Gary Kjos
garykjos at gmail.com
Fri Apr 11 17:15:59 CDT 2008
Hi again Gustav, Ha! That is Wild. I still have an old 386-SX computer in a box in storage. The biggest mistake I made in all the computers I have had over the years. It was a "compatable" assembled by a local company. The 80386-SX was a crippled 386 with only a 16 bit external bus and the ability to address less memory. I had nothing but trouble with that system. But I still have it in it's original box. It has an 80MB Hard Card hard drive in a card on it. That was my first WINDOWS system although as I recalled it would run so slowly it was unusable for the most part when running Windows. Was either version 1 or version 2 of Windows. It did have a VGA color monitor though. A 14" NEC Multi Sync that still works today even though I have it stuffed under a desk at home presently as a "just in case" backup monitor. Only works to 800x600 of course. I guess it's time to dig that system out of it's box and see if it still works. If not it's time to send it to the recycler I suppose. GK On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 4:44 PM, Gustav Brock <Gustav at cactus.dk> wrote: > Hi Gary > > Right. Debug! Those were the days. > But would you believe, this info is still on-line! Amazing: > > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/60089 > > /gustav > > >>> garykjos at gmail.com 11-04-2008 23:18 >>> > > > Hi Gustav, > > Ah yes, life was simpler then. If you had two floppy drives you were > happy because you could have the program disk in one and a data disk > in the second. Or maybe keep the Dos boot disk in one and put a > combined program and data disk in the second 360K 5.25 floppy. I > remember when I got my first hard drive on my home system. I was > extremely reluctant to give up EITHER of my floppy drives to make room > for that hard drive. I originally got a hardrive that was mounted on a > full width expansion card so I could keep both floppies. I had nothing > but problems with that hard drive on a card though and eventually > dumped it for a regular drive. I remember backing up and restoring > that problem drive on floppies. Took 3 boxes of 360K floppies. Took > several hours of switching them in and out. Then to do a low level > format I had to go into DEBUG and do a function to kick it off from > the controller someplace. So that part wasn't simpler I guess. > > But once I got over that I did learn to live with a hard drive instead > of that second floppy. I remember something called a Tallgrass hard > drive I think it was that we had at work. An External drive. Maybe 5Mb > or possibly 10 MB. It had a tape drive built into the external drive > controller too as I recall. My recollection is that the original IBM > XT we had cost something like $5000 and that Tallgrass was another > $5000. So prices have come down a little too. > > GK > > On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Gustav Brock <Gustav at cactus.dk> wrote: > > Hi Gary > > > > So much have changed. Remember having the floppy controller on a separate add-on board and full height 5.25" floppy drives. > > And the motherboards? My first 486 board was a full size board - one half of it covered by DIL sockets you had to fill to reach the massive amount of RAM of ... 4 MB! > > > > But the old PC keyboard is still the best ever made. The sound was fabulous and the soft feeling has never been surpassed by any other keyboard. At work I still have my original IBM PS/2 keyboard (without the sick Windows buttons of course) but at home I have one of those plastic keyboards with a sound like a piece of toy. I hate it. > > > > /gustav > > > > >>> garykjos at gmail.com 11-04-2008 20:26 >>> > > > > > > That's crazy, who needs THAT MUCH memory? Overkill for sure. Such a > > waste <Very Big Grin>. > > > > I forgot about the need for add on memory. Seems odd today that > > putting memory on an add on card at the bus speed that that stuff runs > > at verses the memory channel bus would even be acceptable would it? > > > > GK > > > > On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 11:32 AM, Gustav Brock <Gustav at cactus.dk> wrote: > > > Hi Gary > > > > > > Oh right, so that's what the AST SixPakPlus (Type 1) Part Number 201177-001 is for: > > > > > > The SixPakPlus is a multi-function Memory Expansion board designed for the IBM > > > PC and XT and 100% compatibles running at 4.77 MHz. In it's standard > > > configuration, it comes with anywhere between 64K and 384K of RAM using > > > industry standard 64K dynamic RAM chips, a Clock/Calendar a Serial Port > > > configurable as COM1: or COM2: and a Parallel Port configurable as LPT1 or > > > LPT2. All memory installed on the SixPakPlus is designed to expand your PC to > > > it's 640K maximum. It does not support extended or EMS/EEMS type memory. In > > > addition to the basic configuration, it can be configured with a Game Port. > > > > > > /gustav > > > > > > >>> garykjos at gmail.com 11-04-2008 18:09 >>> > > > > > > > > > That's why you had to enter date and time on bootup as I recall. There > > > was an add on card with a battery available as an aftermarket option > > > along with some extra serial and parallel ports and maybe a joystick > > > controller too? It's been a long time though. My memory could be > > > clouded by the years. > > > > > > GK > > > > > > On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 10:41 AM, Gustav Brock <Gustav at cactus.dk> wrote: > > > > Hi Rocky > > > > > > > > Still have batteries? What are you talking about? > > > > When I open my IBM PC XT no batteries are bolted to the motherboard - it runs on mains power! Very clever. > > > > > > > > /gustav > > > > > > > > >>> rockysmolin at bchacc.com 11-04-2008 17:18 >>> > > > > > > > > Batteries? Motherboards still have batteries? > > > > > > > > Rocky > > > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > -- Gary Kjos garykjos at gmail.com