As I mentioned in: https://savagechats.com/index.php?topic=427.0, I purchased another laptop.
(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/W~UAAOSwcltoVcey/s-l500.jpg)
Ain't she a beauty?
This one was kind-of a mistake - I low-balled the bidding with a $20 max bid. While browsing for my long-sought Bondwell Model 2 (Z-80, running CP/M 2.2) this 80C88, XT laptop caught my eye. I never thought that I would be able to win it (although, I did bump it up by $10 yesterday afternoon. ;) )
Any way, now that I won, as soon as it comes in, I will begin setting up a couple floppies (there is no HD on this model,) for an MS-DOS setup (or maybe I'll get one of the 720K CP/M-86 system disks, and do a CP/M format for a data disk. 8) ) We shall see.
Quote from: granz on Jul 14, 2025, 05:37 PMThis one was kind-of a mistake - I low-balled the bidding with a $20 max bid. While browsing for my long-sought Bondwell Model 2 (Z-80, running CP/M 2.2) this 80C88, XT laptop caught my eye. I never thought that I would be able to win it (although, I did bump it up by $10 yesterday afternoon. ;) )
LOL Nice...
Unfortunately, the floppy drives do not work. :'( The guy said that he tested it, and it was OK, except that he didn't have a boot disk for it - even though the boot disk was in the A: drive (and a games disk was in B: drive.) He did not actually test it, because the floppies did not even try to spin up! >:(
I contacted him, and he agreed to give a full refund (including sending me a shipping label,) but he is in Iowa (lives in Skokie - the suburb just North of Chicago) on a bicycle ( :o ) trip, and won't be back home until next Sunday.
I really like the keyboard. The keys are Cherry MX Blue switches, which are really good mechanical keys. I tried typing on it (not powered up) and my typing was much better (feeling) than on my main computer (Lenovo P71 laptop.)
There was someone who reported that they had replaced the on-board floppy drives (720K) with standard 1.44 MB drives, and the computer just treated them as old 720K drives. But, even then, there is no guarantee that this will fix the laptop. Since the drives do not even start to turn, it may be the controller, or even that the battery is not strong enough - although I did let the laptop sit on the charger for many hours.
I just tried it again, and noticed that the Drive A: LED does light up. The Power/Low Battery LED is also lit up green. But without any documentation, it's hard to tell if that means that it has power, or that the battery is low. ???
There have been many times that I have taken a battery operated device, in which the battery would not do anything until I had left it on the charger for extremely long times (over 24 hours sometimes,) then the battery would work (at least partially.) So, I just put the laptop on the charger, and will let it set until Monday, or so. That should give it enough charge time to eliminate that as a cause. Also, the battery pack is sealed, but looks like it could be opened without much trouble by cutting along the seam. Based on the time period of this laptop, I will guess that the battery contains NiCd cells. It is possible that replacing them with new Nicd, or even NiMH, cells could fix the issue - if it is power-related. Although, the seller would probably not appreciate getting his laptop back with the battery pack violated.
So, I have a week to decide what I want to do - whether to send it back, or keep it. Thirty-some bucks just for the keyboard may be a good enough deal. In a worst-case scenario, I could gut it and replace the motherboard with a Raspberry Pi (or Pico, or ...) That may be another good possibility.
Well, we shall see.
Just after posting, I remembered a video review, where the guy did not have any battery for his B200. He was able to get it to boot without the battery, just the charger.
So, I gave that a try. This time, however, I noticed an LED inside the drive itself light up. Next I placed my ear right up against the laptop - this time I heard the drive spin up, but no stepping of the R/W head. So, the drive does spin up, it just doesn't step looking for the boot track. So, maybe it is not a power trouble.
I did try four other boot disks (including a CP/M-86 boot disk.) No success. I put the battery back in, and will wait until Monday (trying to "keep holy the Sabbath" - no working on belligerent laptops on Sunday, as that causes swearing and other non-holy behavior. ::) )
The Bondwell B200 powers up, and does the memory count, but then, when it tries to boot from the floppy, the drive spins up, but there is no sound of the head stepping to try to read the boot sector. Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this, or how to fix it?
