[cctalk] Re: MS-DOS
Well, my friend, the guns are the only thing that keep us free from tyranny! -Original Message- From: Liam Proven via cctalk Sent: Saturday, 3 August, 2024 13:09 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Cc: Liam Proven Subject: [cctalk] Re: MS-DOS Yes, that's what I remembered, but I wasn't sure. Never been there, not remotely familiar with the geography. TBH I thought El Cap was in Yosemite and Yosemite was in Wyoming, but on Googling, I think I was mixing up Yosemite and Yellowstone. TBH I never consciously realised before that they were 2 different places. Not my country, not my continent. I've lived in Africa, 3 different countries in Europe, spent a lot of time and speak the languages of 4 more, but America is far off and largely unknown to me -- a frightening semi-theocracy with guns and no healthcare. -- Liam Proven
[cctalk] Re: MS-DOS
As I recall, it was W2K which allowed you to change the IP without reboot - one of my favorite features of that OS (and beyond). -Original Message- From: Tony Jones via cctalk Sent: Wednesday, 31 July, 2024 01:26 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Cc: Tony Jones Subject: [cctalk] Re: MS-DOS On Tue, Jul 30, 2024, 10:14 PM Jim Brain via cctalk wrote: > > I remember using 3.1, 4.0, and 2000. As I recall, I loved the > stability of 3.1, but the UI was old and outdated, especially when 95 came > out. > 4.0 offered the nicer UI, but the driver situation was still a > problem, I forget at which NT release you could do advanced things like changing the IP address without needing to reboot :-).
[cctalk] Re: FWIW CD & DVD demagnitizitation [was: Double Density 3.5" Floppy Disks]
I recall an ad for a 'double-helix, special' 6-foot power cord going for $500 (or more) claiming that it would make your main power amplifier sound better with better mains power - that's about the time I started calling them "audio-fools" A quick search of these revealed a power cord at 2.5 meters going for $27,000 from Siltech Cables or a Nordost Odin Gold power cord of 1.25 meters for $35,000 in a review from November, 2021. I guess I am in the wrong business (or am too honest!) -Original Message- From: Johan Helsingius via cctalk Sent: Wednesday, 8 May, 2024 02:13 To: cctalk@classiccmp.org Cc: Johan Helsingius Subject: [cctalk] Re: FWIW CD & DVD demagnitizitation [was: Double Density 3.5" Floppy Disks] On 08/05/2024 05:53, Tony Duell via cctalk wrote: > [1] Apparently there's a slogan on the wall of the QUAD workshop > 'Ohm's Law rules here. Oxygen-free cable is not required' That would have been back when Quad was run by Peter J. Walker who was a no-nonsense engineer. Unfortunately the company is owned by IAG Group (Shenzen, China) and has resorted to more "audiophile" oriented marketing. As to real audiophile scams, there are companies making "audiophile" ethernet switches and even special, very expensive linear power supplies for ethernet switches for those audiophiles who have switched to streaming music. Oh, and audiophile USB cables... Julf
[cctalk] Re: Old Professional/350 software, any of this out there
Hi Chris, I have images of Pro/Venix 1.0 and 2.0 (for the 380) with the serial generator. I'll have the _check_ though. Best, -John Starting to go through my boxes of POS stuff. I know of course that 3.2 is out there (minus the Pro/Communications option which has a bad disk in the distro) however are these disks out there now? Pro/Venix 1.0 on floppies POS V2.0a on floppies POS version 1.5 (with test diskette, maintenance application, a thing called Pro/Pre labelled "Diskette system", system overview and instruction disks) POS V1.7 (I have that here somewhere) Pro/Basic Version 1.0 and 1.2 SPSS/X For Professional (this is a really interesting one, anyone heard of this?) If so let me know and I won't copy them. If not I'll go over to the mighty Deskpro/XE and start sucking the data off for archives Thanks! Chris (Hoping to find old drivers or scaffolding or something that will give me a hint into how DEC ported POS)
[cctalk] Re: Need a 1.2mb 5.25 floppy
Hi Chris, I had a bunch of 1.2Mb 5-1/4" drives that, unfortunately, may have been discarded over the past year. I mainly hung on to all of the 360K FDDs that I came across, which are more difficult to find. I know that I still have some NOS 1.2Mb units (never been powered up, but also not taken out of their original plastic bags either.) I bought these new from a local computer store (still in business, but now doing mostly consulting work, unfortunately) many years ago (early 2000's) to support some clients that used them. I have (or had) used, tested 1.2Mb drives also. Alas, I am near Buffalo, NY and not too close to MD, but am willing to pack and ship. I see from the replies that I have read that nobody has offered drives. If you are still interested, I can look up the models of the units that I