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Advice needed with large lot of vintage hardware and electronics... XT, MFM, ISA etc.

Great to hear that these can be put to use!

Keep in mind, I have no way to test a lot of this stuff so I can't really guarantee functionality. I can give as much information as is needed though.

Also, as far as the value of the items, I'd appreciate it if we could keep any offers within the realm what they'd be worth anywhere else, like eBay... minus 10%-15% for the fees I won't have to pay (and the reduced headaches).:D

EDIT: Just realized this post sounded kind of cheap. I apologize... I'm just excited to have gotten some stuff that might be valuable.
 
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Okay, I've uploaded pictures of all of the disks from the large box-o-floppies. Some things that stood out to me were the huuuuge sets of sequentially numbered disks. One looks like it may be a set of volumes of free software (maybe something from magazines?) they are numbered from "1" up through the 80s without any missing. There are also sets of disks for specific programs that go from 1 into the 40s without any missing numbers. Again, these are copies, not originals (mostly) but it seems like it wouldn't be that common to have such huge sets of disks stay together and stay in order for over 30 years. A couple of the stick-on labels from the home-made disks slid off when I was going through them but I made sure to tuck them back into their sleeves so that they'd stay labeled.

https://goo.gl/photos/4VLSz5VdcJ2xrH4A6

I'd like to add this and my other album link to the OP, but it seems I'm not allowed to edit them now.

And, I'm pretty excited that I got my MFM cable set in the mail today... it came brand new in a sealed package! Haven't gotten around to testing the drives yet, but I will within the next few days hopefully.
 
gyromatical said:
If you come across any BBS texts be sure to fire them off to Jason Scott! :D
Click to expand...

Sorry to say that I'm not sure how I'd know what I was looking at in that regard! If you can identify anything by my pictures, let me know!

Also, I've added more pictures to the first album, they will be at the bottom:

https://picasaweb.google.com/117635...&authkey=Gv1sRgCO6l64ec2aLxDg&feat=directlink (fixed link)

Of note... a 150W AT PSU with no brand name, and no power button attached to it (all the ones I own have buttons on the large black cord, not individual wires). Also, that Toshiba CDROM (it takes disk caddys... sadly none were in this lot) seems pretty interesting. Looking it up I found a PC Magazine from 1991 that said it was a good fast drive for $800-$1100 depending on the package you chose. Also, the owner of this one modified it by adding a wire (apparently attached to a 5v source inside) to power the Linksys SCSI to Parallel adapter as shown. The floppies seem to be software for the adapter.

Also, for anyone interested in vintage capacitors, resistors and potentiometers, here's some pics of the crazy stuff that was in this lot.

https://picasaweb.google.com/117635...authkey=Gv1sRgCImn7Pje6L_D9wE&feat=directlink

If anyone knows of a good forum to take these pics to for vintage guitar\amplifier\speaker enthusiast, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks again for any info!
 
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So, the question of the day...

How do I get drivers to run this old MFM\RLL ISA card? Is it possible that I could make it function in Windows 98? I'm not too familiar with non-PNP stuff... I don't know if I need drivers or not... I honestly don't know where to go from here. I've attached the card to an ISA slot on one of my older computers (being very careful that I've got it in the right way, as these old cards are "upside down" and it has no backplate), hooked up the drive (sitting on a nice piece of foam on a desk to quiet down any vibrations), and the drive seems to be spinning up just fine, but I'm not sure how to actually access it!

The card is a WD1002-WX1, 8bit ISA card. The chip on it says WD11C00-JT.

I'll keep Googling, but I could definitely use some help. I did manage to find Spinrite II 1.1. Is it likely that it will just work in a DOS window under Windows 98SE?

EDIT: Found some interesting info, but I'm not finding anything that explains the jumpers or connectors on my card.

http://www.datasheetarchive.com/dl/Scans-049/DSAFRZWS0010725.pdf (page 408 )

http://home.icequake.net/~nemesis/blog/index.php/archives/81

Also, here are some pictures I just took of the card and the first drive I've tested. I have to say, these drives sound AMAZING when they start up. Simply, AMAZING.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/JO5nBfPnYG5F858NXyxK97kRWQjGEh7DUa2sD9JPKp8?feat=directlink

Oh and this is funny. I didn't notice this until I took the picture, but this drive says "BAD" on it...
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DNZMmTySu_1Bi1Ftz5BvM7kRWQjGEh7DUa2sD9JPKp8?feat=directlink
... I guess that answers that question. Maybe I'll test a different drive. :p
 
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You don't use drivers for this kind of card. It has a BIOS that provides everything DOS needs to access it. However, if it is visible in Windows 9x at all, it will only run in Bios compatiblity mode.