P.S. Cross-posted in VC Fed (https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/floppy-drives-not-seeking-boot-sectors.1253831/), and EEVBlog Vintage Computing (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/vintage-computing/floppy-drive-not-seeking-boot-sectors/) boards.
I would really love to be able to get this up and running. But I do have the option (decide by next Sunday) to keep it or send it back. Hopefully, it will be something fairly easy, and I can get it up and running.
Do the drives just slide in or is there a cable?? maybe needs cleaned/loose?
Quote from: JKnightandKARR on Jul 21, 2025, 09:10 PMDo the drives just slide in or is there a cable?? maybe needs cleaned/loose?
I haven't actually done any checking yet (you know, "if you break it, you by it." :P ) And, while I have actually already bought it, I wasn't sure how much I wanted to do to check it out. I just thought that since the guy who sold it to me won't be back home until this Sunday, I might try a few things.
Someone over on EEVBlog suggested checking the rail to make sure that the grease had not hardened, or anything blocking the head. I guess that I'll check that out.
Well, it seems that this journey has come to an end. :( After finally getting up the strength, I finally opened the laptop up, and replaced the A: drive with the Go-Tek that I ordered for it. Closing it up, I plugged it in to charge up the battery pack and went to download an MS-DOS boot image for it.
Unfortunately, very soon, I noticed the smell of burning electronics. Of course, it was quickly unplugged, and placed outside. Well, like I said above I got this by accident, and it was pretty cheap. So, not a huge loss.
Since I purchased the Go-Tek for this computer, I will remove, and keep that. The floppy drive had somehow gotten the head carriage jammed outside the track, and that is why it would not step looking for the boot sector. You can see (where the red arrow points) where that little black tab on the head carriage got on the outside of the metal frame.
(https://files.granzeier.com/Downloads/SavageCircuits/BadDrive.jpg)
The keyboard may end up in one of my projects (or, maybe just end up on a shelf waiting for a project which never comes, although it is an amazing keyboard. :-[ )
If any of my friends here on Savage///Chats would like this, I can ship it out for the price of shipping.
Quote from: granz on Oct 23, 2025, 04:17 PMIf any of my friends here on Savage///Chats would like this, I can ship it out for the price of shipping.
Are you referring to the keyboard? I'll have to wait until I get home so I can see any images that might be in this post before I raise my hand. ;)
Quote from: Chris Savage on Oct 23, 2025, 04:45 PMAre you referring to the keyboard? I'll have to wait until I get home so I can see any images that might be in this post before I raise my hand. ;)
I was actually referring to the computer. But, I can leave the keyboard, and you can take it out yourself. If you would like, I will even leave the Go-Tek (720KB - not 1.44MB) for you.
Quote from: granz on Oct 23, 2025, 04:55 PMI was actually referring to the computer. But, I can leave the keyboard, and you can take it out yourself. If you would like, I will even leave the Go-Tek (720KB - not 1.44MB) for you.
I'll be honest...the most perfect keyboard for my retro systems are Commodore keyboards. They terminate to a SIP interface 8x8 matrix + the shift lock. I'm collecting them.
Quote from: Chris Savage on Oct 23, 2025, 10:39 PMQuote from: granz on Oct 23, 2025, 04:55 PMI was actually referring to the computer. But, I can leave the keyboard, and you can take it out yourself. If you would like, I will even leave the Go-Tek (720KB - not 1.44MB) for you.
I'll be honest...the most perfect keyboard for my retro systems are Commodore keyboards. They terminate to a SIP interface 8x8 matrix + the shift lock. I'm collecting them.
Got you, no troubles as I am completely capable of
not shipping something. ;D
Quote from: granz on Oct 24, 2025, 06:27 AMGot you, no troubles as I am completely capable of not shipping something. ;D
The other cool benefit of the C= keyboards is that the bread bin case can hold my prototype stuff, so it really makes a clean development environment. ;)
Quote from: Chris Savage on Oct 24, 2025, 08:46 AMThe other cool benefit of the C= keyboards is that the bread bin case can hold my prototype stuff, so it really makes a clean development environment. ;)
I'm not sure what you mean by the
bread bin case.
Quote from: granz on Oct 24, 2025, 02:39 PMQuote from: Chris Savage on Oct 24, 2025, 08:46 AMThe other cool benefit of the C= keyboards is that the bread bin case can hold my prototype stuff, so it really makes a clean development environment. ;)
I'm not sure what you mean by the bread bin case.
I am guessing it's a bread bin that he uses to hold his stuff in to keep things neat.
Quote from: JKnightandKARR on Oct 24, 2025, 07:20 PMI am guessing it's a bread bin that he uses to hold his stuff in to keep things neat.
That was one of my guesses, too. But I wasn't anywhere near certain of that, so...
Quote from: granz on Oct 24, 2025, 09:09 PMThat was one of my guesses, too. But I wasn't anywhere near certain of that, so...
CLICK HERE (https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=aa2ba8f55dbfec51&rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS1185US1185&sxsrf=AE3TifPrSm34ZpOlSA_gfyij4x4YJJ62jA:1761361423837&udm=2&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6MJ25_tmWITc7uy4KIeioyp3OhN11EY0n5qfq-zEMZldv_eRjZ2XLYc5GnVnMEIxC4WQfoNDH7FwchyAayyomVtyMIlwCjX48LT0TrXSNU5mLhW4DIlZIt3-gwG8mMeXC-Y0JFzx5GBuU59za0o5XLXRovSVas40d3y4gTUxobLZ8-C-h3aNfCXmcENPvCZqzMdA&q=commodore+64+breadbin&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiCr_TPrr6QAxWPFVkFHWGlAz0QtKgLegQIExAB&biw=1920&bih=911&dpr=1)
Quote from: Chris Savage on Oct 24, 2025, 11:04 PMQuote from: granz on Oct 24, 2025, 09:09 PMThat was one of my guesses, too. But I wasn't anywhere near certain of that, so...
CLICK HERE (https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=aa2ba8f55dbfec51&rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS1185US1185&sxsrf=AE3TifPrSm34ZpOlSA_gfyij4x4YJJ62jA:1761361423837&udm=2&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6MJ25_tmWITc7uy4KIeioyp3OhN11EY0n5qfq-zEMZldv_eRjZ2XLYc5GnVnMEIxC4WQfoNDH7FwchyAayyomVtyMIlwCjX48LT0TrXSNU5mLhW4DIlZIt3-gwG8mMeXC-Y0JFzx5GBuU59za0o5XLXRovSVas40d3y4gTUxobLZ8-C-h3aNfCXmcENPvCZqzMdA&q=commodore+64+breadbin&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiCr_TPrr6QAxWPFVkFHWGlAz0QtKgLegQIExAB&biw=1920&bih=911&dpr=1)
So, you were talking about the size/shape of the Commodore cases. That was another guess. It seems to me that I had heard that term some time in the past, but I wasn't certain about that.
Quote from: granz on Oct 24, 2025, 09:09 PMQuote from: JKnightandKARR on Oct 24, 2025, 07:20 PMI am guessing it's a bread bin that he uses to hold his stuff in to keep things neat.
That was one of my guesses, too. But I wasn't anywhere near certain of that, so...
Or I wasn't even close..... lol
Quote from: granz on Oct 25, 2025, 06:26 AMSo, you were talking about the size/shape of the Commodore cases. That was another guess. It seems to me that I had heard that term some time in the past, but I wasn't certain about that.
I didn't come up with the term. Computer cases have changed a lot since the Apple II / Commodore VIC-20 days. At some point the Commodore style was referred to as the Breadbin case, as opposed to the Apple II / Coco style cases, and eventually the PC cases.