rxf@genrad.uucp ( Ruben D. Fagundo ) (10/27/89)
I have been experiencing a problem with my rainbow and my ST225 hard drive. On rare occasions, when I turn on the computer, the ST225 starts to spin and before it comes up to full speed it shuts the whole system off. I believe the power supply is being overloaded but it doesn't make sense on such a small drive. Has anyone had any similar problems with a larger hard drive? Do you have to swap out your supply when you put in a large hard drive? Also, what exactly is code blue? Can I use it without DOS 3.1? Ruben
GTHEALL@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU (George A. Theall) (10/29/89)
Let's start with the easy question first. Code Blue is a commercial program from Intersecting Concepts that provides a degree of PC compatibility for Rainbow owners. I'm almost certain you can run it with DOS versions below v3.10; however, Code Blue together with the more recent version (v3.10b) offers near complete compatibility. You'll even get a character ROM that displays the PC's character set! You can find Code Blue advertised in any recent issue of _Rainbow News_; or you could call Suitable Solutions (who markets it for Intersecting Concepts) at 1-408-727-9090 or as 76666.3003@Compuserve.Com. As for hard disks and power supplies, do you have a 100A or 100B? The 100A has a weaker power supply which was not intended to be used in a machine with a hard disk. When DEC sold hard disk upgrade kits for the 100A, they also included a beefier power supply. This doesn't mean you won't be able to run a hard disk in an A - I had a 20MB LaPine Titan drive in my system (TRUMPed up to a B motherboard but with the 100A's original power supply) and nary a problem for ~3 years. Further, disk size and power consumption do not correlate well: early models (eg, 5MB and 10MB) were much less efficient than more recent ones. Although I'm not knowledgeable enough about hardware to give a "yes/no" answer to your question, it does seem likely that the power supply's to blame for your problem here. I mean, at boot power consumption is the highest, right? Perhaps you could expand on what's happening when you say "it shuts the whole system off". Do you get any error messages? What about the diagnostic LEDs on the Rainbow's back? George --- BITNET: GTHEALL@PennDRLS Dept. of Economics Internet: GTHEALL@PennDRLS.UPenn.Edu University of Pennsylvania AT+TNet: 215-898-3419 Philadelphia, PA 19104-3987
rodger@violon.chorus.fr (Rodger Lea) (12/01/89)
Hi, 2 quick questions from a novice rainbow person, - where can I get a good book describing the architecture of the rainbow from a programming point of view, ie what's in it, where, and how you program it ? - I've got a 100b with memory upgrade (and that's about all I know !) - no hard disk. If I was interested in putting a hard disk in it - what are my options ? (please note that I'm based in France, so names of good disk suppliers on the west coast etc, won't work :-) However, anybody in France - or preferably the UK (I'm in exile !) who use these things would be a good contact ! Lastly, as a fairly long shot, anybody out there using SmallTalk (PC versions) under whatever it took to get it running (code-blue Dos3.X, Unix, serial line to Cray, etc etc) or am I really wasting my time? I'm aware of 'little Smalltalk' which is PD and I'll get that running as soon as I get a C compiler - but I'm interested in the the slightly more complete systems, Actor (under Windows) is also of interest. Also I've heard vague rumours about object oriented extensions to Pascal in the latest Turbo relase (v5.5?). Anybody got any experience and care to comment on how 'object oriented' they are. (I'd cross post the last question to comp.object or one of the object language newsgroups, however, since such questions tend to stir up the ever present religous war in this field, I'll wait 'till I fail here :-) Cheers etc, Rodge.