14 Nov
2019
14 Nov
'19
9:38 p.m.
These showed up on eBay, I'd been looking for them for over twenty years
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/quantum/Q500/81-50466A_Q500_Technical_Reference_Ma…
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/qunatum/Q2000/81-49218A_Q2080_Technical_Reference_…
15 Nov
15 Nov
6:29 p.m.
On 11/14/19 1:38 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
These showed up on eBay, I'd been looking for them
for over twenty years
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/quantum/Q500/81-50466A_Q500_Technical_Reference_Ma…
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/qunatum/Q2000/81-49218A_Q2080_Technical_Reference_…
Thanks for that--I've had a Q540 in service for longer than I care to
speculate. Lately, it's gotten to be a little recalcitrant to start up,
but has yielded to repeated power cycling.
--Chuck
6:51 p.m.
On 11/15/19 1:29 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
On 11/14/19 1:38 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
I must have about 15 maybe more of the D540s and have found them
to be the fastest seeking of the MFM drives and also near unbreakable.
The oldest is about 36 years old. Use them in CP/M crates, DOS boxen,
PDP-11s (with RQDX2/3 controllers) and Local swap for net booted
uVAX2000 and swap file disks on uVAXII (61K blocks is more than
enough swap space) for VMS5.44.
I've not had stiction problems... likely because I have spares!
Its a Murphy's law thing.
Allison
These showed up on eBay, I'd been looking for
them for over twenty years
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/quantum/Q500/81-50466A_Q500_Technical_Reference_Ma…
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/qunatum/Q2000/81-49218A_Q2080_Technical_Reference_…
Thanks for that--I've had a Q540 in service for longer than I care to
speculate. Lately, it's gotten to be a little recalcitrant to start up,
but has yielded to repeated power cycling.
--Chuck
8:29 p.m.
On 11/15/19 10:51 AM, allison via cctalk wrote:
I must have about 15 maybe more of the D540s and have
found them
to be the fastest seeking of the MFM drives and also near unbreakable.
The oldest is about 36 years old. Use them in CP/M crates, DOS boxen,
PDP-11s (with RQDX2/3 controllers) and Local swap for net booted
uVAX2000 and swap file disks on uVAXII (61K blocks is more than
enough swap space) for VMS5.44.
I've not had stiction problems... likely because I have spares!
Its a Murphy's law thing.
The Q540 that gets used is mounted on its side in an old Mad Intelligent
Systems box with an XT clone inside. I don't think it's stiction; the
drive spins up fine, but the initial seek fails until I cycle power a
couple of times or tap the side of the drive with a screwdriver handle.
It's of no real consequence; the contents are backed up and I have a
spare XT-IDE drive if needed. The FH MFM drives that I've owned have
slowly failed; the FH ESDI and SCSI drives have, interestingly all
continued to work.
--Chuck
10:21 p.m.
Heads getting stuck on the ramp?
Maybe it has warn a groove in the plastic. It could be the bearings on the head assembly
as well.
Dwight
________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Chuck Guzis via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2019 12:29 PM
To: allison via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Quantum 2080 and 540 service manuals
On 11/15/19 10:51 AM, allison via cctalk wrote:
I must have about 15 maybe more of the D540s and have
found them
to be the fastest seeking of the MFM drives and also near unbreakable.
The oldest is about 36 years old. Use them in CP/M crates, DOS boxen,
PDP-11s (with RQDX2/3 controllers) and Local swap for net booted
uVAX2000 and swap file disks on uVAXII (61K blocks is more than
enough swap space) for VMS5.44.
I've not had stiction problems... likely because I have spares!
Its a Murphy's law thing.
The Q540 that gets used is mounted on its side in an old Mad Intelligent
Systems box with an XT clone inside. I don't think it's stiction; the
drive spins up fine, but the initial seek fails until I cycle power a
couple of times or tap the side of the drive with a screwdriver handle.
It's of no real consequence; the contents are backed up and I have a
spare XT-IDE drive if needed. The FH MFM drives that I've owned have
slowly failed; the FH ESDI and SCSI drives have, interestingly all
continued to work.
--Chuck
10:12 p.m.
On 11/16/19 12:48 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctech wrote:
On 11/15/19 2:21 PM, dwight via cctalk wrote:
Mine are in the once a year for the lest frequently used and a few at
least once a week.
I find them bullet proof.
Allison
Heads getting stuck on the ramp?
Maybe it has warn a groove in the plastic. It could be the bearings on the head assembly
as well.
Dwight
Dunno--I only fire the thing up about once every 5 years or so...
--Chuck
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