Kaypro 4 Problems

[Tommar]

So you can format floppies in drive A at least. Now you can try the SAVE commands I suggested and see what happens. When you put a formatted floppy in drive B and try SAVE, do you get a file or do you get errors trying to create it? What error message do you get?



Which way was the copying taking place, from drive A to B, or B to A?



I wouldn't think using a single-sided disk in a double-sided drive would be a problem. It isn't on other computers, but I've never worked with a Kaypro 4 specifically, so can't be sure.



Do you mean it wouldn't start up from drive A but will start up from drive B? Booting usually means that you are loading the operating system to get to the prompt, like a "cold boot" or a "warm boot." I've never seen or heard of a Kaypro that can boot the operating system from either drive. I've only come across them booting from drive A.



If you have patience, I'm sure all the problems can be resolved, sooner or later. You seem to be a bit of a novice to vintage computing and a lot of these machines take perseverance to bring them back to full functionality. Also many of the people near you that could be interested in helping are probably rather busy preparing for the holiday season. It might be best to hold off any decisions like selling the computer until after the holidays. Let the frustrations pass and take things up again after New Years Day.

Once you get into this hobby, you can learn a lot about the hardware and software. It's similar to being good at fixing cars. Are you interested in getting into it that much?

ACGS, Let me see if I can answer your questions, OK? When I copied (a program) I used "Other" menu on the CP/M disk. I copied from Drive A to B as this is the only direction available; and successfully copied the CP/M 2.2g disk and the Kaypro-supplied M-bASIC/Games disk. When I inserted the CP/M copy in Drive A the version info appeared but not the A prompt. Games copy ran.

I'm almost 100% positive Perfect Writer (PW) is SSDS. PW will start in B drive but not A. There are 2 ways to start PW; Type Menu; the PW menu appears OR type PW and you go into PW edit mode. But nothing happens in drive A; and starting from Drive B means I couldn't save my work. These are original master disks from the makers of PW. And were supplied by Kaypro.

Sorry about my language foibles... I meant starting a program not booting. And the only drive from where I can boot the computer is Drive A. None of the COPY commands work for Drive B; obviously they should. The "Other" menu (from COPY) seems to loosen things up. I once upon a time worked on cars... I had a 1970 Mustang Mach 1 and did my own work; I was too poor not to! Besides, if I drove even one mile over 10k miles between tuneups it wouldn't run. Nowadays, of course, they've made it near-impossible to do your own work; they won't even accept dirty engine oil anymore! And I had a twin diesel trawler (Ford Lehman diesels) for 10 years... did my own work; then sold it when diesel fuel went from 75 cents to $4 plus a gallon. Used to be software savvy; but not so much hardware... Thanks so much for helping me; I'll get this licked with help.

 

[Tommar]

On a completely different note, I want to comment/opine on the Kaypro CP/M computers. I have been associated with then (more or less) since 1983. They were (and are) fabulous machines. In 1982, I was introduced to the Apple 2e computer. I needed help to write a research paper, and someone at my college told me that there was an Apple in the computer department. Sure enough, in a dusty corner, there it was. I used something called Apple Writer to do my paper. The Apple 2e was clunky, prone to crashing, and every component was separate and there were a dizzying array of cables and wires to make it all work. One thing led to another, and I heard about, and eventually bought (with my parents' help) a Kaypro II and an OKI dot matrix printer. My Kaypro never crashed in the middle of a paper; there were no crazy cables and wires; and it just did its job. AND... it was "portable" and built like a tank. Awesome. Even today, they mostly still work, if you can find one. They were USA built from the ground up; a few Japanese parts, maybe. IMHO, the United States lost out when Kaypro went bankrupt. Tonight, I am writing this using a "modern" laptop, an HP. 100% Chinese and I am doing it sitting in my recliner with the laptop on my lap. Needless to say, I couldn't possibly do that with a Kaypro; 38 pounds of Kaypro on my lap wouldn't work at all. But still... Kaypro was a cool computer and it did the job 100%.

 

[durgadas311]

So, if you boot a DS disk (in A: ), and then replace A: with a SS disk, CP/M (Kaypro BIOS) has no knowledge that the disk has changed and so still tries to access the PW diskette as DS. The recommended procedure for this sort of thing is to create a copy of your (DS) CP/M diskette, boot it, then copy PW files from B: to A: - adding them to your new CP/M copy. After that, you put the PW diskette in a safe place and use the copy as your work disk.

As far as the disk that prints the version message and then hangs/crashes, perhaps the diskette you copied from was bad. One of your options in COPY should be to write the system to a disk (preserving files). I believe this is option 'S' (Sysgen - Write system image only) on the OTHER menu. See if that can be used to repair the diskette that doesn't boot fully.

It's still not clear to me whether drive B: has been proven to be bad or not. If it is bad, until it can be replaced you will be having difficulties.

 

[videofx]

Thanks for the Help! Just pulled out my Kaypro 4 and looked at all my original disks and no FORMAT command. But Tommar mentioned the copy command. And sure enough once I ran copy I was able to format a disk!

Thanks Tommar!