Datamaster troubles

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk <(Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk)>
Date: Tue Jul 15 09:05:06 1997

Rich Cini wrote:

> Well, I'm reviving my Datamaster. Last year, it worked fine (I at least
> could get into Basic). This year, I can't even get it to boot. I have no
> manuals for the darned thing, so I have no idea what the numbers on the screen
> during the POST mean. I have one reverse-highlighted number: "09" and I'm
> assuming that this is a hardware failure code.

As promised, I have hunted through my various IBM System/23 (Datamaster)
manuals, and found the meanings of the POD (Power-on Diagnostics) error
codes. Here is a summary:

FF}
00} CPU Failure (!)
01}

02 Failure of first ROS module (Read Only Storage module, i.e. ROM chip)

03 Reserved. If this is highlighted, panic.

04 Failure in bottom 16k of storage, or of storage controller

05 CRT (presumably actually monitor) or DMA failure

06} CRT interface
07}

08 Page registers

09-} ROS failure. There follows a little diagram to tell you which chip
19 } to replace. Yes, the diagram in the manual is made of text, too.

  ** TOP VIEW OF PLANAR SEEN FROM THE REAR **
_______________________________________________
| ====== ====== <-- NOT FOUND ON |
| | 10 | | 11 | <-- SOME EARLY |
| =3=40= =3=60= <-- MACHINES |
| |
| ====== ====== |
| | 19 | | 0D | |
| =7=60= =1=60= |
| *********************** |
| =PATCH= ====== * PHYSICAL LOCATION * |
| | 18 | | 0C | * OF ROS MODULES * |
| =7=40== =1=40= * FOR EACH ERROR CODE * |
| *********************** |
| ====== ====== |
| | 17 | | 0B | -KEY- |
| =6=60= =0=60= ====== |
| | XX | |
| ====== ====== =Y=ZZ= |
| | 16 | | 0A | XX=POD ERROR CODE |
| =6=40= =0=40= Y=ROS PAGE VALUE |
| ZZ=HIGH ORDER BYTE OF |
| ====== ====== FIRST ADDRESS IN |
| | 15 | | 09 | ROS MODULE. |
| =5=60= =0=20= |
| ---(CABLE)-------------- |
| ====== ====== | ====== | |
| | 14 | | 02 | | | 09 | CO-PLANAR | |
| =5=40= =0=00= | =0=20= BOARD. | |
| | (FOUND ON | |
| ====== | ====== SOME EARLY | |
| | 13 | | | 10 | MACHINES.) | |
| =4=60= | =3=40= | |
| | | |
| ====== | ====== | |
| | 12 | | | 11 | | |
| =4=40= | =3=60= | |
| ------------------------ |
-----------------------------------------------

1A-} ROS failure on feature card
26 }

27 ROS failure on 2nd printer card

28} ROS failure on feature card
29}

2A-} RAM failure. Table (which I shan't include) of how codes
30 } relate to different sizes of machine.

31 RAM page access failure

32 DMA page register failure

33 Interrupt controller failure

34 Timer interrupt failure

35 Keyboard error. If flashing, keyboard controller.
     If not flashing, you pressed a key at the wrong moment :-)

36 Printer failure

37 Printer not switched on

38 Diskette attachment failure

39 24 volt rail not reading 24 volts

3A-} belong to add-ons not to the system. I didn't bring the
FE } relevant manual pages.

General rules for interpretation:
     Flashing inverse video = fatal error.
     Non-flashing inverse video = error. Press the Error-reset key and
     let the machine finish booting. Then run the diagnostics dikette,
     I suppose.

To summarise, it appears you have a dud ROM chip. I imagine the
solution is to copy a ROM chip from another Datamaster. If necessary, I
can arrange to copy mine, but I don't know off-hand what sort of chips
they are. I would also suggest that, unless you too are in England,
logistics of getting the chip to you might be hard...

Philip.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Philip Belben <><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

   Das Feuer brennt, das Feuer nennt die Luft sein Schwesterelement -
 und frisst sie doch (samt dem Ozon)! Das ist die Liebe, lieber Sohn.

Poem by Christian Morgenstern - Message by Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk
Received on Tue Jul 15 1997 - 09:05:06 BST