Rom BASIC for AT&T 6300

[Jon Kadilak]

Hello all,

I have a AT&T 6300 that I use sometimes, and when I start it up, it
usually says:

Rom BASIC not available
please press reset to re-boot...

Then I have to wait for it to warm up, and then it will start. Is there
anything I can do about this? Is there some kind of program that will fix
this? I know it's a stupid question, but any help would be appreciated.

-Jon

[Jim Royer]

Sounds like there is a problem with teh boot record on your hard drive. I'd
backup all the data on the hard drive, do a low level format, repartition,
high-level format and reload your apps and data. While you may be able to get
away with doing the FDISK /MBR routinne it sounds like your HD internals are
drifting when heated. To be safe I'd rebiuld the whole thing.

Jim Royer

jro...@comm.lts.aetc.af.mil
Comments and opinions expressed above are my own and
do not necessarily reflect the position of the U.S. Air Force.

[j...@olivetti.dk]

In article <3tknu4$r...@sundog.tiac.net> kad...@tiac.net (Jon Kadilak) writes:
>Hello all,
>
>
>I have a AT&T 6300 that I use sometimes, and when I start it up, it
>usually says:
>
>Rom BASIC not available
>please press reset to re-boot...
>
>Then I have to wait for it to warm up, and then it will start. Is there
>anything I can do about this? Is there some kind of program that will fix
>this? I know it's a stupid question, but any help would be appreciated.
>

>-Jon
>

The machine tries to start the "Build-in ROM-Basic" (which is actually
not present) as a last resort.

First the machine tries to boot from the floppy.
If there is no floppy, it tries to boot from the harddisk.
If there is no harddisk, it tries to boot from the serial-port.
If there is nothing connected to the serial-port, it tries to boot the "Build-in ROM Basic".

If the machine will boot after some warming-up, it's usually because the harddisk
has problems spinning up!
This can be because the spindle is dirtied up or that it's simple warn out.

It's an olde bugger!

[Gerry Kroll]

In article <DBHrH...@olivetti.dk>, j...@olivetti.dk says...

Right. You might try Spinrite from Gibson Research. This _commercial_
program is very good at resurrecting old hard drives. It can even do a
low-level format with the data in place. It seems to me that a low-level
format is in order here. Failing that, you might have to replace the hard
drive.

Does this PC boot up OK when you have a bootable floppy installed? If not,
then there's something more serious wrong with it. I don't know what that
might be.

Good luck.
Gerry Kroll
PWGSC Netowrk Infrastructure Directorate
Public Works & Government Services Canada
2A1, Portage III
11 Laurier Street
HULL, PQ
Canada K1A 0S5