Diagnosing the Altos 8000

From: Pat Finnegan <pat_at_purdueriots.com>
Date: Sat Jun 15 19:08:58 2002

OK, I've got the system set up on my 'test bench.' The system powers up
and says:
----------------------------------------------------
 ALTOS COMPUTER SYSTEMS
  Monitor Version 5.03

Insert Floppy Disk in Drive 1 for Autoload
----------------------------------------------------

Ok, now I insert a disk into drive 1 (which has it's LED on, close the
door, it comes up to speed, and then nothing happens. The drive heads do
not load onto the disk liked they're supposed to. A quick check with my
multimeter reveals that all the PS voltages (including +24V) are pretty
close to their ratings. All the cables are seated securely,

Swapping the drives fixed the problem, and it will now boot 32K Altos CP/M
2.2. Sort of a waste with 208K of RAM, but I guess I'll try to figure out
how to manufacture an MP/M-II BIOS for it, and get it onto a disk.

CP/M-1.4 won't boot, however. It does read OK once I've booted CP/M 2.2,
so it might just be a problem with its first track (it doesn't seek at all
either). Same problem with the 'CP/M diagnostics disk' Any ideas?

I've got a CDC 8" SS drive I got off ebay a few months ago I might try to
use to replace these drives. Does anyone know if it's possible to use
four drives on the system, since the drives have a DS1-DS4?

Also, is there a way to run the diagnostic programs (.DIA files on the
diagnostics disk) without booting from it?

Pretty soon, i'll probably be digging into some CP/M source and attempting
to at least get a 64k version running on here...

Thanks

-- Pat
Received on Sat Jun 15 2002 - 19:08:58 BST