Tower 16/32 Help Sought
Anthony Clifton
get to run and am having troubles with. Let me describe the
symptoms, system architecture etc and I'd appreciate it if anyone
could offer advice, information or sympathy. =)
1. By connecting a terminal to Port B I can use the ROM diagnostics.
These diagnostics have been used, by me, to test the various components
of the system and assure me that everything is working fine. No
hardware errors, software errors or anything are reported.
2. Physical description:
68010L Processor
about a meg of ram installed
one hard disk, one floppy disk installed (both working)
regular 8 port serial board
multi protocol communications adaptor
working (since I replaced it) battery backup
3. Now here's what happens...let me give two examples:
Step a. Connect terminal to Port 0
b. Turn on machine, in auto mode
c. Some text gets spewed to the screen saying
what operating system it is, how much memory is
available, when the OS was genned, etc
d. Nothing further happens, no login: prompt,
nothing...trying the terminal on different ports
has no effect.
In addition, my limited understanding is that the Communications
LED on the front panel should either glow or flash to indicate
polling of the serial ports. This does not occur, the LED
stays off.
Now at first I thought this might be just a reinstall needed, but read
on.
Step a. Connect terminal to Port B (diagnostics)
b. From menu select load
c. Load ANYTHING from the hard drive or from
diskette (/install from install disk, /diag from
diagnostics disk, /unix from a bootable disk)
d. Poof! Nothing again!
Let me be more specific. Let's say I load /unix from h501 (hard drive).
It'll do the exact SAME messages as in auto mode (by the way to be in
the ROM diagnostics menu, I'm in manual mode)...it'll gibber about it
being NCR Tower Unix, AT&T such and such and so on...finally it'll say
how much memory is available, for user programs, and the maximum program
size allowable.
At this point, nothing further happens. No login: prompt, nothing.
If I do /install from the install disks, it'll load the install
file system, get about to the point (I'd guess) where it wants to
throw a prompt on the screen, and die similarly.
Now for more information (enough already! =)...ok just a little more:
1. I'm using the NCR cable for connecting its funky serial ports to
a normal terminal. The terminal I'm using is an ADM 5, which seem
pretty happy in displaying the ROM diagnostics menus etc.
2. I've gone through and made sure that switch settings on boards
were identical to those in the installation books. I have a full set
of manuals and diskettes for the thing. I actually have the equivalent
of three of these towers. However, I've only gotten one to work since
the other two processor boards appear to have problems. One of the
other towers has the tape interface and the expansion cabinet with the
tape drive...and I've got system tape backups for later if I can ever
get this one beast to run.
Any and all help will be VERY MUCH appreciated! =) Please email me
with anything you think might help.
Thanks
Anthony Clifton
Clifton Digital Resources
Des Moines, Iowa
Patrick Bartkus
>I have a Tower 16/32 (Model 3400?) circa 1983 that I'm trying to
>get to run and am having troubles with.
>3. Now here's what happens...let me give two examples:
> Step a. Connect terminal to Port 0
> b. Turn on machine, in auto mode
> c. Some text gets spewed to the screen saying
> what operating system it is, how much memory is
> available, when the OS was genned, etc
> d. Nothing further happens, no login: prompt,
> nothing...trying the terminal on different ports
> has no effect.
I used to support these old beauties. This was a common problem if I remember
right. The system is looking to shoot it's single-user mode login to the other
diagnostics port, Port A.
Try plugging your terminal in there and booting.
> In addition, my limited understanding is that the Communications
> LED on the front panel should either glow or flash to indicate
> polling of the serial ports. This does not occur, the LED
> stays off.
The communications light only lit if you were running SNA, X.25 or BISYNC
through a MPCA or CPC port. It otherwise stays unlit.
Patrick M Bartkus ISS Department
Patrick...@ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM AT&T GIS Columbia
(803) 791-6769 V/P 632-6769
If truth were not absolute, how could there be justice?
