AT&T UNIX PC enthusiasts out there?

[Teletech]

I don't hear anything like an old hard disk's sound but i hear like a delicate but jarring sound, like the wind. I know that the fan make that noise too and honestly i couldn't hear anything than the fan but my colleague made me notice it.
I saw some videos and that particular sound is not replicated on mine, and I dont know if it's because of the loader or if it's just the disk that is dead. At this point i will open it.. have you some advices? I dont want to make it worse than now :c
Thank you so much!

Getting a 7300/3B1 apart safely requires more finesse than many computers, there are online write-ups and videos on how to do it without breaking the top case or damaging the video cable.
When you remove the top cover you will be able to hear the hard drive a lot better and determine if it's making spin-up noises.
Once you have the top cover off, you need to lift the inner lid/shelf to access the screws holding the HDD to said shelf. Once you have the drive off you can either remove the PCB on the drive and depending on the model you might be able to turn the spindle by hand, if the spindle motor isn't accessible from the bottom of the drive, then your best bet is to try twisting the drive in it's horizontal axis quickly several times in the hopes the inertia of the platter and spindle assembly will be enough to break the heads loose. Once you have made your attempts to get the platters loose, you can run the drive again and see if it makes new noises. If it does, then set the top back on and see if you have joy, if not, you can let us know which model of drive you have and we might be able to help further.
Does the client care about the data on the unit?
If you aren't averse to spending some money and installing some new tech in service of getting it going, I can recommend the drive reader/emulator sold here:

MFM Hard Disk Reader/Emulator

You can use it to read the existing drive (if it works) and also to emulate the drive. If the drive doesn't read or you don't find what's there interesting then the maker of the emulator has an image of a working system available that you can download.
Of course, all this assumes it's the drive. You might be able to get someone to make you a bootable "rescue" floppy to test the system with.

 

[djg]

Something as a OS to put in diskets, some way to go through the diskett or the hdd

There are a number of sites with disk images. These are good.
http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/ATT/unixPC/

These are in imagedisk format. If you can boot to DOS on a machine you have you can use http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/ to write these to 5.25" DD disks.

system_software_3.51 01_Diagnosic_Disk_Ver_3.51.IMD will let you boot the machine and run tests.​

Others can be used to reinstall if needed.

 

[yumekonoi]

There are a number of sites with disk images. These are good.
http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/ATT/unixPC/

These are in imagedisk format. If you can boot to DOS on a machine you have you can use http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/ to write these to 5.25" DD disks.

system_software_3.51 01_Diagnosic_Disk_Ver_3.51.IMD will let you boot the machine and run tests.​

Others can be used to reinstall if needed.

Thank you so much for your reply! I have another questions because i dont know how to make it work without make it extremly difficult. Is it possibile to install DOS on the 3B1? I dont have a machine with dos, the idea was that I installed (in some fancy way) it a PC, connected the 5,25" floppy disk to it and manage to write the image of UNIX. Then put again the floppy driver into the 3B1 and install unix.
But because idk if this works and if not the money we wasted obviously is not going to be refunded, the idea to install DOS and write the image in the floppy directly into the Olivetti came to mi mind. It is possible or im saying odd things..?

 

[yumekonoi]

Getting a 7300/3B1 apart safely requires more finesse than many computers, there are online write-ups and videos on how to do it without breaking the top case or damaging the video cable.
When you remove the top cover you will be able to hear the hard drive a lot better and determine if it's making spin-up noises.
Once you have the top cover off, you need to lift the inner lid/shelf to access the screws holding the HDD to said shelf. Once you have the drive off you can either remove the PCB on the drive and depending on the model you might be able to turn the spindle by hand, if the spindle motor isn't accessible from the bottom of the drive, then your best bet is to try twisting the drive in it's horizontal axis quickly several times in the hopes the inertia of the platter and spindle assembly will be enough to break the heads loose. Once you have made your attempts to get the platters loose, you can run the drive again and see if it makes new noises. If it does, then set the top back on and see if you have joy, if not, you can let us know which model of drive you have and we might be able to help further.
Does the client care about the data on the unit?
If you aren't averse to spending some money and installing some new tech in service of getting it going, I can recommend the drive reader/emulator sold here:

MFM Hard Disk Reader/Emulator

You can use it to read the existing drive (if it works) and also to emulate the drive. If the drive doesn't read or you don't find what's there interesting then the maker of the emulator has an image of a working system available that you can download.
Of course, all this assumes it's the drive. You might be able to get someone to make you a bootable "rescue" floppy to test the system with.

I opened it up and the disk make noises. Like it's spinning but no read sound. In the internet no one sell the unix floppys so it will be difficult...

 

[Teletech]

You can't install DOS on a 3B1. Well, you sort of can, because if you have unix running and you have a 8086 expansion card, then you can run DOS under unix, but that's NOT going to help you in this case.
It's likely you need to find someone with a machine running DOS or some *nix to make you a service disk.
If your disk spins but makes no other noises, it could be a stuck head actuator. Try spinning it up without the control and data cables connected, just the power. See if that changes anything.
We still could provide better advice if you gave us the make and model of hard drive.

 

[czunit]

Well, I'm finally getting around to copying the ETHERNET-IN file onto my 7300 here. Man, it is slow to do this with Kermit and 9600 baud. I hope the compress function on a Mac is still compatible with compress on the 7300 (I don't have gzip on the 7300)

 

[czunit]

Hm. Well, I copied the .Z file up, then uncompressed it. Looks like it worked, however when I do a tar -tf on the file I get:

Tar: blocksize = 20
directory checksum error

Hm. File sizes are identical to the mac, and I did a set file type bin on Kermit before going to server mode. Also I don't think it would have uncompressed if ascii.

