Help with Osborne 1 and TI 99/4A needed please

From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca>
Date: Fri Mar 21 02:01:39 1997

On Wed, 19 Mar 1997, George Lin wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I picked up a very nice Osborne 1 from a local thrift store yesterday. The
> system powers up. Everything looks good. However, I don't have the boot
> disk. I tried the CP/M boot disk from my Kaypro II. No good. If I

Hey! I currently have a similar problem. I brought a Kaypro II home
recently (last week? I've forgotten already) and although it had a boot
disk in the drive, it wasn't an OS disk, and I can't format disks or
other boot disks. And the disk that was in the drive (a pirate copy of
WordStar) is flaky.

I transferred FORMAT.COM and SYSGEN.COM from my TeleVideo system, but
they gave me little more than the (C)1982 TeleVideo Systems message
before hanging the Kaypro. <s>

> remember correctly, the disk drives on old CP/M machines are not compatible
> with each other even though the binaries are. It looks like that I need an
> Osborne formatted CP/M boot disk. Does anyone know where I can get one?

Seek out the comp.os.cpm FAQ. There is information in there on how to
get boot disks for CP/M systems. I'm still hoping to find someone with a
Kaypro II locally. I generally sit on these things for a while to see
what turns up before becoming really active in seeking things out.

In case you can't get the Osborne disk anywhere else (doubtful) I do know
a chap who ran a BBS on an Osborne until recently. He should have what
you're looking for. I could bug him to send you one if you send the
relevant information to me in e-mail.

> Also, it would be nice to get a CP/M communication software on an Osborne
> formatted disk so that I can start transferring other CP/M software to it.

You should be able to also xfer software to the Osborne with a utility
for the PC called 22disk. Get it at:

      oak.oakland.edu: /pub/msdos/diskutil/22dsk142.zip

I've used it a couple of times myself (in fact that's how I got those
files from my TeleVideo to the Kaypro) but you need an IBM-compatible PC
with a 5.25" disk drive (preferably 360K) which is something I don't have.
I actually had to open up my father's PC to plug in a 5.25" drive just
for that one operation. :/

> In the same store, I picked up a Peripheral Expansion Box for my TI 99/4A.
> It comes with 1 floppy disk drive, 32K memory expansion, serial adapter,
> and flex cable adapter. However, the fuse and the cap that holds the fuse
> in place are gone. Does anyone know the specification for the fuse or know
> where I can get a replacement for it and the cap?

Heh. This also sounds familiar. I have a CBM 2040 drive, sans fuse and
cap. I know at least one of the drive units works, as I got a directory
from a 1541 disk on my PET while holding a screwdriver in the fuse
socket. Don't do this at home. :)

> Any help is greatly appreciated.
>
> George
> --
> George Lin "Accelerating your business through
> Network Architect, MIS enterprise document managment."
> Documentum, Inc. (Nasdaq: DCTM) http://www.documentum.com
> Inet Fax: mailto:remote-printer.George_Lin_at_4.3.8.6.3.6.4.0.1.5.1.tpc.int
> My PGP Public Key for encryption is at http://george.home.ml.org/pgp.htm

Doug Spence
ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca
Received on Fri Mar 21 1997 - 02:01:39 GMT

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