Hello,
I am currently studying the System/23. I would like to hear from users in this forums, especially but not limited to whoever had a broken unit and is waiting for a cure.
In the current state of my study, I may be able to help raising some deadweights into working units.
I would need you to report the current state of your systems, the fault they have (or had) and if you solved any previous nuance, what did you do to solve it.
Regards,
Jaume
Good morning,
I have ordered some prototypes for possible patches for this computer. Once tested, if they work as expected they would be able to recover broken units whose symptoms is just a black screen. For the time being, they would not work all the cases but only situations where RAM and ROM are involved.
As detailed technical information has been lost, I am reverse-engineering it in order to document it. Some ports have been discovered, but most are still to be found.
Regards,
Jaume
For today, I have a probe to test the system - it is a simple probe that displays the number of test the computer is performing. It is so simple that it only contains the leds and the driver ICs to control them. As the Datamaster only displays the diagnostics on the screen if certain prerequisites are met, this device is useful for black screen situations.
https://youtu.be/UrLsx8ZtCpY
By removing the memory board, I have found that the testing stops at the last failed test.
Today I have tested my first rom patch for the two non-banked memories of the computer. With some tweakings it worked as expected and the computer started its testing as usual:
With this simple patch many System/23 will be easier to repair and many will simply return back to life if they issue is only with memories 02h and 09h. A solution for the rest of the ROS memories is underway and should be ordered in the next batch, as well as a ram memory replacement/upgrade and corrected and improved of the parts which came in this batch.
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