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Redstone PC/XT rsv20-1/2/3 10 MHz Turbo machine

Caluser2000

Caluser2000

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Next weekend I'll be picking up a Redstone PC/XT rsv20-1/2/3 10 MHz Turbo machine. It's a Taiwanese machine I believe. By all accounts the the hdd is toast but I'll be a bit of fun having a play with it. I'll be getting a few 51/4 " floppies with the beasty as well, some never used. Comes with a printer, XT/AT switchable keyboard and moniter. I've a accumulated a few 8 bit cards over the years I want to throw in it to test out and varify which 16 bit ISA vga cards will work in 8-bit ISA slots. Comes with original booklets which is neat.

Any other members had one at all?
 

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Picked up the beasty today. Came with a nice TVM MD-7E colour monitor. Anyone have a spec sheet for one of these at all? I was expecting monochrome only screen so colour was a bonus. It came with a lot disks, a Brother HR-40 printer and binder with an educational version of "enable 2.0" complete with disks.

Includes a low density 51/4" and 31/2" drives which is hardly surprising Bios reports a date of 1986. Because the hdd appears to be toast I booted off a 360k MS Dos 5.0 boot disk and tested the 720k drive by running f-prot off an old magizine disk. According to the manual it has a 70108-10 processor installed.

I also picked up a few other bits n bobs but they are beyond the scope of this section. Needless to say the 200 mile round trip on a clear winters day was well worth it.
 
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What's going on with the hard drive?
I had two dead ones this week - although I've got one of them passing it's seek test now.
 
Click of death syndrome. Probably not even worth making around with it. I'll give it the freezer, twist and drop test before I consign it to the trash though.
 
Is it flashing codes at you?
Is the head arm moving around?
Have you tried a low level format?

Of all the drives I've received, I've only been unable to recover two of them, generally if they spin you're gonna win.

I wouldn't recommend using a freezer, never needed to do it on an MFM drive and I'd be concerned about condensation.
If you give up on it, I'll buy it from you, just don't drop test it! (untested from the US costs me like 80 bucks)
 
Determined that it's an EGA screen by running Rescue Rover. Cool. Just been digging through my ISA stuff -SB or Ablid clone for sound, EMS card, and nic sorted. I'll leave the fdd setup as is for the time being but I do have an 8-bit HD floppy controller as a full back.
 

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SpidersWeb said:
Is it flashing codes at you?
Is the head arm moving around?
Have you tried a low level format?

Of all the drives I've received, I've only been unable to recover two of them, generally if they spin you're gonna win.

I wouldn't recommend using a freezer, never needed to do it on an MFM drive and I'd be concerned about condensation.
If you give up on it, I'll buy it from you, just don't drop test it! (untested from the US costs me like 80 bucks)
Click to expand...
The hdd LED is flashing 2 slow-3 quick-1 slow. It appears to be spinning. What do you recommend to low level format it? I may have another MFM/RLL controller somewhere I think. Kicking myself I didn't pick up the controller and drive I saw 3 months ago at a recycle outfit. I'm using a commadore branded version of MS Dos 3.2 with fdisk etc. on the disk. fdisk detects it there but nothing can be done with it at the moment and just reverts back to the Dos prompt.

It's early days but I really wouldn't mind going the XT-CF/IDE eventually.

Edit- now fdisk doesn't see it. I'll get more details on the drive/contrller tomorrow.
 
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Pretty sure that's Code D - Seek error on recalibration - heads are stuck.

Does it spin? If so, try moving the head actuator (the cute L shaped arm that is supposed to move about).
If not, I prefer to open them and turn by hand - my last Miniscribe (just formatted tonight with 0 bad sectors) needed me spinning it for a bit, then 3 power ons before it was free enough to spin up all by itself.

Now it runs like a champion, but the bearings are gone, so it's like having an angle grinder in the house.
 
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Sounds good. Thanks. Bit tired so will give it a shot when I'm a refreshed. Get a bit cranky and start throwing things when I'm tired. Funny thing is I bought a security bit set from Bunnings just last week, but left it at work ;) No hurry.


My last XT (and only other one I've played with) had DR Dos 5 loaded on it, but the was many moons ago. This one is a keeper.
 
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All good :)
I had to stop playing vintage, was too noisy for the partner who's trying to sleep. Have the Miniscribe in the new 286 laptop, but it's a touch too loud.

Forgot to mention, if you can see the arm moving and the drive is spinning too - then it could be something more complicated like the track 0 sensor etc etc
 
When I got the beast I noticed the Turbo button and it's led were missing. Never really thought much of it at the time. Just had a look by the speaker and there they were so pulled the front facia off. Both back to where they should be. The mobo manual already online http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/10 Mhz PIM-TB10 Turbo Mainboard.pdf so no need to scan mine. Used Trixters TOPBSTUB tool to do a run in each mode, the details of which are in his thread http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcf...help-test-a-new-benchmark&p=285122#post285122

Varified the drive is spinning by turning it over and viewing the spindle. Unfortunately the smallest security bit I have is not small enough so I'll have to go out shopping again. Very happy with the construction of it. No hidden latches or screws. The facia screws go into metal inserts.
 
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If it's spinning, you do not need to take the cover off. The next step is to check the head arm is moving.

There should be an arm on the side of the drive - this should move during the self test after it spins up - if not then assist it. Once it's free, it should recalibrate next power up and complete the self test. If not, then it could be something like the track 0 sensor or faulty electrics/wiring.

One question, is yours as noisy as hell, or just normal drive noisy? I only have one, and I'm not sure if it's the model or just mine.

Edit: made a quick video to show the arm, and what it's supposed to be doing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ntt04obhbE
 
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Did that no luck. My hearing is bad-with nearly 100% loss in one ear and 20% loss in the other so don't trust it.

The drive would be as quiet/noisy as my 40meg ide drive in the PS/1 486 at the moment.
 
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Poor dear packed a woobly last night just as I was going to show my grandson how cool it was. No speaker beep, image or hdd code. Reset and turbo function tits up as well.

Tried powering on/off a few times and eventually the screen came up, beep and key board error, now nothing again. Tried the usual pull all cards/another psu and still no joy. No flashes flashes or bangs which was a disappointment.

I don't seem to have good luck with 286s and lower for some reason. Now for some serious interwebbing ;)
 
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