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Free! 2 x AT&T PC 6300 w/ KB, CRT

Yes, they're 360k. There's a jumper somewhere that lets you use them as 720k, but I've never touched it.

The original Mouse Systems drivers will let you arrow around. I'm not sure where to find them, though.

Note that the two systems have different ROM versions. One will run DOS 3.30; the other needs 3.10. You could probably dump the ROM from one and load it on the other if you're feeling adventurous.

You can download raw floppy images here: https://sites.google.com/site/att6300shrine/Home/downloads
And then you can write them with rawrite: http://www.chrysocome.net/rawwrite
Or just DD on linux.

If you still need that zip file to work, try 7-Zip: http://www.7-zip.org/
 
I managed to find those floppy images on that site, I'm going to get them written using my 486 once I get Win32s installed on it (want to use WinImage because I have a couple of 5.35" floppies to dump).
 
OK. Man, I can't remember the last time I ran something on Win32s. Good luck. :)
 
A couple of comments:

1. The 48/96 tpi selection does less than most people think. The stock drive in a PC6300 is a 360K drive. However, it does have the capability to support 720K drives--and that's what the switch is for. So you can't use it as-is on your system unless you also change the drives.

2. Try the attached utility. It runs in DOS and it's what I used. Do use a 360K drive to write the floppies--or degauss the blanks before you write them on a 1.2MB drive. The question of 96tpi-written floppies being read by 48 tpi drives has been discussed to death in this forum, so I won't bore you.

I found the 3.3 floppies to be the most complete. There are also a clock fix driver in the SIMTEL archives for the 6300.

One thing that you'll want to do pretty soon is pop the bottom cover off the system and check the clock battery to make sure it's not leaking. It's a rechargeable NiCD unit and most that I've seen have sprung a leak. Fortunately, the motherboard is mounted upside-down, so the goop from the battery tends to fall away from the motherboard onto the bottom cover. But you'll want to change the battery out eventually. When you do this, be careful that the speaker hasn't come loose (it's attached to the motherboard with double-stick foam tape). If allowed to move around, eventually it'll sever its leads, sometimes irreparably.
 

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During my 25 years with those two machines (about half of which they were in daily use) I never had a copy of AT&T's modified DOS. (Well, I had 2.11, but I needed 3.x features). I had to enter the date and time every time I turned them on. Not that it would have done much good since I didn't have the Y1991 fix either. :)

The batteries hadn't exploded as of a couple years ago, but they probably wore out long ago and could use replacement.

I'm impressed how much you know about these. How many have you had? :)
 
I opened them last night and no leaking batteries, however I did notice that they were rechargables. I'm working on finding a way to get a hard drive in at least one of these so I can have a way of running an OS other than loading off floppies.

I'll be sure to pull one of the 360k drives and write using that since it's not too hard to swap a floppy.
 
keepiru said:
I'm impressed how much you know about these. How many have you had? :)
Click to expand...

I've worked on a few over the years, but never owned one until recently. But darn--you could've saved me a bunch of time, I'll bet. With 25 years of exposure to these things, I'll bet you could take a bushel of ICs and some perfboard and assemble one from memory.

I'll bet that you've already reversed engineered the PALs on the machine. I've had to work from the schematics and borrow one to replace the missing video PAL on mine.

I've still got issues with the monochrome monitor not displaying. In your experience, where should I look first?
 
Had 'em since they were new. :)

Nah, I don't know them all that well. I'm a software guy, and that's where I spent all my time hacking. Hardware is just a hobby, and I didn't really get into it until after these were retired. They were more reliable than any other computer I ever had... I remember something going in one of the power supplies once, but it was something trivial to fix, maybe a diode. Other than that I don't think I've ever done more than clean them and reseat the chips a couple times.

I never had a mono monitor so I don't know any specifics. I do know they pull power through the video card. I'd work from there... Make sure it's sending power and good signal, then open up the monitor and take a scope to it. Assuming the flyback is good, just start tracing H / V / Z... One of those is getting lost somewhere before the glowing thing, so just follow them until you find where they dead end.
 
Well, neither are pulling power through the video card, but the one does work great. One must have a defect A: drive since it won't boot any disk (or write for that matter) but the other loaded an old game perfectly, and in color! Not sure what the game is though, the disk is labled "GATO" :/.
 
keepiru said:
I never had a mono monitor so I don't know any specifics. I do know they pull power through the video card. I'd work from there... Make sure it's sending power and good signal, then open up the monitor and take a scope to it. Assuming the flyback is good, just start tracing H / V / Z... One of those is getting lost somewhere before the glowing thing, so just follow them until you find where they dead end.
Click to expand...

It's pulling power and the CRT filament is lit. I suspect either the FBT or the HOT. Will know more when I get a chance. The FBT looks like a very special item--not your usual 15.75 KHz job.
 
Compgeke said:
Well, neither are pulling power through the video card, but the one does work great. One must have a defect A: drive since it won't boot any disk (or write for that matter) but the other loaded an old game perfectly, and in color! Not sure what the game is though, the disk is labled "GATO" :/.
Click to expand...

The power through the video cable trick was only on the mono monitors. The color ones have a conventional cord.

I think I mentioned the floppy in a PM. One of them was a little flaky when I tried it a couple years ago. Some disks worked, some didn't. It might just need a good cleaning. Compressed air would be a good start. As you saw, those machines collected some serious dust the last few years. Failing all else you can just swap A: for B: .

If you're going to mix and match parts, I'd suggest focusing on the one with the flip-up floppies. It's the newer one and generally in better shape. I think it's an '86, and the one with the rotate-sideways floppies is an '85. The newer one has the ROM that handles DOS 3.3. That will matter if you plan to add a HD. 3.1 only supported 32MB partitions, whereas 3.3 did something larger.

GATO? http://www.mobygames.com/game/gato/screenshots
 
Ok, explains why the one wouldn't boot the DOS 3.30 floppy disk.

That GATO game in those pictures is the EXACT same thing I've got here, only mine lacks the loading screen and it runs on PC computers. The version of DOS on the GATO disk is IBM DOS 2.0.

Edit: If I would've looked down I would've seen that there are also the DOS screen shots there...
 
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