Trouble with the Tandy 3000HL

FritzLakritz · Oct 26, 2013

Hello,
i finally got my hands on the Tandy 3000 HL :-D.
I managed to get it back to work, but still got two problems to solve.

1.)
While boot, it says:
Invalid configuration information - please run SETUP programm.
Diskette drive seek to track 0 failed.
While boot, the floppy drive starts spinning and the head returns to track 0 but nothing more.
It works flawless on a 386, so i thought it would be the wrong drive
and tried another one, but this one didn't done anything.
(even tried to use a different controller).
So my first Question: The built in drive is a Mitsubishi MF501B-321M (360KB)
Is this the right one ?

2.)
Since i wasn't able to run any bootdisks, there was no way to configurate the original harddisk (ST-251).
I bypassed this by using a SCSI controller with a prepared harddisk.
So i've was at least able to run the SETUP programm.
(got it from: http://support.radioshack.com/setup.htm)
But it still says:
Invalid configuration information - please run SETUP programm.
At boot. And this
ERRORS FOUND -
CONFIGURATION RECORD BAD
in the Setup-programm. :-(

Any Idea how to deal with this ?

greetings from Jena
Fritz

MikeModifed · Oct 26, 2013

Setup program here: http://support.radioshack.com/setup.htm

Other info here: http://support.radioshack.com/support_computer/1420.htm

Mike

FritzLakritz · Oct 27, 2013

MikeModifed said:
Other info here: http://support.radioshack.com/support_computer/1420.htm

Thanks, that was exactly what i need.

I've got the floppy drive running now, but I'm still getting this at boot:
Invalid configuration information - please run SETUP programm.
I already got the 3000HL.exe setup file from the support page, and the configuration seems to be fine.
Can the battery cause this, even with a soft reset ?
Well i will try to replace the battery as soon, as i get a new one.
Thanks
Fritz

kb2syd · Oct 28, 2013

In order to run the setup you need a 360k MS-DOS boot diskette with the setup program on it. Not impossible to create, but not the easiest thing in the world if you don't have all the tools in place.

facattack · Oct 30, 2013

Pictures! I want to see the beast!

wesleyfurr · Oct 31, 2013

Does it have a good battery in it? Though the absolute first thing I would do is remove the old battery...if it leaks, your nice new Tandy is toast...don't ask me how I know.

If the battery is old and weak, it won't hold the settings you set with the setup program...though if you don't power it off, I would think the settings would hold through a Ctrl+Alt+Del reboot.

According to my notes, the 3000HL, model 25-4070 shipped with a 360k floppy drive. So of course you will need a 360k floppy disk, and ideally a 360k drive to write to on another machine. Could be the drive just needs a cleaning or has gone bad. Looks like there was an HL model 25-4071 also...not sure if the specs are different on that one. I've actually got an HL also...but haven't had a chance to do much with it yet.

Wesley

FritzLakritz · Nov 1, 2013

wesleyfurr said:
Does it have a good battery in it? Though the absolute first thing I would do is remove the old battery...if it leaks, your nice new Tandy is toast...don't ask me how I know.

I know the problem with the battery. Got a dead A500+ here :-( .
This one is extern and looks good, but that doesnt mean its not dead ;-)

wesleyfurr said:
According to my notes, the 3000HL, model 25-4070 shipped with a 360k floppy drive. So of course you will need a 360k floppy disk, and ideally a 360k drive to write to on another machine.

Thats what i thought too, but strange, if it loses power , it will set Drive A+B to 1.2 MB causing this trouble. So i simply replaced the 360 kb drive with a 1.2MB one.
Would be interessting to know, if your HL does the same .
Anyway, on this way i was able to boot the Setup disk.