DEC stuff

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Sat May 13 10:19:55 2000

At 12:30 AM 5/13/00 +0100, Tony wrote:


   (Lots of details about the DEc monitors snipped)


   Thanks for the info. I have a Rainbow that I need to fix too so that
should be a big help.

>> Hmmm. It has a RD53 (85 Mb) drive in it. Maybe this is why I couldn't
>> get it to boot. Or am I missing something?
>
>No, I think the RQDX2 (at least with the right ROMs) can handle this
>drive. Unless there's reason to believe the drive has been swapped since
>the machine last worked, I'd not worry about this. RD53s do have a
>well-known failure mode where the heads stick to the 'rubber bumper'
>inside, but this results in the drive failing to stay spun up. Does your
>drive seem to behave properly in this respect?

    What exactly do you mean that they "fail to stay spun up"? This one
seems to spin up fine but I didn't notice how long it kept spinning. I
don't know if it's seeking or mot. I don't remember the exact error but it
was "drive not ready" or something like that. (The error for the floppy
drives was invalid or missing media but that's not surprising since there
were no disks in them.) Is there a way to check to see if the head is
sticking to the bumper or to release it? I wouldn't be surprised if this
one is sticking, it's been sitting in storage for a good while.

     Joe
Received on Sat May 13 2000 - 10:19:55 BST