William Fang
have 1mb RAM boards, 32/600 motherboards, communications boards,
everything except the power and case (too heavy to mail from Australia),
for the nominal price of Aus$3 (have to pay the pizza shop for new
boxes and the post office for bubble-wrap to pack the parts in,) a part
and postage (whatever that comes to).
eg. 1 motherboard = 1 box
1 ram board = 1 box
1 communications card = 1 box
-------
3 boxes = A$9 + postage.
Or US$9 if you're feeling generous + postage.
Pay on delivery if you want, but don't order too much or I won't be able
to pay to ship it!
So you can upgrade from 68010 to 68020 power! ;-)
- Jim
William Fang
I have *LOTS* of 32/600 16mhz Towers and bits to get rid of. You can
have 1mb RAM boards, 32/600 motherboards, communications boards,
everything except the power and case (too heavy to mail from Australia),
for the nominal price of Aus$3 (have to pay the pizza shop for new
boxes and the post office for bubble-wrap to pack the parts in,) a part
and postage (whatever that comes to).
eg. 1 motherboard = 1 box
1 ram board = 1 box
1 communications card = 1 box
-------
3 boxes = A$9 + postage.
Or US$9 if you're feeling generous + postage.
Aus$1 = US$0.66
= 0.50 pounds sterling (approx)
POSTAGE CHARGES: (at cost)
US UK
Zone 4 Zone 5
Air mail A$37.00 41.00
Over 1kg, Economy Air 27.00 29.00
up to 2kg Sea Mail 19.00 19.00
Air mail 50.00 56.00
Over 2kg, Economy Air 35.00 38.00
up to 3kg Sea Mail 23.00 23.00
Air mail 63.00 71.00
Over 3kg, Economy Air 43.00 47.00
up to 4kg Sea Mail 27.00 27.00
Each extra Air mail 13.00 15.00
1kg up to Economy Air 8.00 9.00
20kg Sea Mail 4.00 4.00
Motherboard 1.40 kg 0.70 kg packaging
HSPIO board 0.80 kg 0.40 kg packaging
MSD board 0.80 kg 0.40 kg packaging
1 MB ram boards 0.50 kg 0.40 kg packaging
Aus$3 per board/box, postage at cost price. You'll have to prepay
if you want anything apart from sea-mail, as I don't have hundreds
of *AUSTRALIAN* dollars lying around to spend at the post office.
So if you want any NCR 32/600 tower-parts, motherboards, backplanes,
Mass-storage device driver boards, HSPIO boards, etc, drop me a line.
I can be contacted on voice on +61-3-8789125, *Australian* Eastern
Standard time, between 8am and 9pm weekdays, 9am - 11pm on weekends.
If you have any ideas on how to send something to you and you pay
postage, I'd be interested. Do UPS have accounts for Australia
to US pickups?
All boards were/are in working condition, with each machine only
failing the battery test (the towers have been turned off for the
last 6months). I'd prefer they were put to some use, instead of
being turned into land-fill. If you want a part or cables, etc,
please be descriptive with what exactly you want shipped to you.
Any profits after postage and packaging will be donated to charity.
- Jim
William Fang
: I have *LOTS* of 32/600 16mhz Towers and bits to get rid of. You can
: have 1mb RAM boards, 32/600 motherboards, communications boards,
: everything except the power and case (too heavy to mail from Australia),
: for the nominal price of Aus$3 (have to pay the pizza shop for new
: boxes and the post office for bubble-wrap to pack the parts in,) a part
: and postage (whatever that comes to).
These are all gone, apart from one system. It's for a Doctor Padds
from the UK. I lost your e-mail address, so please drop me a line if
you still want it, so I can work out air-mail/sea-mail costs, etc.
Though, I think most of them were busted up for the 68020 instead
of being used ;( I'd prefer more 32/600 users and software ;()
- Jim
(using brother's account)