Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) (03/03/90)
I have a machine, a Codata model 3300, and am in need of help for it! First off, the machine: its a Multibuss-I with a 68k processor, two RAM cards (unknown total. 18*4 rows *2 cards), two 8 port cards, a tape drive controller, floppy disk controller, and hard drive controller. Its got a 5.25" floppy (unknown density. Think its high), two 80meg 8" drives, and a standard (5.25") tape drive. Not to mention, this is a monster machine! Anyways, I turn it on with none of the hard drives or the tape drive attached to it, and nothing happens. The floppy drive LED lights up twice in a row, the head locks twice, and thats it. Can anyone lend me a hand on getting this to boot? I have all the disks needed to boot. The machine was working at one time, went into storage, and made its way to me. Before I got it, it stopped working. Meaning, after it was taken from storage, the owner tried to use it, and it didnt work. Something happened to it before it even was shipped to me. Maybe one of the boards went bad or something? Can anyone help? Thanx! Billy D'Augustine Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (201)989-8161
gordon@prls.UUCP (Gordon Vickers) (03/06/90)
In article <27485@cup.portal.com> Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) writes: > >I have a machine, a Codata model 3300, and am in need of help for it! GOOD LUCK !! We have a Codata 3300 as well and confined it to some "shelf rest" a few years ago after it fell ill. These were once manufactured right down the street from us but the company "dissapeared" without warning one day. Rumor was that they were purchased by Contel but I was not able to find anyone at Contel that had heard of them. I would suggest trying to return the machine and get your money back from the previouse owner. The Codata 3300 was VERY SLOW (even with only a single user logged on) , the operating system was BUGGY and ill supported, and it's unlikely that you'll ever find any support for the machine. If it worked when shelved but not afterwards, prehaps you need only blow the dust out of it and I believe there was a battery for the time of day clock, it there was, replace the battery maybe it's prohibiting a much needed interupt. Once it IS up and running, brace yourself for some dissapointments. The compiler is unforgiving, the utilities are unembellished and depending on which version of the OS you have, you may not have a printer spooler or may have a buggy version of it. It is also full of security holes so excerise extreme caution if you have dreams of running a BBS. I've long been tempted to "surplus" our Codata so I could then bid on purchasing it. I would be so nice to have a multi-user, multi-tasking UNIX system at home. In reality, I've decided to buy an IBM PC compatible. The PC is much better supported, and though I hate it (from a programmers perspective), it is the best choice for my needs and expected needs. The Codata, on the other hand, is now archaic and required hardware maintance about once each year. Gordon Vickers 408/991-5370, at Signetics (Sunnyvale, California, USA ) {mips|pyramid|philabs}!prls!facv01!gordon ** All disclaimers apply ** Earth is a complex array of symbiotic relationships: Every extinction, whether animal, mineral, vegetable, or cultural hastens our own demise.
fyl@fylz.UUCP (Phil Hughes) (03/07/90)
In article <33147@prls.UUCP>, gordon@prls.UUCP (Gordon Vickers) writes: > In article <27485@cup.portal.com> Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) writes: > > > >I have a machine, a Codata model 3300, and am in need of help for it! > These were once manufactured right down the street from us but the > company "dissapeared" without warning one day. Rumor was that they were > purchased by Contel but I was not able to find anyone at Contel that had > heard of them. I have talked to Contel in Torrance, CA many times about the 3300. They certainly did exist. The company I was working for at the time was buying the box and CPU board. Contel refused to sell anything except the complete system (including UNIX -- we were using it for an embedded product) so we took our business elsewhere. > If it worked when shelved but not afterwards, prehaps you need only blow > the dust out of it and I believe there was a battery for the time of day > clock, it there was, replace the battery maybe it's prohibiting a much > needed interupt. Not true. The 3300 would forget the time just fine. The box is composed of some rather stock boards - the cpu is the SUN (Stanford User Network) board used by lots of vendors at the time. Memory is generally Intel. Communications board is Central Data. The funny boards were the floppy and hard disk controllers. Developed by Liberty Bay Computing in Poulsbo, WA. Software was from Unisoft. -- Phil Hughes - FYL - 8315 Lk City Wy NE - Suite 207 - Seattle, WA 98115 (206)526-2919 or LAMB-919 for the strange {amc-gw,uunet!pilchuck}!ssc!fylz!fyl