I have had poor luck using 8-bit controllers like that in anything newer than a 486, but perhaps somebody else knows what the maximum compatible hardware is.

When plugged in to an unformatted drive (or a drive not formatted with that controller), it should give some error code during the BIOS post. You would then start DEBUG and enter the command G=C800:5 to start its low-level formatter. Or use the SpeedStor program. ( http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/software/speedstor.htm ) If it does not ask for custom drive parameters, then the ROM is hard coded to a specific drive geometry, or needs jumpers changed.

Spinrite II will not run inside a multitasking environment. You must exit to DOS.
 
SomeGuy said:
You don't use drivers for this kind of card. It has a BIOS that provides everything DOS needs to access it. However, if it is visible in Windows 9x at all, it will only run in Bios compatiblity mode.

I have had poor luck using 8-bit controllers like that in anything newer than a 486, but perhaps somebody else knows what the maximum compatible hardware is.

When plugged in to an unformatted drive (or a drive not formatted with that controller), it should give some error code during the BIOS post. You would then start DEBUG and enter the command G=C800:5 to start its low-level formatter. Or use the SpeedStor program. ( http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/software/speedstor.htm ) If it does not ask for custom drive parameters, then the ROM is hard coded to a specific drive geometry, or needs jumpers changed.

Spinrite II will not run inside a multitasking environment. You must exit to DOS.
Click to expand...


Thanks for all the info!

Still trying to figure this out here. The oldest machine I have (don't laugh!) is running a TYAN S1563 Socket 7 board with a Pentium MMX 200Mhz installed. I have older Pentium CPUs, but no 486s, or anything older than that sadly.

...

eeh... holy crap! As I was typing this I stumbled across one lone comment at the very bottom of this page, and decided to yank out the S3 Trio PCI card I had been using and throw in a Trident 16bit ISA card I recently picked up in a lot of video cards... and I actually FINALLY got some indication that the MFM controller's BIOS was loading! I saw the number 1701 show up on the screen after the memory test and drive scans were finished. Woohoo! This seems to be an error code related to the controller not being configured properly for the drive attached. This is the first time I've heard a peep from this card's BIOS.

When I enter G=C800:5 it seems to work and says WX2 Format Revision 7.0 ... Western Digital 1985 etc.

Since this is the only drive controller I have from this lot, its unlikely that I'll be able to retrieve anything from any drives that aren't configured for this controller, so I'm going to go ahead and low level format them so I can test them. This is fantastic though! I'm wondering if my other system (an FIC board with a K62-500) could do this as long as I used an ISA graphics card...

Anyway, since this is the first
 
Tried to post a reply a while ago but it said it had to be approved by moderators for some reason.

Anyway, I've got the controller somewhat working in an old Socket 7 Pentium MMX machine, I'm to the point where I can try G=C800:5, and it does come up with the Western Digital low level formatting screen, but it says "Error---completion code 80" every time I choose "y" to procede, no matter what drive I use. I've tried jumpers in a few different positions on the controller card (I found a schematic for a WD1002A WX1), but nothing seems to fix the problem. In fact, almost every other jumper configuration makes the card not work on this computer. One thing I did do was add a jumper to the pins that should make it work on AT rather than XT systems... it didn't have one installed before, but this doesn't seem to make any difference.

I think I have the jumpers configured properly on the drives (the Seagates have a single jumper set on the left most pair of pins when looking from the top), and I'm making sure that the drives have terminators on them as well (not all had them).

When I try to use SpeedStor I can get as far as trying to initialize the drive and it says controller error or something like that. So when I go back to the diagnostic screen and test the controller it says "controller failure".

