• Hello MLAers! We've re-enabled auto-approval for accounts. If you are still waiting on account approval, please check this thread for more information.

Micro-Channel Quadra 950 Liberated for $19.99 . . .

Well if you are patient enough and the system isn't as cranky as it wants to be, you can get the sysem booting and run one of those fancy programs that along with the system info, also tell you what the CPU is. I'm pretty sure that with the basics you can scrounge up a reference diskette from the MCA Mafia.

 
I'm not sure on the monitor - I have a PS/2 monitor that goes with it but it's not even close to functional. I found lots of pine needles and rust inside when I opened it so I'm guessing it sat outside in the rain for a period of time.

My PS/2 did not come with any disk, nor does the disk drive spin or turn on its activity light. As far as I can tell, the power supply appears to work fine. I tried hooking a bench top DC supply in place of the battery and it made no difference.

 
When I booted mine into the error codes when I first got it, I was using the 17" Sony Trinitron Multiscan200ES from my son's MediaCenter/HomeWorkstation. It had no problem with the 30Hz Interlaced signal, unfortunately I missed the link Unknown_K posted:

http://www.walshcomptech.com/selectpccbbs/rf7080a.zip <== Reference disk for a normal Model 80.
I downloaded it a day or two ago, tonight I'm just going to jury-rig a Lantern Battery or a 4 AA Holder to see if that get the hulking WildThing™ back to the error code stage again.

Otherwise, I'm thinking Capacitors. :p

Very strange circuit for the battery and speaker . . . there's a clean positive line that went unused (or that's what it looks like) and they jumpered the black lead from the speaker to the positive side of the battery. Maybe that's intended to induce the clicks from the speaker in situations like ours . . . dunno, that's a WAG.

I've got a real yen to get Dos 6.xx & Win 3.1 running on the thing for old times sake. The original Corel Draw, MSWorks for DOS and Missile Command beckon from two or three lifetimes ago.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to fire up the compressor and play with the air drills to do some spot weld eradication on the front HDD cage to make room for my Dual Core ATOM NetTop Board! It's been a year and a month since my grlf bought it for my birthday . . .

. . . and it's never been booted other than from an ubuntu CD in ill-fated installation attempts. :-/

 
If the system is taking the reference diskette and giving the same errors, you didn't hack on the new battery correctly. PS/2 systems so far seem pretty reliable as for caps. The exception being the floppy drives which love to drop dead when they want.

 
Haven't tried anything yet except to scour eBay for more goodies, haven't made up the reference disk. Did a wash and now I'm going to bed, I may try the battery hack in the AM. [}:)] ]'>

 
Lantern battery from my "under desk" flashlight didn't work, I got the same speaker effect as the dying Lithium pack. I'll see if I can pick up the correct battery, buy a new 6V monster or find one of my 4 AA holders to try again tonight.

 
THX, ordered one, maybe it'll be here by the time I get back from my parent's 60th Anniversary/Reunion . . . meanwhile . . . [}:)] ]'>

 
I tried fresh AAs in a CrapShack four cell holder and it didn't budge, same noise from the speakers . . .

. . . this morning I found that I got the same sound with no battery at all!

Time to put this away until the new Battery arrives.

The NetTop board hack is too easy and I don't feel like keeping this thing underneath/next to my main desk . . .

. . . it's back to the CD SC or some other smallish box for the ATOMICnetTop. :-/

 
What in the world could this be? It sounds like it could have the same problem mine has.

One thing I never tested was the power rail at the processor and ROM for voltage and noise. This is a very old machine and may have dried up caps or something. I never found any cap leakage on mine.

 
Back
Top