still have and from which I can part. Best, -John -Original Message- From: Chris Zach via cctalk Sent: Sunday, 26 February, 2023 19:42 To: CCTalk mailing list Cc: Chris Zach Subject: [cctalk] Need a 1.2mb 5.25 floppy Oi. So after finally getting things going I started copying the Pro/380 OS files to a bunch of 1.2mb floppies. Great. However after a bit I started getting errors, and found that the disks were getting gouges in the tracks. Sure enough disassembly of my 1.2mb Teac showed that debris had become embedded in the disk head and cleaning is not possible. Terrific. Tossing the drive, this is not the first time I have had this problem with these disks so I am dumpstering all of the old floppies and just bought 40 new ones in sealed boxes. However I'm now in need of a 1.2mb floppy drive. Anyone have a good working spare that I can beg/borrow/buy in the MD area? Thanks! CZ (I really should have pitched these disks; they came from a basement with an oil heater for 20 years and are quite honestly garbage. Only thing worse were disks from Solarex which literally had silicon dust on them that chewed any drive. Oh well, live and learn)
[cctalk] Re: IBM PS/2 Model 80 (8580-071) restoration
>On 3/9/23 10:16 AM, John Maxwell wrote: >> Nowhere do I see any mention of a Model 80 Reference Disk. If you >> don't have one of these, you will not be able to configure the machine. >Yep. I'm well aware. This is not my 1st PS/2 rodeo. I actually cut my teeth >on used PS/2s in the mid-90s. >> I _should_ have a copy of one lying around (or already >>imaged/archived) >> - the main problem is finding the ADF (Adaptor Description Files) for >> the added features/cards. >The usual suspects in the comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware newsgroup have already >provided links to some ADF files for what they assume the boards likely are >based >on my descriptions. >Aside: I thought that ADF was short for Auto Definition File. But I can see >how Adapter works too. >> My copy of the Reference Disk would not likely have any ADFs from >> obscure cards, but should have the common files. >Based on my descriptions, the presumption is that I've got a standard (for the >model 80) ESDI controller, an 8514/A video card, and an IBM 386 Memory >Expansion >Adapter. I don't consider those to be too exotic. [snip] >I'm always interested in growing my ADF collection. :-) Is there a repository to where I can upload diskette images? What format is in widespread use these days? I use DiskImage (Ver5) and Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk (Ver1.17) - both work well. I seem to recall that DiskImage is a commercial product and ImageDisk is still available for free. >> ADFs were text files with descriptions of hardware addresses and the >> like. >That sounds like what I remember. >> Not sure of what you mean by 'Rifas' in the last question. Probably an >> acronym or other abbreviation of something I may know about, but >> nothing comes to my foggy brain presently. >My understanding is that RIFA is a brand of capacitor which had a model like >which is notorious for failing after time and they seemed to be common in the >'90s. Not sure that IBM would use cheap *anything* in their equipment. [snip] >*nod* That's what I was referring to as sticktion. A word of warning, the "inertial rotation" procedure was great for smaller drives, but you may break your arm applying this to an ESDI :-) >I don't know the state of the bearings. Is there anything that I can or >should do for them? Aside from dismantling the drive, not really. Just cross your fingers and pray. Usually not a problem. I have an ST225 which had been powered off for two decades and it came up fine in my DEC Rainbow! >> The battery used is one of the old 6V photoflash types (cannot recall >> the model, unfortunately). I have a few of them left in my collection >> - just ran into them in a box (with 2 or 3 left) a few months ago. >> Each still had over 6v (no load) at the terminals. No idea how long >> they would last in application under load, though, even though the >> Model >> 80 didn't use too much current to hold things in config memory. >ACK >My assumption is that the Model 80 has been powered off for years, if not a >decade or more. It's on the older end of a five computers I picked up from >someone >who wanted them hauled away. I'm not holding my breath that they >powered the PS/2 on anytime in the last decade. ;-) It is my belief that these batteries should still be available from somewhere. If I think of it when I get home, I'll dig out the box and relay the model number. Provided that the box is still where I remember. >> Just my $0.02 (not even sure it was worth that much). Good luck with >> your 80. >Thank you. You're sharing things that seem familiar. Which is appreciated >because it means that my memory isn't that far out of calibration or bit rot.