I don't know if the controller is actually bad or if its another configuration issue with the system. It does read the BIOS (which... funny thing, the BIOS chip looks like one of the ones in the cigar box full of BIOS chips I got with this lot) so I'm inclined to believe that the computer is set up properly... maybe the card is just bad. It wasn't exactly pretty when I found it.

Anyone have a spare working controller card that will work with ST225 and ST251 drives (among others)? Preferably something known to work in a "newer" AT PC.
 
"Error---completion code 80" is a very generic error that simply means it can not talk to the drive for whatever reason. That could mean a defective card, bad cables, a bad hard drive, or more likely in this case it doesn't like the system it is installed in.

At the bios formatter did it give you the option to enter a custom number of heads, cylinders, etc? If not then it is no good for testing arbitrary drives anyway.
 
So... someone just contacted me saying they have an old PC they'd like to get rid of.

They sent me the picture, saying it was "an IBM"... and after looking at the picture, I think its an XT! It is a two tone beige\black desktop, has a 5 1/4 floppy drive and a little red square on the front (an led?).

Its a blurry picture, and it doesn't look like it was babied by any means... but holy cow, what timing! Funny thing is, I came into possession of an IBM XT keyboard with its original box last year and I've been trying to figure out what to do with it since its labaled as defective (dated 1984) and I haven't had anything to test it.

Maybe I can test all this stuff properly soon. :)
 
Okay, so, over the past month I've managed to get an IBM 5150, repair the motherboard and get a keyboard (thanks Stone!), so I have a working system that may be able to test the drives I have here.

The system has a 63.5W PSU and it came with a Miniscribe 3.5" hard drive (with a 1987 manufacture date) connected to a WD adapter similar to the one I already had. Sadly, that drive seems to have issues and throws up a 1701 error at boot. I haven't really done any diagnostics on it yet though.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to hook up the 5.25" Tandon drive from this system to an intermediary system (with USB) so I can transfer Speedstor to a floppy, which I can then use in the 5150 to test the drives.

My question now though is how can I safely power these hard drives for testing? I can't seem to find much about 5150s coming with hard drives, especially without having an add-on with an extended power supply. I assume that the 3.5" drive uses far less than the 5.25" drives though, so I'm leery of hooking up a drive that wants to draw way too much power. I have several AT power supplies around here though. Can I simply power a 5.25" drive with a different PSU while the MFM cables are connected to the 5150 to test it? I've done things like this with more complex ATX systems and never had any issues, but I don't know that much about AT\XT systems and the like. Is there any reason that this wouldn't work?
 
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I'm having problems with my Tandon TM100-2A... and it seems that this is to be expected.

Basically, the drive seems to be somewhat noisy when reading disks, with some disks causing it to make a lot of noise. There's a very clear "whuushwhuushwhuushwhuush" as disks are spinning, and when I turn the large "wheel" (sorry, I don't know the terms) by hand, I can hear it faintly rubbing in once place, inside somewhere. I'm not sure if this would cause the problem or not, but at times the same sound will get very loud and will be constant while reading.

Some things I've done:
Cleaned the rails with alcohol... this actually FIXED the drive at first. When I began using it, it wouldn't read anything at all. Doing this made it actually work... though intermittently. I later applied a tiny tiny bit of 3 in 1 oil to the rails with a Qtip.

I have a brand new (was still sealed) floppy cleaning kit which I used and sometimes it does help. For example, a disk won't read 5 times in a row, so I put the cleaning disk in (with a little alcohol on the pads), let it run for a bit, try the disk again and it'll work... sort of. It usually will get errors again.

I also cleaned the heads directly with a Qtip and isopropyl alcohol but it didn't make any difference and they seemed pretty clean anyway.

I saw someone else mention something about some pins in the drive door\lock being made of plastic vs brass, but mine are brass.

I also plugged the drive into another newer system to be able to run ImageDisk on it (since I'd read that it has some diagnostics) and all I could get it to do was this:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117635...ldPCStuff?feat=directlink#6234946297990019810

The numbers just keep rolling and rolling, with one column of zeros, and the other with random numbers. It went like that for quite a while before I just closed it out. I used an original Microsoft disk to test it.

Any ideas what I can do with this drive, if anything?
 
Is there any physical damage appearing on the surface of the disks?

