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Newly aquired Tandy 6000HD! Lots of questions to follow...

Well folks I have a new problem...Jeez... Hard drive is not working like it used to. Running the Hard Drive data reliability test and keeps coming up with ID NOT FOUND. Then it shows 2 numbers 1051 & 1059 so far only at track 82 and 918 ID NOT FOUND errors. I guess the HD is starting to croak. Is there such a program as a low level formatter for the 6000?
 
Boot with file maintenance disk or install disk 1. At prompt type diskutil

Follow the directions on the screen.
 
kb2syd said:
I am glad you were able to figure it out. I have to seriously work on imaging what documentation I have. It may not have helped in this instance, but it probably wouldn't hurt. I have at least four ten gallon totes full of radio shack documentation (brown binders) plus a bookshelf full.
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Please do, for posterity! I've always wondered if there was a M12/M16B service manual?
 
Add a few of the errors it reports. See if that helps. For what is is worth, those drives suck. I usually replaced mine with st-225 or st-238 but you can't really get those now.
 
Through some manipulating got Xenix to format the hard drive with no errors. I lied to it. If I used the required 306 cylinders and 6 heads got loads of errors! But if I lied and told it 306 cylinders and 4 heads it formats just fine. So a little less capacity but it is working.

And yes I would also like to put in a more reliable MFM drive as well. Because in my opinion that cheapo and the Han01 board will not play nice with Xenix I am afraid.
 
Well I thought all was well till I try to install to the HD then this error shows up: See pic sorry a little blurry

Seems to be dying a slow death...
 

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I have one of the 15M external drive boxes, which I haven't tested yet. I don't know which machine it might be formatted for, but I think that the last time I looked at Frank Durda's hard drive information I got the impression that the 15M drives were generally sold for use with III/4 systems.

David Gesswein just announced on cctalk that he's getting ready for a run of MFM emulator cards. So, my plan is to get one of those, use it to try to image whatever might be on that external drive I have (if it even works), and then use it to emulate the drive inside the box in order to have a hopefully more reliably drive for my 6000 that is pretty close to an original system. It would have original adapter and controller cards, with just the MFM drive itself emulated. If it works, this might be a cool solution. I'd leave the real MFM drive in the box, of course. It'd just be unplugged, and easily plugged back in.

Just had an idea: I could get a WAV Trigger board from Sparkfun to simulate the sounds of the real hard drive!

I'd just use the real hard drive, but I'd rather save wear an tear on it even if it's good.
 
So where may I obtain one of these emulators? And what is the cost? Can CF cards be used?

@Mark any success on resurrecting you 6000?

FYI there is a service bulletin for the memory card. Basically it say that he 244 chip at U9 needs to have a 74ALS244 in there. Any other chip needs to be removed. It is the chip with 3 33Pf caps on it. it is bulletin number 6000:8 and see note on 1st page about it.

Available here: http://electrickery.hosting.philpem.me.uk/comp/trs80m2/doc/Model_6000_Technical_Bulletins.pdf
 
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pski said:
Please do, for posterity! I've always wondered if there was a M12/M16B service manual?
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There was a Model 12 service manual, and a separate Model 16B service manual. A Model 12 service manual crossed eBay a few months back, and went for $53 or so. For that matter, the service manuals were constantly being updated, and were probably printed on-demand as they were ordered. Case in point is the 26-1067/8/9 (Model 4) service manual; I purchased one, and got the non-gate-array version, then a couple of years later purchased another one and got a Gate-Array manual. Kelly has the NGA manual now that I had (the original Model 4 Tech Ref has everything in it that the SM does for the NGA, and I have one of each of the first run TR and the smaller format TR, the latter which is available in scanned form), and the GA manual went with my Model 4D that I owned until 1992.

We need every service manual scanned that we can, and we need people who have them who are willing to either do a good scan themselves (as Kelly did with the 6000 SM) or send it to Archive.org for scanning. While I appreciate Ira's site for a lot of things, the manual 'covers' make me cringe; yes, they are preserved, but they are not publicly accessible. Archive.org has the resources to do it right and do it publicly.
 
lowen said:
There was a Model 12 service manual, and a separate Model 16B service manual. A Model 12 service manual crossed eBay a few months back, and went for $53 or so.
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Man, I missed that one. BTW, what is up with that seller selling the CDROMs of the TRS-80 manuals that are freely downloadable? Seems almost to be a crime to me.
 
pski said:
Man, I missed that one. BTW, what is up with that seller selling the CDROMs of the TRS-80 manuals that are freely downloadable? Seems almost to be a crime to me.
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Rats. Now that you're all on to me I guess I have to stop.

Just kidding, I know what you mean. Why buy a manual on CD that you can download from multiple places?
 
Chromedome45 said:
So where may I obtain one of these emulators?
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Here is the mailing list post about it:

David Gesswein <djg@pdp8online.com> said:
I'm doing another run of boards.
The description of the board changes and the expected price are at:
http://www.pdp8online.com/mfm/board_revb.shtml

If you desire any please respond by email not to list with

1) How many bare boards you wish. I will assume production boards unless
you state how many of the ENIG boards available now you wish. Production
boards may be a monthish.
2) If you wish the surface mount chips installed on the bare boards.
3) How many fully assembled boards you wish. The PCB is included.
4) For fully assembled boards do you wish a BeagleBone Black (BBB) provided
with it.
5) Any questions you have.
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I don't know if it will work in this application. This will be an experiment. Is the drive inside the 6000HD an MFM or RLL drive? This emulator will not support RLL.


Chromedome45 said:
@Mark any success on resurrecting you 6000?
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I haven't spent any time on it. My day job gets in the way.

Thanks for the pointer to the memory card tech bulletin.
 
NF6X said:
I don't know if it will work in this application. This will be an experiment. Is the drive inside the 6000HD an MFM or RLL drive? This emulator will not support RLL.
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MFM. It should work, and this would be the only way to get a 16B HD or 6000HD with more modern storage, without changing the hard disk interface/controller card for a type 2 hard disk interface (or equivalent).
 
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well the village idiot struck again...Yes me while I was attempting to isolate the HD problem with the controller I accidently plugged in the Static RAM chip in backwards.

Well it worked last night like that and today I try to boot up no HD error message on screen. And floppy would not boot. Pulled HD controller and floppy booted up. That is when I noticed the static RAM was backwards reversed it and no go.

Still not starting up correctly. So I pulled chips till it booted. Long story short I blew U18 the PAL chip! Of course had to be the PAL!!!!

So now the question I need to ask can a good U18 PAL from a good board be copied and burned to a GAL? If so could someone use their Programmer
and read the PAL and save the .JED file? Then could burn a copy into a GAL for me?

Why do I do these things! I know get in a hurry and don't double check.
 
I haven't tried it yet, but it might be possible to read a PAL with my new programmer and burn a matching GAL. How do you know that it's U18 that got blown?
 
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