HP 2114A value??

From: Jay West <jwest_at_classiccmp.org>
Date: Tue Jan 13 22:59:33 2004

Nice. You really don't see 2114's around anymore. And 7900's haven't been
common for a long time either - especially if both work.

If this stuff is clean and in a good authentic rack, I would hazzard a guess
of $800, maybe a little more - but then, it all depends on how bad the
person wants it. At one time, I would have easily paid over 1500 for such a
system, today, I would pass on it even at no charge (that may change after I
finish cleaning the basement) :)

One word of caution - on the 7900A drives, there is no carriage lock
mechanism, and the detent only holds the carriage through very VERY minor
jostles. The only way to lock the carriage (right) is with a special
separate (removeable) metal bracket that screws in. Chance are the drive
doesn't have this, it was normally thrown away when the drive was bought and
unpacked. The 7900A is very unlikely to survive a move if the heads are not
restrained, and without that special bracket, you have to do it with wire or
two to three zip ties daisy chained. You can put one end around the front of
the carriage behind the heads, pass the free ends out the airvent holes in
the back, and tie together tightly.

Speaking of the older (and non-multiplatter disc pack) HP drives, the 7900
has a plus (or minus depending on how you look at it). The 7900 uses an
optical sensor (light through a marked glass reticule). All the other drives
use a servo platter - and if you crash a servo platter it's not easy to
get/make another (unless you have the servo formatting boards, a special
servo head, a DSU, and a servo cartridge). The 7900 doesn't have this
sensitivity - if a platter crashes, just replace it and be done with it.
Another pro/con depending on how you look at it. The 7900 has no internal
power supply, it uses a separate rackmount supply. This means the drive runs
cooler inside. Of course, it also takes much more rackspace and will burn up
the amp allotment for your pdu in a rack quick. Do NOT power up that 7900
drive until you disassemble the filter cavity, air hose, air nozzle,
squirrel cage blower fan, etc. and clean inside and out thoroughly!

As I recall, you can run TSB on it (2000/E) if you have a 12920/12921 mux
set in the I/O section. If i remember right, 2000E wouldn't work with
7905/06 and later drives, you need a 7900 (or fixed head drive, lots o luck
there). Unless you have good copies of OS's on 7900A disc pack, you are
definitely going to need a paper tape reader 2748B to do much usefull with
that system. I have a spare in need of minor repair. You will also want an
HP diagnostic library on 7900A disc media for sure.

Jay West
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe R." <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
To: <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, January 02, 1998 12:39 AM
Subject: HP 2114A value??


>
>
> I have an opportunity to pick up a HP 2114A with the 2155A I/O Expander
> and a 7900 disk drive. It was SUPPOSED to be complete and working when it
> was pulled out of service. The CPU is FULL of cards but only three cards
in
> the IO Expander. What's something like this worth? The current owner
wants
> some of my nicer areospace parts for it. Oh yeah, There's supposeed to be
a
> good size stack of docs with this machine. We looked today but didn't find
> them. Anybody care to tell me more about the computer, expander or disk
> drive?
>
>
> Joe
>
>
Received on Tue Jan 13 2004 - 22:59:33 GMT