Altair-what do I do first

From: Erik S. Klein <classiccmp_at_vintage-computer.com>
Date: Wed Sep 25 09:03:00 2002

It's probably an 8080BT, but that's just a guess at this point.

The Altair I "rescued" with tons of help from Dwight and others from
this list was also a garage piece for a long time. I brought it up
piece by piece as was suggested in one of the previous replies. I
didn't separate card logic from the regulators on each card, but I did
power each card individually to see what might go pop. I got lucky with
capacitors but some of the front panel TTL was bad and needed repair
(Dwight and his 'scope saved my ignorant butt on that!)

With the machine running I realized that 6 of 7 RAM cards I had were
either completely dead or unreliable. I don't know if that was just
dumb luck or a result of rough handling before I got the machine but it
was shipped wrapped in clear bubble wrap then embedded in Styrofoam
peanuts and the cards were left installed in the machine resulting in
broken card guides and split slots.

If you do decide to keep this machine expect equal portions of fun and
frustration, which I think pretty well defines this hobby.

Erik S. Klein


-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Ron Hudson
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 10:33 PM
To: ClassicCmp_at_vintage-computer.com; Classic Computers
Subject: Re: Altair-what do I do first

On Tuesday 24 September 2002 09:26 pm, you wrote:
> Ron,
>
> You are seriously looking to potentially trade the machine?
>
> Erik
> www.vintage-computer.com

yes, seriously, my eyesight is not much good for soldering, or chip
reading.

Everyone - Please remember this is not the altair you think of with the
blinky
lights and switches, it does have a video out (some sort of terminal
board)
and floppy drives. It has been sitting in a garage for some time, and
it's
only an offer so far, not delivered.
Received on Wed Sep 25 2002 - 09:03:00 BST