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Lots of PS/2 problems.

G

generic486

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2012
Messages
290
Location
Australia
The Model 65SX I acquired has lots of issues. I hope I get the system to boot without errors. I normally get either a 162 or a 163 on boot even though I have performed the mod on the Dallas Clock Chip and gone though the reference disk lots of times. The battery itself is working fine at 3V.
The next problem I get is sometimes, I try and reset the computer using Ctrl Alt Del and the system hangs wether with the Num Lock light on or off.
Just now, I got, out of the blue a 203 error, a 201 error and a 164. Don't know know what is going on.
Also every time I boot, one the SCSI drives doesn't work and gives me this error "0210607U 511F" and when I go to fix the problem with the reference disk it says that the SCSI HDD is a 27MB but it is a 60MB drive. The errors are erratic and change each time I boot.
 
No external floppy is connected.
The machine originally had 2MB of RAM, 1 1.44MB floppy and one 60 MB SCSI Drive with "Tribble" card (recoginised as 27MB). However, I upgraded this quite a bit by adding in another 2MB of RAM for a total of 4MB, another 1.44MB floppy drive (which also doesn't work) and another 60MB SCSI Drive with Tribble card (this one is recognised as 60MB though). I had a spare mainboard, so I slotted it in and the same errors appear for the most part except when I restart, it doesn't hang anymore.
 
generic486 said:
No external floppy is connected.
The machine originally had 2MB of RAM, 1 1.44MB floppy and one 60 MB SCSI Drive with "Tribble" card (recoginised as 27MB). However, I upgraded this quite a bit by adding in another 2MB of RAM for a total of 4MB, another 1.44MB floppy drive (which also doesn't work) and another 60MB SCSI Drive with Tribble card (this one is recognised as 60MB though). I had a spare mainboard, so I slotted it in and the same errors appear for the most part except when I restart, it doesn't hang anymore.
Click to expand...
Back to basics, my friend. Pull everything except for the base 2MB memory and the original 1.44mb floppy drive. Then run your reference disk and see if you can get it to boot successfully with that configuration (ignore the RTC clock error for now). If you can get it to boot successfully with that configuration, keep adding ONE expansion/upgrade at a time, running the reference disk with each addition, until you get an error. If you can't get the system to boot with the base 2mb configuration, then you've a possible memory error - swap in some new chips and start over.

Of course the fact that you're hanging on the original motherboard and not on the spare is a cause for concern, but I would still go with this methodology.
 
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Well, I got the system down to base configuration with only one stick of RAM and nothing else but the mobo, 1 floppy drive, PS but I tried to use my reference disk which worked just before and it doesn't work anymore. So I reformatted it (no bad sectors were on the disks) and ran the rf5565a.exe program to get the files on the disk again and still nothing. So now both of my PS/2 floppy drives don't work. I cleaned the heads on one of the drives (the one that wasn't working when I got it) but again, nothing. I'm really stumped as to what it could be.
 
Well I managed to get the system up and running without errors. However, both floppy drives are having troubles. The first drive reads most of the time but some sectors cme up as bad although the disk works in other machines. When I format in this drive ( format A:), it automattically says that the disk is a 360K (even though this is a 1.44mb disk in a 1.44mb drive) and then it suspends the format by saying "parameters not supported by the drive". The floppy drive is a YE DATA one. The second drive which has not worked at all, says stuff like general failure every time I try any floppy. It is an Alps drive.
 
If you're having such flaky results on both floppy drives, the common item is the cable. Might be worth verifying that it is OK, first. Has the cable pulled loose at one of the connectors?
 
I don't recall what model exactly it was but I do remember that the PS/2 drives drop like flies because of leaky SMD caps.
 
It is working again. Just had to clean the heads. Funny how it didn't turn out to be something horrible like it usually is with me an floppy drives.
 
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