Hi, all,
I have a PDP-8E system with 24K (2x8K core, 8K DRAM), RK8E with two RK05's,
RX01 8" floppy drive system, and a paper tape reader/punch (the reader
needs work). I'm running OS/8 V3D.
It was working perfectly for the longest time, then, very suddenly when
accessing either RK05 drive, I get errors that are kind of strage.
I don't get I/O errors, but errors appear to be corruption of data, e.g.,
a stuck bit or the like. Doing a DIR on a drive gives an invalid directory
error rather than an I/O error. So, whatever is happening, the data seems
to be coming off the drive OK (no CRC errors or other drive errors), but in
the process of getting dumped into memory, it gets messed up.
The machine boots up just fine off RX01 and runs beautifully, and completely
reliably. Based on this, it appears that the problem is likely in the
RK8E controller.
On the RK05's, I've got KERMIT and ENCODE/DECODE, which made it easy to
get programs off of a PC onto the 8/e. However, since I can't talk to the
RK05's, I don't have access to these anymore. I don't have copies of these
programs available on floppy.
I need to somehow get the MAINDEC RK8E diagnostic loaded onto the machine
to try to see what is going on with the disk controller.
I need a simple way to transfer the binary image of the paper-tape
version of the diagnostic from a DOS PC to the 8/e, without having
to toggle in a big program.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Rick Bensene
The Old Calculator Web Museum
http://www.geocities.com/oldcalculators
Received on Mon Jun 11 2001 - 10:37:19 BST