12:43 p.m.
New subject: CLEAN computers Re: Grid 1520
Joe R. wrote:
At 12:39 PM 12/12/04 -0500, you wrote:
I got a PDP-11 (well, a pair of them) that had been decommissioned
The thing that astounds me
is that this laptop is probably nearly 16 years old and it is far
cleaner inside than anything I use day to day. It must have been in a
lab or never taken out of its case. The keyboard is shiny new and the
drive area is spotless, still with the colored stickers in place.
Pristine, really.
I was offered a complete HP-150 system last year but had to go get it.
It turns out that is was in the Florida Regional Crime Lab. I went and
picked it up and it was THE cleanest computer that I've ever seen. It
looked like it had just come out of the factory and was spotless inside and
out. Not even any stickers on it. It turns out that it had spent it's life
inside a lab hooked to a gas chromatograph or some such were NO
contamination could be tolerated. It was real shame to bring it home and
stuff it into the outbuilding with all the other computers. Anybody else
run into situations like this? from a med supply warehouse that day. Pristine clean,
inside and out,
and they still had the card-separators on the rear edge of the Qbus
cards. They told me that if Compaq hadn't refused to renew their
maintenance contract, they wouldn't have replaced the machines. I
didn't know about Mentec then, and apparently neither did their field tech.
Doc
4:11 a.m.
Ok Brian. You are making good progress. Once again, this is from the
cobwebs, but that vintage of computer didn't usually have any built-in
CMOS-setting firmware. You had to run it from a boot floppy. Don't
know, but maybe some of the more generic BIOS-setting utilities would
work. What I mentioned was that the "F" key, not F1, would force a
floppy drive boot.
The ROMS would hold whatever file size that they are. How's that for
double-speak? If the ROM is a 27010 (1Mbit) it will hold roughly 128K
bytes of files. How many slots are there under the door? I have some
of the earlier GRiDcase, the 8086-based. They have four slots that are
under the door and four internal. So you could put up to 1MB of ROMS
into that version using 27010's. On some models of Gridcase there were
internal ROM slots as well. I didn't use the 286-based versions much,
so I don't remember. There might be internal ROM slots under the
plastic that covers around the keyboard. You have to remove the display
subsystem first and to do that you have to remove the cover behind the
display. There are two screws under plastic plugs on the back panel.
Then the back cover slides back about 1/4 inch and lifts up. The
display has to be closed to do that. Then the display can lift out. Be
careful of the place that the display pivots in. That part of the
casting is easily broken. Put some white lub in that when you
reassemble it, if you take it apart. Anyway, after the display is out,
then, and only then, can you take the bezel around the keyboard off. It
snaps straight up. No screws. Then you can get to the lithium battery
used for CMOS backup. Also, if there are internal ROM slots I think you
will find the just above the keyboard, or it might be a plugin card
under the back cover of the machine.
Anyway, good luck. It is a very unique and cool system.
Brian Mahoney wrote:
Thanks Dave! I figured it out with your help. The PS
won't work when
in the battery slot, but it will when it's a brick hooked up with the
second power cord, the one with the barrel connectors on each end.
However there is a bad connection inside the PS and this only works
with pressure on one side, even then it is sporadic so I have to test
continuity in the cord or take the ps apart and look for something
there.
Anyway, it boots, thank goodness, not to a prompt but until it finds a
hard drive error which means I have to configure it. F1 doesn't seem
to work so maybe the cmos is blank and it can't see the keyboard,
which isn't set out like a normal board.
It has the basic 640K plus about 1400K ram . The 100 meg drive is
unusual and I'm dying to see what's on it. The thing that astounds me
is that this laptop is probably nearly 16 years old and it is far
cleaner inside than anything I use day to day. It must have been in a
lab or never taken out of its case. The keyboard is shiny new and the
drive area is spotless, still with the colored stickers in place.
Pristine, really.
Thanks again and I will post an update once I get the PS problem worked out.
Writing to the roms seemed very interesting, I am curious as to how
much info they would be able to hold. Did they have the capacity of a
floppy? There is a modem inside which would be able to take care of
data tranfer as well as the ports on the back. Tandy used roms in some
of their models, didn't they? I mean to store applications. Acorn too,
I think.
All the best,
BM
15 Dec
15 Dec
10:44 a.m.
there are yahoo groups that can help you, with this one being one:
RuGRiD-Laptop(a)Yahoogroups.com
and I am sure many people here will reply as well.
Brian Mahoney wrote:
Hi crew. Question about a Gridacase 1520. Is anyone
familiar with
these laptops? This is a 286, really good shape.
7290
days inactive
7316
days old
14 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
classiccmp＠vintage-computer.com -
dmabry＠mich.com -
doc＠mdrconsult.com -
jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu -
kenziem＠sympatico.ca -
mapleleafman＠gmail.com -
philpem＠dsl.pipex.com -
rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com -
trixter＠oldskool.org