PS/2s nicer than expected; some questions

From: Sellam Ismail <dastar_at_ncal.verio.com>
Date: Wed Mar 24 02:07:12 1999

On Tue, 23 Mar 1999, Mark Gregory wrote:

> Some questions:
>
> 1) Why did Microchannel fail so completely? From a user point of view it
> seems quite nice.

Closed architecture?

> 2) Can MFM or IDE drives be used with an ESDI controller, or do the drives
> have to be ESDI drives?

And ESDI controller is for ESDI drives, just like an IDE controller is for
IDE drives.

> 3) Anybody know if the 486DX33 on the processor board can be replaced with
> an Overdrive chip to make it at least a 486/66; or, does IBM still run
> their parts depot in Boulder for old machines?

I don't see why not. There might be a clocking issue with the IBM
motherboard, i.e. it won't let you set the clock rate like on standard PC
motherboards. I wouldn't know, not being a PS/2 expert.

> 3) I'm having some trouble with the P70. Originally, it wouldn't boot at
> all. I ran the diagnostics from the Reference Disk, and all tests were
> passed. I re-ran the Auto Configuration with no errors. I installed PC-DOS
> 6.3, and formatted the built-in HD at the same time. Everything seems fine,
> but the system won't boot from the hard drive alone. If I boot with a
> floppy in the drive, I can access the HD and run programs off of it. But
> without a floppy, nothing works. Any ideas?

Did you format the disk with the "transfer system" option? That would be:

format /s c:

You can transfer the system after the fact with the following command:

sys c:

Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Wed Mar 24 1999 - 02:07:12 GMT

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