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TI-99 help?

Atticus

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Joined
Dec 22, 2009
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A, A
I went into my neighbour's basement yesterday and found his TI-99 in basically the same condition it was when I was a kid, with the printer, modem, and everything. According to some papers next to the machine, it hasn't been used since about 1997.
The problem is, when I turn on the computer, it shows a picture of a swan (not kidding) and then it goes to a screen that says "Cannot read from floppy disk". This happens no matter what disk I put in, even the DOS and BASIC boot disks.
I was just wondering if there is a way to correct this, or if anyone knows of one, because the manual doesn't seem to say anything about it.
Thanks, -Atticus
 
With the risk of me having zero experience of the TI-99, isn't the floppy drive connected via a big expansion unit? Perhaps you can disconnect the expansion unit completely, leaving a standalone computer which might boot into TI Basic. If that works, your problem is nailed down to finding a floppy disk on which the system can boot.
 
With the risk of me having zero experience of the TI-99, isn't the floppy drive connected via a big expansion unit? Perhaps you can disconnect the expansion unit completely, leaving a standalone computer which might boot into TI Basic. If that works, your problem is nailed down to finding a floppy disk on which the system can boot.

I think it is, but it's all inside the computer, and I don't think my neighbour would be happy if I took it apart : ]
It also looks as if it has been modified to have two disk ports rather than one.
 
It has a swan--it is a very nice find. It is a TI compatible machine called a Geneve 9640. The Flex cable Interface should NOT be in the PEB and the regular 99/4A keyboard should not be connected either. The Geneve is the card with a forest of connectors in slot 1 of the PEB. It should have an XT keyboard connected to it, and it may also have a mouse (it uses a bus mouse, not a serial mouse). It may also have joysticks connected back there. The disk it is looking for is the boot disk for the Geneve. You should find a disk there called MDOS. That will boot into an OS similar to DOS on a PC. Let me know if you make it that far and we can help you through the rest. . .only about 2000-2500 Geneves were made.
 
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