Do I need Gnutar on the system to replace the at&t tar?

Off to bed, long night.

 

[agentb]

do a tar -tf on the file

So if that’s the ETHERNET+IN file, that’s a cpio not tar. Check out section 4.5 in the FAQ

Alternatively you can put ETHERNET+IN in /usr/spool/uucppublic (I think this is the dir), and then install from the GUI. Good luck and keep us posted, would love to hear more about the Ethernet card and get one (or a clone if someone wants to clone the original board!) for myself.

 

[czunit]

Oh oh oh. I guess modern TAR is automagically doing a CPIO conversion. I'll give that a try tomorrow.

 

[czunit]

Crud....

I'll check the file with CPIO when I get back from breakfast. Darn though, the computer *was* working pretty hard there for a bit...

 

[czunit]

Did the CPIO extract by hand in /tmp, the Install file was not set to x (execute) bit. A simple chmod +x Install and now it's "Installing files"

We'll see what happens. Hard drive is pounding away......

Look at that....

Not sure what "Network number" is so I put in the 255.255.255.0 netmask. However I now get a:

Drat, off to find the manuals! Or maybe plug the AUI port into a 10bt interface

 

[czunit]

Drat, I only have the user, admin, and programming manuals for the Ethernet card. I do NOT have the install manual.

Maybe it needs to be in a specific slot in the system? Right now I have it in slot 1 (left most when viewed from the back) with RS232 dual in slot 2 and a tape card in slot 3.

 

[agentb]

Nice figuring out what was wrong with the Install file. And good guess on the cryptic “Network number”, netmask seems like a decent guess. I don’t have any documentation other than the Ethernet Theory of Operation doc that’s on bitsavers. Glad to hear you have more documentation. I wouldn’t think which slot it’s installed in matters, but worth trying other slots and removing the other cards (?)

 

[shirsch]

Does Bitsavers not have the large "Enhanced TCP WIN/3B" network manual? I have that and can scan if required.

 

[agentb]

Does Bitsavers not have the large "Enhanced TCP WIN/3B" network manual? I have that and can scan if required.

That would be great. All I see is two scans of Ethernet Theory of Operation:

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/att/3b1/reference_manual/3b1_ethernet.pdf

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/att/3b1/hardware/Ethernet_Expansion_Board_Theory_of_Operation.pdf

 

[firebirdta84]

Getting a 7300/3B1 apart safely requires more finesse than many computers, there are online write-ups and videos on how to do it without breaking the top case or damaging the video cable.
When you remove the top cover you will be able to hear the hard drive a lot better and determine if it's making spin-up noises.
Once you have the top cover off, you need to lift the inner lid/shelf to access the screws holding the HDD to said shelf. Once you have the drive off you can either remove the PCB on the drive and depending on the model you might be able to turn the spindle by hand, if the spindle motor isn't accessible from the bottom of the drive, then your best bet is to try twisting the drive in it's horizontal axis quickly several times in the hopes the inertia of the platter and spindle assembly will be enough to break the heads loose. Once you have made your attempts to get the platters loose, you can run the drive again and see if it makes new noises. If it does, then set the top back on and see if you have joy, if not, you can let us know which model of drive you have and we might be able to help further.
Does the client care about the data on the unit?
If you aren't averse to spending some money and installing some new tech in service of getting it going, I can recommend the drive reader/emulator sold here:

MFM Hard Disk Reader/Emulator

You can use it to read the existing drive (if it works) and also to emulate the drive. If the drive doesn't read or you don't find what's there interesting then the maker of the emulator has an image of a working system available that you can download.
Of course, all this assumes it's the drive. You might be able to get someone to make you a bootable "rescue" floppy to test the system with.

Speaking of getting an AT&T UNIX PC apart, I created a video series on this very thing!

 

[ScutBoy]

Speaking of getting an AT&T UNIX PC apart, I created a video series on this very thing!

Not sure if it was yours, but I followed one when I had to replace the HD in my 7300. It was not the worst remove/replace I've ever done, but it is tricky, especially when you are worried about fragile plastics.

 

[shirsch]

Not sure if it was yours, but I followed one when I had to replace the HD in my 7300. It was not the worst remove/replace I've ever done, but it is tricky, especially when you are worried about fragile plastics.

In the scheme of things, I've found the 7300/3B1 plastic cases to be reasonably tough. If you want fragile, try a "large" Tandy machine (II/12/16/16B/6000).

 

[jgilroy]

Just checking in to say I've had a 7300 since the late '90s or very early 2000s. I remember being able to boot it a few times, but it only booted intermittently. Getting it working is my next project. I'll be ordering one of the MFM emulators from pdp8online, and I don't have a mouse so I'll have to build one of the adapters I've read about here (thanks for doing that work!) I didn't think I had any expansion cards, but I just went poking around the back and found a memory-only (no RS-232) card in there populated with 9 rows & 8 columns of MB8264a-15 DRAM chips, so I'm guessing 512K? Board is labelled PCA D-60-00226-00 Rev D, looks like a date code of the 15th week of 1985.

I also have a 3B2/300 with expansion chassis, unknown working condition and several AT&T 4410 terminals that are at least mostly working. Those are projects for another day.

 

[shirsch]

I don't have a mouse so I'll have to build one of the adapters I've read about here (thanks for doing that work!)

That reminds me. I need to revisit my Pi Pico based adapter in the near future. There's some software handshaking that occurs during boot that I'm not accounting for. If the mouse is moved before the graphic display appears the system won't respond to it at all. For now, just be careful not to move it during early boot. I'm sure it's something simple.