13 Sep
1999
13 Sep
'99
3:57 a.m.
I played with the Osbourne Executive yesterday. I can't get it to boot.
All it says is "boot error". It says the same thing with no disks in it,
MS DOS disks in it and with the door open so the message doesn't tell me
anything. I tried swapping drives, reseating ICs and cables and everything
that I could think of. It booted once and I did DIR on both drives with no
problems, it almost booted several times but filled the screeen with
garbage and locked up. I tried disks from three different sets including a
set of new copies from Don Maslin so I'm sure the the disks aren't the
problem. Any ideas? Does anyone know if DS drives can be used in these?
The drives in it are ALPS SS DD. I took the drives out and checked them,
the heads and drives are clean and the speed is right. I don't think there
is anything wrong with them.
Several people have posted messages here in the past about problems with
Osbournes that wouldn't boot. Did you ever get them working? What have you
found wrong with them?
Joe
13 Sep
13 Sep
5:32 a.m.
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Joe wrote:
I played with the Osbourne Executive yesterday. I
can't get it to boot.
All it says is "boot error". It says the same thing with no disks in it,
MS DOS disks in it and with the door open so the message doesn't tell me
anything.
Well... from the description above, the first thing that comes to mind is
that the 'Executive', like all of the Osborne machines is a CP/M machine,
and will likely never run any form of MicroSquish DOS... B^}
In more general terms, the message indicates that the unit is unable to
read the boot sector(s), but without a proper set of diskettes it will be
difficult to troubleshoot reliabily...
-jim
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The Computer Garage - http://www.computergarage.org
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
7:16 a.m.
At 07:32 AM 9/13/99 -0700, Jim wrote:
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Joe wrote:
I know that. I just wanted to see if I could make it generate any other
error messages. Evidently it can't, it reports the same message for ANY
disk related problem. That's why I said that the error message doesn't
mean much.
I played with the Osbourne Executive yesterday.
I can't get it to boot.
All it says is "boot error". It says the same thing with no disks in it,
MS DOS disks in it and with the door open so the message doesn't tell me
anything.
Well... from the description above, the first thing that comes to mind is
that the 'Executive', like all of the Osborne machines is a CP/M machine,
and will likely never run any form of MicroSquish DOS... B^}
In more general terms, the message indicates that the unit is unable to
read the boot sector(s), but without a proper set of diskettes it will be
difficult to troubleshoot reliabily...
I have three good sets of disks including a recent set from Don M. I'm
sure it isn't a disk problem and I'm fairly sure that it isn't a drive
problem.
Joe
12:38 p.m.
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, James Willing wrote:
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Joe wrote:
I think you misread his message, Jim. What he was saying was that in
addition to not booting on the CP/M disks and getting the error message,
he also got the message with a DOS disk, with no disk, and even with the
drive door open.
With all of those failure modes, it does not seem likely to me that it is
a drive problem.
- don
I played with the Osbourne Executive yesterday.
I can't get it to boot.
All it says is "boot error". It says the same thing with no disks in it,
MS DOS disks in it and with the door open so the message doesn't tell me
anything.
Well... from the description above, the first thing that comes to mind is
that the 'Executive', like all of the Osborne machines is a CP/M machine,
and will likely never run any form of MicroSquish DOS... B^}
In more general terms, the message indicates that the unit is unable to
read the boot sector(s), but without a proper set of diskettes it will be
difficult to troubleshoot reliabily...
1:21 p.m.
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Don Maslin wrote:
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, James Willing wrote:
True enough... Failure to read between the lines sufficiently. B^}
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Joe wrote:
I think you misread his message, Jim. What he was saying was that in
addition to not booting on the CP/M disks and getting the error message,
he also got the message with a DOS disk, with no disk, and even with the
drive door open. I played with the Osbourne Executive yesterday.
I can't get it to boot.
All it says is "boot error". It says the same thing with no disks in it,
MS DOS disks in it and with the door open so the message doesn't tell me
anything.
Well... from the description above, the first thing that comes to mind is
that the 'Executive', like all of the Osborne machines is a CP/M machine,
and will likely never run any form of MicroSquish DOS... B^}
In more general terms, the message indicates that the unit is unable to
read the boot sector(s), but without a proper set of diskettes it will be
difficult to troubleshoot reliabily... With all of those failure modes, it does not seem
likely to me that it is
a drive problem.
Yep... and the base machine won't give much more of an indication. The
Osbornes tended to think in a go/no-go mode, so the one 'catch-all' error
message is about all you would ever see.
I believe that the 'Exec used a WD1793 series floppy controller chip, so
the controller circuitry should be fairly straight forward.
-jim
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jimw(a)computergarage.org || jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.computergarage.org
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
2:12 p.m.
At 02:38 PM 9/13/99 -0700, Don wrote:
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, James Willing wrote:
Exactly! Thanks Don.
Joe
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Joe wrote:
I think you misread his message, Jim. What he was saying was that in
addition to not booting on the CP/M disks and getting the error message,
he also got the message with a DOS disk, with no disk, and even with the
drive door open.
With all of those failure modes, it does not seem likely to me that it is
a drive problem. I played with the Osbourne Executive yesterday.
I can't get it to boot.
All it says is "boot error". It says the same thing with no disks in it,
MS DOS disks in it and with the door open so the message doesn't tell me
anything.
Well... from the description above, the first thing that comes to mind is
that the 'Executive', like all of the Osborne machines is a CP/M machine,
and will likely never run any form of MicroSquish DOS... B^}
In more general terms, the message indicates that the unit is unable to
read the boot sector(s), but without a proper set of diskettes it will be
difficult to troubleshoot reliabily... 
