What happens if you press the <Break> key down while powering up...it
should take you into ROM Basic with a "cass?" prompt.
I grew up with a Model III and it's been a while, but I don't remember
there being an error message if it doesn't find disk in the drive.
Matter of fact I don't remember any text error messages from the boot
loader.
If you can get into ROM Basic, it probably means you have a bad boot
disk.
-Chandra
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Sellam Ismail
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 3:32 PM
To: Classic Computers Mailing List
Subject: TRS-80 Model III
I am trying to get a TRS-80 Model III working. When I turn it on the
disk
drive spins for a while looking for a disk I presume. All I get on the
screen are wispish diagonal lines as if the horizontal hold is all
whacked.
I managed to unstick one of the video adjustment knobs on the left
underside but all it does is affect the brightness level. The other one
requires a screwdriver to move at all (shimmying it up and down) and
does
not seem to affect the display. I haven't opened it yet to see what
adjustments are inside. I'd rather not, but there don't seem to be any
adjustment pots accessible from outside the case.
What's weird is that I have access to a bunch of TRS-80 Model 3's here
at
the ACCRC and pretty much all of the ones I have played with so far are
basically "dead" in this manner. The one I'm working on just came in
today and is in the same state. Also, the video knobs on the left
underside are all stuck on everyone I've tried to get working. What is
the deal with that? Do they get rusted over time or something? Very
annoying.
The fact that the disk drive spins up when I turn it on is a good sign I
hope.
Any help on this would be appreciated. I know next to zero about the
TRS-80 series.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
Festival
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Received on Wed Aug 07 2002 - 06:16:00 BST