OT computers

Max for your system RAM is probably 2GB total(considering availability). At $20 each ($40+shp) for tested/used sticks.

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Reply to
Bob_Villa
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Hmm, 256? I'm guessing you're not counting card input, print output. That's at least 120 for print, 80 for the card, leaving only 56 bytes for code. The 1401 was great for compact code though.

Reply to
Dan.Espen

I know this is straying from the topic, but your core comments brought back some memories. I have a core board here somewhere that I bring out every now and then to show people. I think it holds a whopping

4096 bits. (64 x 64 It looks like a window screen with small magnetic donuts at each intersection - you can determine the size by counting the bits). And, your 11.5 us cycle time equates to a 85 kHz processor

- not megahertz - not gigahertz - but kilohertz. Those were fun times. You had to write what any modern programmer would call terrible unsupportable code to get it to fit in the available memory and run fast enough. Things like changing the program on the fly so the next time an instruction executed, it would do something else.

Reply to
Pat

I was really just talking about the program code. If you fire off a "2" command, whatever is in 201-332 is going to end up on the paper. so you would need more than 256 total memory unless you can get it in

44 characters. You can use those dedicated spots as your operand areas tho. Read a card, do some math on what is in the card read area and output it to the print area. Easy in 44 bytes ;-)

Now if we could just get rid of that pesky 101-180 punch area.

Reply to
gfretwell

I had a 1kb plane out of an M2I array (360m25&30 along with the first ten 3145s). There were 17 planes making 2 bytes and a parity bit. (16kb)

I ended up giving it to a guy making a small computer museum over on comp.sys.ibm.ps2

Reply to
gfretwell

Do you remember those computer programs that would play a song on an AM radio you put on top of the CPU frame.

They did not really have FCC certification in those days and it would punch through the detector on an AM radio.

Reply to
gfretwell

The Daring Dufas wrote in news:lhag8s $t34$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Huh?

Reply to
Jax

I recall putting code there more than once.

I remember the unfriendly look on the IBM salesman's face when I pointed out that our 8K 1440 would have to be replaced with a S/360 with at least 64K. 32K wasn't going to cut it.

Reply to
Dan.Espen

COBOL huh? We had some assembler shops that were running OK in 32k.

Reply to
gfretwell

I never tried that, but I do remember playing the marine hymm on an attached 1403 printer. Back to terrible programming techniques used to save memory, we used ascii but needed to interface with EBCDIC IBM mainframes. So, we had to use up a valuable 256 bytes for a translation table. Of course, not all those characters were actually used, so we put small subroutines in the unused parts of the table. For years afterwards, we had to maintain that table with its goofy values for backward compatibility.

Reply to
Pat

Hi, It all depends which part of the logic the cap is located. Until you see some thing caused by any component going bad you wouldn't believe things happening in the field(real world). Bad cap even scres up critical rise and fall time of a clock pulse. My job as a Sr. systems support specialist was looking at this sort of things with multi channel logic analyzer set up to catch things when it happens. Some things glitch once in a blue moon but we know it is happening and we have to catch it to generate engineering mod. with design engineers.

Some problems originates from poor quality control. Bad batch of chips or parts will incur wasted expenses. Purchasing agent at logistics has big responsibility in this regard. Timing I was dealing with was nano seconds or fraction of it. Ordinary O'scope is unable to display it. Storage scope captured signals had to be displayed in sort of scaled slow motion to analyze it. x86 PC was used as a diagnostic tool to trouble-shoot large scale multi layer logic board down to component level. Any one heard of checking logic circuits by serial bit shifting method?

Reply to
Tony Hwang

If you're really going to try to keep the old computer you'd be better off if you do a couple of things. first, you can get the manuals for it here:

formatting link

Most older computers have a hidden partition from which the original system can be re-installed. According to your manual, your model doesn't have that, but came with an XP CD instead.

If you still have the CD and still have your software CDs you should copy all of the patches, SP3, etc. to CDs or memory sticks, then re-install XP with the Dell CD. That will give you a fresh setup that should run as well as the day you got it.

After that, re-install your patches and software.