7:06 a.m.
head alignment?
swap the drives into another machine and see if they'll read the messydos
disks... unless the drives are weird proprietary..
jake
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Joe wrote:
I played with the Osbourne Executive yesterday. I
can't get it to boot.
All it says is "boot error". It says the same thing with no disks in it,
[snip]
12:45 p.m.
At 12:06 PM 9/13/99 -0400, Jake wrote:
head alignment?
Maybe but both drives are doing the same thing.
swap the drives into another machine and see if they'll read the messydos
disks... unless the drives are weird proprietary..
I've been told that they're different from standard drives. But I'm not
sure of that. I'm hoping that someone can tell me for sure. One problem is
that they're single sided drives so I need to find a machine that supports
SS drives. I know a PC will read and write SS disks but all the current
ones do expect the drive to be double sided.
Joe
12:25 p.m.
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Joe wrote:
At 12:06 PM 9/13/99 -0400, Jake wrote:
Well... not having had the need to pull apart any of the 'Execs' in my
collection (so far), I can only offer an observation from the earlier
Osborne machines.
The drives are mainly different in that the drive power is provided on the
same cable as the control and data signals, rather than on a seperate
cable like 'most' drives.
Without a specially configured cable (at least) it will be difficult to
operate the drives on another system. In fact, one of the disk exerciser
units I have has a special configuration block to deal with Osborne
drives.
-jim
---
jimw(a)computergarage.org || jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.computergarage.org
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
swap the drives into another machine and see if they'll read the messydos
disks... unless the drives are weird proprietary..
I've been told that they're different from standard drives. But I'm not
sure of that. I'm hoping that someone can tell me for sure. One problem is
that they're single sided drives so I need to find a machine that supports
SS drives. I know a PC will read and write SS disks but all the current
ones do expect the drive to be double sided.
2:10 p.m.
At 02:25 PM 9/13/99 -0700, Jim wrote:
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Joe wrote:
The drives in this one have a separate power connector. It's a four
conductor Molex connector exactly like the one used on the IBM PCs. That's
a good sign I guess but it sounds like I can't rob a drive out of one of my
OCC-1s.
Joe
At 12:06 PM 9/13/99 -0400, Jake wrote:
Well... not having had the need to pull apart any of the 'Execs' in my
collection (so far), I can only offer an observation from the earlier
Osborne machines.
The drives are mainly different in that the drive power is provided on the
same cable as the control and data signals, rather than on a seperate
cable like 'most' drives.
swap the drives into another machine and see if they'll read the messydos
disks... unless the drives are weird proprietary..
I've been told that they're different from standard drives. But I'm not
sure of that. I'm hoping that someone can tell me for sure. One problem is
that they're single sided drives so I need to find a machine that supports
SS drives. I know a PC will read and write SS disks but all the current
ones do expect the drive to be double sided. 
4:02 p.m.
New subject: HELP!
Can someone out there help this fellow?
He turned up at the Retro-Computing Society of RI/Rhode Island Computer
Museum's Annual Cookout Sunday, and is looking desperately for an ASR-33
paper tape punch to use on an old CNC milling machine.
tomfool(a)top.gso.uri.edu
Thanks.
4:07 p.m.
New subject: HELP!
At 09:02 PM 9/13/99 -0400, you wrote:
Can someone out there help this fellow?
He turned up at the Retro-Computing Society of RI/Rhode Island Computer
Museum's Annual Cookout Sunday, and is looking desperately for an ASR-33
paper tape punch to use on an old CNC milling machine.
The RTTY Greenkeys list at <Greenkeys(a)qth.net> might be helpful.
They tend to look down their nose at the ASR-33, which is regarded
as a lightweight consumer version of what they like to play with.
- John
2:48 p.m.
Joe
I have the tech repair manual and the thr tech ref manuals.If you need info
just ask.
The drives in the Exec are Alps which are different than the 01. 22Disk can
and maybe format that ssdd disk.
Joe wrote:
At 12:06 PM 9/13/99 -0400, Jake wrote:
head alignment?
Maybe but both drives are doing the same thing.
swap the drives into another machine and see if they'll read the messydos
disks... unless the drives are weird proprietary..
I've been told that they're different from standard drives. But I'm not
sure of that. I'm hoping that someone can tell me for sure. One problem is
that they're single sided drives so I need to find a machine that supports
SS drives. I know a PC will read and write SS disks but all the current
ones do expect the drive to be double sided.
Joe
3:44 p.m.
Joe
In the FOG library, there was a disk that explained how to convert to dsdd
drives.
There was a piece of hardware that was required. You would have to read the
doc's on the disk.
mike
Joe wrote:
I played with the Osbourne Executive yesterday. I
can't get it to boot.
All it says is "boot error". It says the same thing with no disks in it,
MS DOS disks in it and with the door open so the message doesn't tell me
anything. I tried swapping drives, reseating ICs and cables and everything
that I could think of. It booted once and I did DIR on both drives with no
problems, it almost booted several times but filled the screeen with
garbage and locked up. I tried disks from three different sets including a
set of new copies from Don Maslin so I'm sure the the disks aren't the
problem. Any ideas? Does anyone know if DS drives can be used in these?
The drives in it are ALPS SS DD. I took the drives out and checked them,
the heads and drives are clean and the speed is right. I don't think there
is anything wrong with them.
Several people have posted messages here in the past about problems with
Osbournes that wouldn't boot. Did you ever get them working? What have you
found wrong with them?
Joe
9078
days inactive
9078
days old
13 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
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at258＠osfn.org -
donm＠cts.com -
jfoust＠threedee.com -
jimw＠agora.rdrop.com -
jritorto＠nut.net -
mmcmanus＠direct.ca -
rigdonj＠intellistar.net