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IMC Traveller 286

tingo

tingo

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Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Messages
1,521
Location
Oslo, Norway
Two days ago I got myself a IMC Traveller 286. Bought it quite cheap from a nice chap who advertised it on a Norwegian variant of craigslist. Ther is very little info about this machine on the net, I just found two references: one, two. Anyway, this is a portable (luggable) 286 machine with a monochrome LCD screen, a 5.25 inch floppy, a hard drive in a quite nice case.

On the back of the machine (on the PSU housing actually) is a paper label which reads:
P/N: KTX-8716A
Model: EPSON LCD (640x200)
LCD O/P V: -17V/10mA
Series NO. : P005- 88000023
Click to expand...

The PSU is marked "DC OUTPUT 200W".
Hard disk / floppy controller: WD1003-WA2
Floppy drive: Teac FD-55GFR-570-U, 1.2 MB, 5.25 inch half height
Hard drive: Seagate ST-125

It came with two boxes of floppies (assorted) a two-button mouse and the manual (or manuals) in a binder (boxed). Included with the manual are the quality control card, which tells the serial number of this machine: 2728. Unfortunately there is no date stamped or written on this card.

The manuals are:
System Manual
Main Board User's Manual - "Baby-286 Mother Board Users Manual"
I/O Card user's Manual - "Serial / Parallel I/O adapter for 286 Microcomputers - User's Manual" - this is an ATA-5061 adapter
WDC With DOS instruction - "WD1003-WA2 User's Guide-019"

I guess the System manual is really these two:
"LCD Portable Computers - Assembly Manual" - this one has an appendix which describes the LCD interface card (LD-200)
"LCD Portable Computers - User's Manual"

Working? - almost
Powering on the machine tells me that it has 640K memory,
The hard drive doesn't seems to work (it reports drive not ready), and the drive light is on (green) all the time. It has been a long time sine I worked with winchester disk drives, but surely the hard drive light should not be on all the time?
When I got the machine an started it for the first few times, it reported that the cmos contents was invalid or something such (run SETUP program, unfortunately I can't find setup on any of the floppies) could this affect the hrd drive settings?

Anyway, booting from a dos floppy (the ones with the machine has Tandon DOS 4.01) works. But once booted I can only use the machine a little while (A minute or so) before it locks up. If I the turn it off on turn it on again, it won't boot - just puts strange characters on the screen.

I have posted a worker thread in the Handhelds/Portables forum - there I will write about my attempts to fix this machine. (Worker thread - hehe)
 
Last edited:
tingo said:
The hard drive doesn't seems to work (it reports drive not ready), and the drive light is on (green) all the time. It has been a long time sine I worked with winchester disk drives, but surely the hard drive light should be on all the time?
Click to expand...
I think you intended, "should not be on all the time". If so, that is correct.

tingo said:
When I got the machine an started it for the first few times, it reported that the cmos contents was invalid or something such (run SETUP program, unfortunately I can't find setup on any of the floppies) could this affect the hrd drive settings?
Click to expand...

Yes. The configuration information ("cmos contents") has probably been lost because the battery used to keep the information intact has run low. So you probably need to replace that battery.

To restore the configuration information, you perform SETUP. Because you are seeing "run SETUP program", we know that there is no built-in SETUP functionality and that you need to run a SETUP program. Try the GSETUP program at http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/software/GSETUP.ZIP It's a generic type program and so there is no guarantee that it will work for your motherboard (but certainly worth trying).

The web sites you pointed to indicate a 20MB hard drive. Because type 2 was the commonest 20MB drive, I suggest you try "2" for the hard drive type in the SETUP. If that doesn't get the hard drive booting, we can later determine the hard drive type for you to use by getting the following information from you: a) the make and model of your hard drive, and b) the output of a program that lists the hard drive parameter table used by your motherboard.

tingo said:
Anyway, booting from a dos floppy (the ones with the machine has Tandon DOS 4.01) works. But once booted I can only use the machine a little while (A minute or so) before it locks up. If I the turn it off on turn it on again, it won't boot - just puts strange characters on the screen.
Click to expand...

A heat induced problem. There are many causes. A minute is not long at all. I think as a first step, you should open up the machine and do a physical inspection. If the Baby-286 motherboard in your computer is the same one shown at http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/U/UNIDENTIFIED-286-BABY-286.html, then the battery I referred to earlier might be a NiCad (the barrel shaped battery next to the keyboard connector) and they are notorious for leaking after many years.
While you are in the computer, using anti-static procedures, reseat any expansion cards and carefully reseat any chips in sockets.
 
keyboard fixed

keyboard fixed

The number 9 key on the main keyboard didn't work, which I only realized when I ran the gsetup program (because the numpad keys doesn't work as numbers, no matter if Num Lock is on or not).
I opened up the keyboard and cleaned it. that was it, the number 9 key works again.
BTW, the keyboard has a switch for "XT" or "AT" mode, but if set to "XT" the machine beeps continuously when the keyboard is plugged in.
 
hard drive trouble - fixed

hard drive trouble - fixed

I managed to fix the hard drive trouble, at least for now. The problem seems to have been stiction, so I wonder how long the hard drive will last now.
 
Bumping this old thread only because you're one of the few I've found who had one of these!

I just found one without the keyboard and with a damaged screen. Great for parts and came with a lot of documentation if anyone needs it!
 
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