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Model I - "ERROR!"

dmemphis

dmemphis

Experienced Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2014
Messages
262
Location
Pottstown, PA
My model I w/ Expansion Interface and drives just started failing to boot
and reporting a single word on the screen: ERROR!
Does that point to any specific source of the problem?
It hits the disk drive then gives up.
Tried different boot drives and disks, so I guess its in either the interface or
the system keyboard.
 
What DOS are you trying to boot?

I don't think the Model I ROM says much of anything if there's a problem loading the disk boot sector. The boot sector will depend on the DOS, but TRSDOS 2.3 does seem to have "NO SYSTEM" and "DISK ERROR" messages that will come up. Based on that, sounds like the boot sector is loading but it is failing to load the main DOS program.

An "ERROR!" message makes it seem like you're booting something besides TRS-DOS.
 
Lots of times the Floppy Read Head will get coated with Oxide from older failing floppy's, and cause problems. Have you opened the
Floppy and checked the Floppy's Read Head, CAREFULLY, to see if it has an Oxide coating on it? Clean it with a Cotton Swab
dipped in Alcohol.

Also, you might try cleaning the Drive Rails with Alcohol and cotton swab, then lubricate them with a few drops of
Dri-Slide (Motorcycle Cable Lubricant) and then GENTLY & SLOWLY move the read carriage across it's range of motion.
I've seen problems when the read carriage is slow to step because the rails are dry, and hard to move. It should glide
across the rods easily for the full travel.

Larry
 
When my Model I sits dormant for awhile, it often fails to boot and I have to remove, clean and/or reseat the EI connectors a few times to get it going. Since this error just started popping up all of a sudden and it affects different boot disks and drives, i would probably rule out the drive. Unless you recently tried using a disk with bad media in all of those drives?
 
Thanks everyone for the ideas.
So I have two drives so its been set up as a two drive system for a while.
It has not been sitting long since last boot, a week at the most.
I tried two different DOS disks, different DOS types, first with the two drive setup which
of course has the second drive terminated... then moved the terminated drive to the first drive position
by itself.
No go. I assume both drives did not get crudded up at the same time.
Possible, though if the diskettes are breaking down and loaded both heads with crud.
But the diskettes look good.
I didn't mention that after a few boots with the "ERROR!" result, the text changed to something I
can't type here, garbled characters in each letter position which I will illustrate as "BXXQXL" so
now I think I have some bad video ram too. (I've already replace one RAM IC)
So I 'm wondering if there is a some other RAM problems that are making the boot process fail.
Its not going to be easy to diagnose I think.
 
Try holding the BREAK KEY DEPRESSED and Power on the Computer. When you see CASS?? release the BREAK KEY
and then depress ENTER KEY twice. Then type in ?MEM then depress the ENTER KEY. The Model 1 should respond
48082 for the Memory Size.

If that doesn't work Unplug the EI Cable, with power off and try it again with the BREAK KEY DEPRESSED.
Of course the Memory size will be less for a 16K system.

If that doesn't work then you have problems in the actual Model 1.
Go here and read the information and test procedures:
http://ts-inc.dyndns.org/Diagnose Repair TRS80 TRS-80 Model 1.html


Larry
 
Last edited:
OK will try that!
Thanks for the link- I never ran across that in all my searching around for info.
Can't trust search engines to deliver!
Will get back to ya'll on this.
 
Well first of all the video ram "problem" was operator error: I had the lower case mod engaged by accident.
Secondly, the boot issue was in fact the media. I tried a third disk and found success.
Booted fine.
The "bad" disks also won't read on the TRS emulator.
I guess I had a small EMP event here. ARGH
Sorry for the noise.
 
dmemphis said:
I guess I had a small EMP event here. ARGH
Click to expand...

Offhand comment: Do you power on your TRS-80 with disks in the drives? The Model I in particular was somewhat infamous for glitching disks if you did that. I learned the hard way it's better to power on the system and *then* close the drive doors and hit RESET.
 
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