But a much better approach would be to first try to find someone who can help you install a new hard disk, *then* run the Dell XP CD on that. (It's not hard to install, but there are some details to know about, and it might take some work to find the right kind of disk. (Known as EIDE or PATA.)

A fresh install will make everything run better. You don't need more memory or anything else, unless you're doing something like photo editing on very big digital photos. If you want more RAM you can always add it later, but the best thing is to re-install XP.

You're running on borrowed time with a 12-year-old hard disk. It could go at any time. You *might* get another 3-4 years out of the computer, with good functionality, if you re-install *and* put in a new hard disk. Otherwise you're probably better off not wasting any more time or money on it.

Reply to
Mayayana

I agree with the above analysis. But we're talking about a failing leaky electrolytic cap causing the system speed to slow down. AFAIK, the uses for electrolytic caps in a PC are either in the power supply or on the MB, I/O boards, etc where power enters the board to serve as a source to smooth voltage variations, ie supply current to meet transient switching needs. At least for anything to do with logic. They would also be used on say an audio or video card for the analog section. But in the case of the digital logic portion, I can see how a bad cap could easily make the system lock up, give a blue screen of death, etc. But like others here, I'm having a hard time understanding a mechanism whereby it just slows it down. I suppose maybe a failing cap on some I/O board or something could cause that to behave erratically, causing the same interrupt signal being tripped constantly, which the CPU then has to respond to. That might explain it I guess.

Reply to
trader_4

It sounds like you are straining yourself...where your muscles are weak! *L*

Reply to
Bob_Villa

If you hurry, you can reload XP, turn on updates and MS will send you everything to get it up to current patch level. I just did one.

Then take Disk Wizard or some other similar program to image that disk. You will have a great backup for when you get that inevitable disk crash or just a way to set the way back machine to the day you loaded it. I have several images of this machine in several steps from day one until about a week ago.

Reply to
gfretwell

(Belarc description of the system posted elsewhere.)

Your cheapest solution is a reconditioned obsolete office PC (e.g. Lenovo/IBM M52) for $50 to $100 (without monitor.) These usually come with Windows XP Professional preinstalled, 1 or 2 Mb RAM and a hard drive of 40 to 80 Gb. You can add another

500 Gb hard drive for another $50 which will copy over all your old drive until you decide what to do with it, and increasing RAM to 4 Gb will improve operating speed. (Newer drives connect SATA rather than PATA. The DIM 2350 lacks SATA connections but the M52 has both types.)

If WinXP suits your needs and hardware, there is no need to buy a newer Operating System until future software or hardware obliges you to. Standard antivirus protection (e.g. Malwarebytes) will keep you safe even after MS support for WinXP ends.

Reply to
Don Phillipson

scan-chains are built into most modern ASIC's (including processors).

Also known as boundary-scan shift-chains.

Typically used at the FAB when testing chips.

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

Yep.

With Assembler, you're still looking at a huge increase over equivalent Autocoder. You might get by with 32K vs. an original 8K but it's not going to be easy.

Our 1401 Disk I/O routine was 500 bytes.

Reply to
Dan.Espen

Hi, Slowing things down can mean increased error rate which require retries. If cap is leaky(not total failure yet), it can sag voltage rail potential. You're talking in terms of PC in general? Like BSOD? There was such a logic board with CML logic which used to draw couple hundred Watts of power, in this case little leaky cap is not detrimental for system failure but it can cause all kinda funnies. In a situation like this years of actual field experience combined with superior basic knowledge is the only way to tacckle it. Engineers with green horns don't even have a faintest clue encountering this kinda issues when customer(big corporations, government, military, etc.) is breathing down on his back asking when system will be up. Literally I saw a young kid breaking down in tears in total loss. Remembering I was once like that I always tried to be nice to them giving every thing to their credit. But there were types who tried to live their lives only with BIG mouth. I hated those kind. Usually big liars to cover their a**. This type is the worst one to bail out. Because of those stupid lies. I am glad I am retired now. I have a 100% track record. I never failed to solve a problem in the field(all over the world) I encountered for almost 40 years.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

No: max. RAM for the Dell Dimension 2350 is 1 Gb (insufficient for Win8 as recommended by BV March 30.)

Reply to
Don Phillipson

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