[cctalk] Re: IBM PS/2 Model 80 (8580-071) restoration
On 9-Mar-23 10h36. Grant Taylor wrote: >On 3/9/23 6:20 AM, Bill Degnan wrote: >> First and foremost, try to boot the computer to make note of the >> configuration, if there is one still stored in the system. Nowhere do I see any mention of a Model 80 Reference Disk. If you don't have one of these, you will not be able to configure the machine. I _should_ have a copy of one lying around (or already imaged/archived) - the main problem is finding the ADF (Adaptor Description Files) for the added features/cards. My copy of the Reference Disk would not likely have any ADFs from obscure cards, but should have the common files. Let me know if you need a copy. I recall that I had a 'master diskette' with many collected ADFs which came through the lab. Would have to look for that one, if interested. ADFs were text files with descriptions of hardware addresses and the like. >Hum. That sort of surprises me. I naively assumed that there would be some >work that I should do before powering the system on to make sure that there >>weren't any spicy components that would make me regret my choices. Did IBM >not use Rifas? Is there any other hardware concerns? Not sure of what you mean by 'Rifas' in the last question. Probably an acronym or other abbreviation of something I may know about, but nothing comes to my foggy brain presently. >I am somewhat worried about stiction on the old hard drives. "Stiction" is probably not your biggest concern regarding the hard drives. The real problem could be stuck bearings - depending upon HDD model installed. "Stiction" is the condition where the spindle motor did not have enough torque to free the head from the platter surfaces - the drives used in all of the PS/2 Model 80 machines that we saw were beefy enough to overcome any "stiction" condition. We, in the repair lab (years ago, of course), used to see this on the original Apple Mac SE and SE/30 machines where a Sony 20Mb drive was used (the model number has long since been forgotten and is irrelevant to our discussion, of course) but we used to give them assistance to last a couple of startups (or at least one!) for backing up data by using our "inertial rotation" technique to physically spin the drive using hand motion. We would (wrist-strap grounded, of course) grab with our free arm the drive in axial alignment over the spindle and rotate the drive a few times around back and forth in a snapping action. 95% of the time it would work to retrieve the data before we would RMA the drive back to Apple. >But I tend to not work on systems this old that have been sitting for a long >time often enough to know what I should check. >I'm guessing this system is from about a decade (or more) before failing >capacitors were common place on ... economy systems. >> I don't expect the battery to have held the config but there is always >> hope. >Agreed. >This is far from my first time working with IBM PS/2s, so the lack of a >configuration isn't a big concern to me. I'm well aware of reference disks / >option disks / >convenience partitions on models that support them. >> Make detailed notes if you're lucky enough to have the configs saved. >> Otherwise get a new battery before you do anything or you'll be >> spinning your wheels. >It's been just long enough since the last time I worked on a PS/2 that I can't >remember if the battery was required at any power off or just power removed >from >the PSU. I've had different systems behavie differently in this regard >with a dead BIOS battery. The battery used is one of the old 6V photoflash types (cannot recall the model, unfortunately). I have a few of them left in my collection - just ran into them in a box (with 2 or 3 left) a few months ago. Each still had over 6v (no load) at the terminals. No idea how long they would last in application under load, though, even though the Model 80 didn't use too much current to hold things in config memory. Just my $0.02 (not even sure it was worth that much). Good luck with your 80.
[cctalk] Re: Q-BUS Boards available
Hi David, If still available, I'd like the uVII RAM and CPU and SCSI adapter. Any interest in shipping to the USA? I'd pay for freight. I have been looking for a Qbus SCSI adapter for a while now. Even if that's the only item that you are sending. Thanks, -John -Original Message- From: David Coolbear via cctalk Sent: Friday, 3 February, 2023 16:48 To: cctalk@classiccmp.org Cc: David Coolbear Subject: [cctalk] Q-BUS Boards available I have the following Q-BUS boards available. M7168 VCB02, QDSS Q 4-plane colour bitmap module M7169 VCB02, QDSS Q 4-plane video controller module M7608 MS630 RAM for KA630 M7608 MS630 RAM for KA630 M7606 KA630 Microvax II CPU M7620 KA650 Q MicroVAX III CPU M7165 Qbus SDI disk adapter I also have a Smoke Signal Broadcasting, dual 8" floppy set and a SS50 bus controller for the same. All are available for pick-up in Queen Creek, AZ, USA. If there's no interest, all will go to recycling.
[cctalk] Re: 68k textbooks
During my college years, I took a very interesting 68000 course/lab where the lecture-instructor used Lance Levinthal's "68000 Assembly Language Programming" book. While it wasn't a required text, I bought a used copy and it was most helpful in understanding the internals of the processor. Our lab textbook was by Antonakos, I believe - unless I am thinking of the 68HC11 course/lab that I took. Too many years ago to keep it all straight! Best of luck and may God bless, -John -Original Message- From: Chris via cctalk Sent: Thursday, 26 January, 2023 14:25 To: cctalk@classiccmp.org Cc: skogkatt...@yahoo.com Subject: [cctalk] 68k textbooks I have a few scanned somewhere. I always kimd of liked Douglas Halls Microprocessors and Interfacing: Programming and Hardware for 80x86. It's a large format textbook. There is a 68000 version which I don't have. Curious what textbooks other can recommend. As I said I scanned at least 2, maybe 3 some time ago. The Antonakos book seemed to stand out. https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2F68000-Microprocessor-Hardware-Principles-Applications%2Fdp%2F0136681204&data=05%7C01%7Cmaxwell%40buffalo.edu%7C205934ca7d024440659108daffd30cc9%7C96464a8af8ed40b199e25f6b50a20250%7C0%7C0%7C638103579171222780%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=8Voh98%2F5ol5Z9knqLJLfeYkqUnjLPZe2FmPEoKZ0dhQ%3D&reserved=0
