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TRS-80 Model III - What's my next step?

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Bish500

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Jan 5, 2017
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Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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I was gifted a TRS-80 Model III (48K), which is in really dirty condition.

When I turn it on, the lower drive light comes on, and it spins. Then the light goes off, and the drive stops spinning.

The monitor shows some brightness lines, but no text/graphics.

My problem is this: I've never worked with a TRS-80 before (I'm a Commodore guy!). Sure, I played with them when I went into a Radio Shack store as a kid - almost 40 years ago...

I don't know anything about them. I don't know what to expect to see when it boots. I don't know if it boots from ROM, or if you need a boot disk...

I figure it should be doing more than it currently does. If anyone could point me in the right direction of what I should do next, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!
 
After powering it on hold down the <BREAK> key and press the orange reset button.

With any luck you'll see the Cass? prompt.

Press <ENTER> twice to accept the default cassette speed and top of memory.

Then you'll be in the BASIC Ready > prompt.

If you get that far then you know most of the machine works and all you need to do is find boot disks. Drive cleaning and alignment will likely be needed.

If you don't see Cass? then maybe the <BREAK> key is broken.

Not likely you'll fail to see Cass? because of brightness/contrast issues (given that you see raster lines already). But those adjustments are underneath the "rim" just left and forward from the keyboard.
 
 
As gp2000 recommended, try to get to the Cass? prompt and the the BASIC prompt. Then type ?MEM and see if the RAM is all recognized. If you get there, you are in good shape and most likely only the drives are the remaining question.

Oh, and if the machine starts emitting a nasty smoke, don't panic. Just power down and it's likely you will need to replace the PSU filter capacitors. Even better, maybe consider replacing them before you power up again.
 
Good news! This worked! I was able to get into Basic and run a little Hello World program. Even though the keyboard is absolutely coated in gunk, it surprisingly works really well.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Next: boot disks... any suggestions?


gp2000 said:
After powering it on hold down the <BREAK> key and press the orange reset button.

With any luck you'll see the Cass? prompt.

Press <ENTER> twice to accept the default cassette speed and top of memory.

Then you'll be in the BASIC Ready > prompt.

If you get that far then you know most of the machine works and all you need to do is find boot disks. Drive cleaning and alignment will likely be needed.

If you don't see Cass? then maybe the <BREAK> key is broken.

Not likely you'll fail to see Cass? because of brightness/contrast issues (given that you see raster lines already). But those adjustments are underneath the "rim" just left and forward from the keyboard.
Click to expand...
 
?mem shows 48082 bytes free!

Good advice about the filter caps! I’ll have to tear it all down to clean it properly, but I’m so delighted it’s powering up!

pski said:
As gp2000 recommended, try to get to the Cass? prompt and the the BASIC prompt. Then type ?MEM and see if the RAM is all recognized. If you get there, you are in good shape and most likely only the drives are the remaining question.

Oh, and if the machine starts emitting a nasty smoke, don't panic. Just power down and it's likely you will need to replace the PSU filter capacitors. Even better, maybe consider replacing them before you power up again.
Click to expand...
 
Ira from http://www.trs-80.com offers a service where he will write a number of useful disks for your model 3 and mail them to you.

All he asks in return is a donation to the website which covers the cost of shipping the disks.

I don't know how shipping to Canada will affect his offer.
 
Also keep at it, this forum walked me through getting my first Model 3 up and running, and now we're working on a Model 4.

These guys here are stand up with advice, references, parts, whatever you need. (as i'm sure you know from the Commodore side)
 
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I just thought I’d give a visual update!

I *REALLY* appreciate all of the guidance and assistance you’ve all provided! What a great community!

This is awesome! I can’t wait to dive further into it now!
 
TheDrip said:
Ira from http://www.trs-80.com offers a service where he will write a number of useful disks for your model 3 and mail them to you.

All he asks in return is a donation to the website which covers the cost of shipping the disks.

I don't know how shipping to Canada will affect his offer.
Click to expand...

Also, if you have a DOS PC with a 360k floppy drive, you can make disks yourself pretty easily. Theres a video on youtube on how to do that.
 
I tested the drive controller today using out244,1. Drive 1 spun up, and then shut down after a few seconds. That’s what it’s supposed to do according to what I’ve read. I’m taking it as a good sign!
 
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