Do the disks make that "whuushwhuushwhuushwhuush" when used in other dirves? Usually that noise means there is something wrong with the disk, such as crushed edges or dirt or a damaged liner inside the disk jacket. If the disks are OK, then it could mean that they are not going in the drive completely "flat". In that case, look for anything in the drive that might be pinching or pushing against the disk when the drive door is closed.

Isn't that what the align test is supposed to do? Just keep reading until it finds errors? What happens when you try to read or write an image?
 
As I discovered Tandon TM100's aren't a particularly good or reliable drive. They are fixable though and there is a lot of information on the net regarding testing and alignment. Some of my notes (read the whole thing) on troubleshooting a drive are here:

http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?50469-Tandon-TM-100-1-problem

As a start can you step through tracks in align function of imagedisk and get the correct result? IIRC The output x,y,z,a represents the current read track number, sector number, correct reads, incorrect reads. If you get any numbers in the incorrect reads column and the PC speaker beep drops in pitch then you have a problem. Likewise if you step through the tracks and the track number up near the top left corner does not match the read track number then your also in trouble.

If imagedisk doesn't show any errors after stepping back and forth through a heap of tracks (right up to 39, back to 0, up to 39 etc) then your alignment is probably fine and your problem is with your disks. I stress "probably" as without an alignment disk or at least an oscilliscope you cant be sure.

As suggested above also try writing a disk image to a blank floppy in the drive. If you can read/write the image fine (do a few copy's back and forth on the disk after creating the image) without error then the HEAD on the drive is fine. Still doesn't mean it's aligned properly though.
 
Thanks for the tips. You'll have to bear with me, as this is the first 5 1/4 drive I've used since playing on an Atari ST at my uncle's house in the early 90s. Its the only drive I own, so I can't really test disks in any other drives.

I also wasn't really sure what was going on with ImageDisk. It just kind of dumped numbers on the screen... I didn't know what I was looking at. heh.

Honestly, it could be a problem with disks... I have had better results with some, at least since cleaning the rails the first time. I'm sure there could be an alignment issue, but it seems like something else funny is going on though since most disks will read several times and then suddenly stop, giving me a variety of different errors asking me to abort, retry or fail.

Its hard to say what is causing the noise too. The rubbing sound I heard when turning the wheel manually occurred with no disk in the drive and got worse if I pushed down on the wheel while turning. While the disk was running for an extended period of time (can't honestly remember what was going on at that point... it may have been during the imagedisk test) it gradually started squealing. It was a pretty sad sound...

Its honestly pretty frustrating to deal with because it seems like a very time consuming process to troubleshoot these things, and the main reason I'm into this is to test other things using this computer. If I could get a normal 3.5" drive working in this thing I could at least do what I'm trying to do and worry about fixing this drive later. I can't seem to find any of the 34pin socket to slot adapters I've read about... and I'm not sure if I can just use any old floppy drive on a 5150 drive controller. I have a feeling its not that simple.
 
Ozzuneoj said:
If I could get a normal 3.5" drive working in this thing I could at least do what I'm trying to do and worry about fixing this drive later ... and I'm not sure if I can just use any old floppy drive on a 5150 drive controller. I have a feeling its not that simple.
Click to expand...
See [here]. With a 1.44M drive fitted, you should be able to use 720K sized diskettes.

Ozzuneoj said:
I can't seem to find any of the 34pin socket to slot adapters I've read about...
Click to expand...
Per the web page that I pointed you to, an option is a certain cable used in reverse of its normal use. See [here].
 
The drive itself shouldn't make any noise when the motor runs. That means you have some dirt or corrosion on the spindle or in the motor. Off hand, I'm not sure what the right way to disassemble that part is, but i'd try some cleaning and re-lubrication. That should not affect the disk readability too much unless it is so bad that the parts don't turn easily.

It is fairly easy to attach any half height 5.25" 360K drive or even a 3.5" 720k (1.44mb acting as 720K) drive to a 5150 floppy controller, but I believe there are some issues with physically mounting the drives in genuine 5150 cases.
 
In the past, I have fixed some rotation squeaking by lubrication of the area that I have highlighted in the photo at [here].
I would have used silicon grease, because oil may end up migrating elsewhere.
 
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