Hi gang,
Went with Joe Rigdon last weekend and picked up a HP 3000/37 that he had
spotted. The unit was mounted in a short cabinet with several 670H drives.
It had been sitting partially covered in a scrap dealers yard in the Orlando
area. Thankfully, it's not the rainy season so, it was still in pretty good
shape.
When I got it home and opened the computer up, it really wasn't that dirty
inside. I just dusted the boards off, checked the connectors for corrosion,
and reassembled it. The switch on the front panel was gummed-up and stuck in
the off position. I broke it trying to work it loose and had to do some
microsurgery to get it working again.
I opened up each of the 670H drive cabinets, dusted them out, and
reassembled. When plugged in, everyone of them gives a green light. A couple
of them sounded a little funky during their first spin-up but, they all seem
to be working now. Obviously, they had been sitting for a long time and were
reluctant about going back to work. I can relate to that :-)
All in all, I got (8) 670H, (6) 7963B, and a 7936 (I think that's correct)
drive. The 7963B can support multiple drives in the same cabinet but, these
only had one drive each. The 7936 is a big sucker. Similar to the 7937
"Eagle" drives. I've previously had trouble with Eagle drives so, I haven't
even tried to power that one up, yet. These are 8" belt-driven monsters that
are sensitive to shock and inactivity. The belts get all gooey and are a
pain in the butt to clean. Last time I tackled one of these, I strained my
back trying to put it back in the cabinet. That particular drive crashed
within a week and really pissed me off.
I mounted 3 of the 670H drives in the cabinet with the 3000, connected my
tape drive, and powered everything up. After much dinking, I was finally
able to install the OS from the MPE FOS tapes. I'm still a rooky at MPE but,
after threee days of tinkering, I got it to work... YIPEE!!!
Let me tell ya, over the last few days, I have learned a LOT about
installing that OS.
Still having trouble configuring the system with a line printer. Not sure if
the problem is with the printer, the configuration, or me (naw couldn't be).
When I connect my HPIB printer, the system has trouble finding other devices
on that chain. That printer was working with my /42 but, it was on a port
all by itsself. The /37 doesn't have as many I/O ports as the /42 so, my
options are considerably more limited.
Anyway, I finally have a "Classic 3000" that doesn't double as a space
heater. Both me and my air-conditioner are happy. Many thanks to Joe for
turning me on to this *great* find.
See Ya,
Steve Robertson <steverob_at_hotoffice.com>
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Received on Wed Mar 15 2000 - 08:56:24 GMT