Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!sumax!thebes!happym!rwing!nanook
From: nanook@rwing.UUCP (Robert Dinse)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy
Subject: Re: Thanks!
Summary: 12/16
Message-ID: <137@rwing.UUCP>
Date: 1 Sep 90 06:36:08 GMT
References: <5730@plains.NoDak.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Totally Unorganized
Lines: 59

In article <5730@plains.NoDak.edu>, blee@plains.NoDak.edu (blee) writes:
> After much fussing I was able to get the '12' to format the drive and install
> Xenix 1.3. today I will work on 3.01.05.

     To run 3.00.00 or later you need to have the "PAL" chip upgrade done
on the CPU card, if you can run 3.02.00 do so. They cleaned up so many
problems that existed in earlier versions. A word of warning, the upgrade
installation instructions accompanying 3.02.00 say that it isn't necessary
to reformat the hard drives. Do so, it has been my experience that performance
is actually >worse< under 3.02.00 if you don't but there is a noticable
improvement if you do.

> boot on the disk the '12' says:
> 
> System 96k User 672k
> 

     This machine has 768k installed (3 256k cards).
     If you can get a 1-meg card, just changing a strap on the CPU will
bring you up from 6 Mhz to 8 Mhz.

> and the '16' says:
> 
> System 96k User 162k

     This machine only has 1 256k card in it. Not really enough to be useful.
I've got 2 megs on Eskimo North right now and that's really too tight. I'm
looking for a reasonably priced 4-meg board ($1000 is too much!) still.

> This means ram right?  I have been saying '12' since that is what the box
> says, but Xenix boots (and RUNS!).  Any comments?

     Yes, you do have a 68000 card in there. Try booting a 3.xx.xx disk to
see if you have the PAL chip upgrade or not. If you do, go to 3.02.00.
And yes, it means RAM.

> Ok, next question... how do I figure out exactly what hardware I have?
> The 12 says nothing anywhere about having a 68000, but it obviously does,
> and I would like to know what kind of expansion I can do with a few ram
> chips.

     Easiest way I know is to take the cover off and physically look and
see what cards are in the card cage.

     On another note: I'm still interested in putting a large drive on the
SCSI interface, so far the only lead I've gotten is a name of someone who
has done it, whom I've written to but gotten no response. I'm also interested
in the 3.5 inch drive (or even 5-1/4 would be better than 8 inch), so I'd
be interested if someone has figured out how to do that.

     Lastly, has anyone experienced problems with port lock-ups on the
multi-port interface cards and found a solution. I know three people aside
from myself running dial-up systems with these and they are all experiencing
the same trouble and to date I haven't found a solution. Tandy has recommended
half a dozen wiring configurations and suggested it's a hardware problem even
though I've tried three different machines, three different cards and know
three people other than myself who are also experiencing this problem. It's
not new to 3.02.00, it's been a problem since the earlier 1.02.xx at least.
Also it does not happen on the two internal ports, they work fine.