Thanks Allison. As the VDM-1 is built-in I obviously can't pull it but will check for a bad trace etc. Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 3/4/98 9:53 AM < < I've got the Sol-20 up where I can see the monitor prompt '>' but < there is garbage on the screen which I have yet been able to get rid < of and attempts to load off a cpm diskette (that came with this < package) have failed thus far. Before you mess with CPM and disks get the SOL running! The screen of garbage is either a broken VDM-1 (video card) or the CPU is out to lunch do to a memory problem or other system fault. Pull the disk controller out and get to the minimum system and trouble shoot from there. Also the Native os for the northstar controller is NS*dos not cp/m it is possible that the version of cpm can be configured for the NS* controller but not the terminal IO used in the SOL so it would boot and do nothing. FYI: the most commonly replaced part is the CPU as it's is always socketed. The least often failed part is the CPU! If I were nearby I'd offer to help. Allison ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists3.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Mar04.095317.1767.30083; Wed, 04 Mar 1998 09:53:18 -0500 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id GAA14619; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 06:44:30 -0800 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id GAA25332 for &lt;classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu&gt;du>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 06:44:19 -0800 Received: from europe.std.com (europe.std.com [199.172.62.20]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id GAA00327 for &lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;du>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 06:44:07 -0800 Received: from world.std.com by europe.std.com (8.7.6/BZS-8-1.0) id JAA25056; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 09:44:14 -0500 (EST) Received: by world.std.com (TheWorld/Spike-2.0) id AA10912; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 09:44:06 -0500 Message-Id: &lt;199803041444.AA10912(a)world.std.com&gt; Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 09:44:06 -0500 Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: allisonp(a)world.std.com (Allison J Parent) To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" &lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt; Subject: Re: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN