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The last time I tried to run my 486 (months ago, at least) it gave me a 1 long, 2 short error beep pattern, which means a display adapter problem. After removing and re-seating the card several times and numerous reboots, it consented to function. We figured the contacts had gotten corroded or something from sitting abandoned under the piano bench for months on end.
This time, it gave me first 8 short beeps - "Display Memory Read/Write Failure" - and after the buzz of memory test, 2 more short beeps - apparently "Parity Circuit Failure (incorrect memory checksum)".
In other words, the thing has got bit rot from disuse, and is pretty much toast. *snif*
My dad doubts that I can simply stick the hard drive in one of the other computers around here to see if what I was looking for today was actually even on the disk or not. I don't see why; I would have thought that reasonably-modern-IDE was reasonably-modern-IDE and that if I could find out the drive's parameters (heads/cylinders and all that), I could successfully install it. I think it dates from the mid 90s. I seem to recall that it's a 500 MB drive. ("Omigosh! Whatever will I do with all that space?") Is there some reason I'm not aware of that I can't temporarily put it in one of our current computers? (I say "temporarily" because everyone has all four IDE slots filled, heh.)
By the way, what I'm hoping to find there is a particular spirograph drawing program that I got on a disk of shareware that was included in a book describing each program on the disk. The book is ca. 1990, give or take; I know I ran the programs on our XT clone, which we bought in 1989 (IIRC). I have googled but not turned up anything which seems likely.
I have not even stopped to think whether I could even get it to run under XP or 2K, since its requirements are something like "MS-DOS 2.0".. well, burn that village when I pillage it.
Blergle.
This time, it gave me first 8 short beeps - "Display Memory Read/Write Failure" - and after the buzz of memory test, 2 more short beeps - apparently "Parity Circuit Failure (incorrect memory checksum)".
In other words, the thing has got bit rot from disuse, and is pretty much toast. *snif*
My dad doubts that I can simply stick the hard drive in one of the other computers around here to see if what I was looking for today was actually even on the disk or not. I don't see why; I would have thought that reasonably-modern-IDE was reasonably-modern-IDE and that if I could find out the drive's parameters (heads/cylinders and all that), I could successfully install it. I think it dates from the mid 90s. I seem to recall that it's a 500 MB drive. ("Omigosh! Whatever will I do with all that space?") Is there some reason I'm not aware of that I can't temporarily put it in one of our current computers? (I say "temporarily" because everyone has all four IDE slots filled, heh.)
By the way, what I'm hoping to find there is a particular spirograph drawing program that I got on a disk of shareware that was included in a book describing each program on the disk. The book is ca. 1990, give or take; I know I ran the programs on our XT clone, which we bought in 1989 (IIRC). I have googled but not turned up anything which seems likely.
I have not even stopped to think whether I could even get it to run under XP or 2K, since its requirements are something like "MS-DOS 2.0".. well, burn that village when I pillage it.
Blergle.
no subject
Date: Sep. 10th, 2004 04:22 pm (UTC)From:Having an improperly jumpered drive will sometimes cause the computer not to see anything on that channel (primary or secondary), and could occasionally make it fail to detect any drives. All depending on the BIOS. But the problem would go away as soon as the jumper setting was corrected or the drive removed. No chance of permanent harm.
no subject
Date: Sep. 10th, 2004 04:44 pm (UTC)From:I seem to recall that our older ones didn't, and that it was in the documentation. I know all the ones I've installed recently have. I quite read the label without taking the drive out, though. (Currently it's sitting reassembled under the piano, since this is medium-sized surgery (in terms of hassle) which I don't feel like bothering with at the moment.)
Having an improperly jumpered drive will sometimes cause the computer not to see anything on that channel (primary or secondary), and could occasionally make it fail to detect any drives.
I only missed it the one time (hence example). We've been building up computers in this house since *koffkoff*. ^_^