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AlphaMicro Systems AM1000, AM1200, & maybe AM100L drive replacement

TyRoden said:
Just found this thread - there is so little out there about these machines. I used to work on them in the late 80's as a service tech and I used to travel to sites and work on them, though in fairness I was still pretty green back then. I recently dug out an old AM-1000E I had in storage, and it is of course failing to boot. I considered recapping it first, but gave it a shot anyway. I picked up a little terminal box (no longer have any serial terminal hardware unfortunately - picked up "Legacy Pixels ASCII VT 100 Compatible Terminal Emulator RS232 Serial" as found on eBay) so I could hook up to the serial and try for some level of communication, no dice. I am getting just a '6' error, so I will be going through the socketed chips and hitting them all with DeOxit to clean them up and see where that lands me. If anyone has any other advice for me on this - my failing memory of all things Alpha Micro would love the advice.

Just really glad to find you all. I was just at Maker Faire Orlando, and had this machine setup in the Vintage Computer section, just wish it was functional to show more people. I was amazed at just how many avid vintage fans have absolutely no idea what Alpha Microsystems machines are.
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I've had good luck 'talking' to old AlphaMicros (and PCs, and Mac's) with a serial to USB connector like eBay item 351484161659, and perhaps a null modem adapter like item 271347283041 - connecting to a USB port on my laptop. I use Teraterm on the laptop.
Is your code a SIX or a BEE ?
 
curbie said:
ok, first, you need to make sure the status is actually showing a '6' not a 'b', the difference being the top segment (of 7 segment display) being lit for a '6', and for the 'b' it's not.

The 'b' typically means it can't find either the primary (i think a 55mb. vertex on a stock 1000-e) or secondary (vcr,str,flp) boot device, and the '6' means the boot code can't be moved from the proms to ram, for some reason.
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No - it is actually a 6 and is lit for it. Other than lighting that up - it is quite dead seemingly.
 
mikenoel37 said:
I've had good luck 'talking' to old AlphaMicros (and PCs, and Mac's) with a serial to USB connector like eBay item 351484161659, and perhaps a null modem adapter like item 271347283041 - connecting to a USB port on my laptop. I use Teraterm on the laptop.
Is your code a SIX or a BEE ?
Click to expand...
Thank you - I went ahead and bought both just in case my current setup is an issue. Much appreciated.
 
the boot proms pop the '6' before copying the code from the prom into memory, reading the boot id (which defines the primary and secondary boot sequence), then jumping to execute that code, now in ram. the secondary boot code typically overwrites the '6' with a 'b' so fast, that you never see the '6'

could mean boot proms (typical in my experience, especially if the cover was off, UV can start clearing proms), ram, or other stuff. i think you'll need to start eliminating some potentials.
 
The cover has been on this unit, and it was sitting snug in its original box for probably the last 15 years. I will start with that by cleaning all chips. We shall see.
 
cleaning and de-oxidizing the legs and sockets of all chips along with pins and connectors of all cables is always where i start, i also coat the pins and connectors with a silicone dielectric grease before reinstalling. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016E5E59G/ref=syn_sd_onsite_desktop_182?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pd_rd_plhdr=t)
the salt air in Florida can play with connections.

would also meter the power supply, these are both free (less time).

i'm also curious if the "RUN" light stays on after the initial reset, or turn off after a few seconds, which may indicate a hard crash or endless loop?

then i think you'll need to start eliminating some potential problems. initially, i'm curious about the proms, do you have a prom burner?

i think this is why this is called a "hobby".
good luck.

curbie
 
Ok - I was not familiar with the dielectric grease - much appreciated on that recommendation. I picked that up too. Amazon loves this house lol. I will be metering out anything that I can of course also - I'm sure the caps are already way out of spec and they should be replaced, I'll begin working on that portion too.

My 1000E does not ever get to the run light - I get the '6', then thats it. The power light stays on, but Run does not ever light. I do not have a prom burner unfortunately.

Thanks for the help.
 
Well, if worse comes to worse, i'll have two sets cooked for you, one for each SASI and SCSI drives. it just can take me a long time to get people to help me, because I can't do it all myself, so don't loose patients.
 
Take your time - just having any help at all - no matter how long it takes is great. It will take me time to reseat and test all the chips anyway - too many hours at work, and with the family for timely hobby stuff anyway ;-) Thank you
 
no sweat, i work with anyone trying to get an 100/l, 1000, or 1200 up. (was my wheelhouse in the stone age)
spend most of my time in my office, with a computer that alerts me when new e mail shows up, so pretty much here all the time for help.
 
Has anyone looked into replacing the cmos batttery on their AM-1000 (1200, ...)? I think its probably this (https://www.completebatterysource.com/alpha-micro-am1200-battery.php) which I'm pretty sure is also the battery for the AM-120, AM-100T, and AM-100L s-100 cards.
I got one, it looks right, but haven't had a chance to unsolder the old and solder in the new one yet. Gonna try to "socket" it... Will report back with results in a week or so.
BTW, Complete Battery Source is not very responsive. Despite my efforts I had no post order communications with them and thought my order had vanished into the ozone, but a few weeks later the battery showed up in the mail!
 
yeah mike,

i had my battery replaced on my 1000 this year and it seems fine, although the date/time chip is for the wrong century (correct date, wrong day of week).
can't remember where i got the chip although the picture looks the same. My rusty recollection was that those batteries where 3.7V and that one claims 3.6V,
i would think that you be fine as long as it holds a charge.

i didn't have mine socket-ed but it's a good idea, as a general rule, if a chip needs to be de-soldered i always use the best sockets i can find, lately the machined barrel types. it occurs to me that i had some jumper pin installed on a xebec lately, and just chopped up some header sockets, maybe would work for you too?

 
When it rains, it pours, I just got in three more Alpha Micro computers including another AM1000, although this one is a 1000XP, with a Fuji 70mb drive, a 706 memory expansion board, and a Piiceon 16 port expansion board. It got a little damage during shipping, the drive screws holding the drive to the case shook free, and ripped up the drive cable at least, the mother board still displays a “b”, but with no “F”, so it’s not finding the monitor.

Out of the 1000 or so drives we had under maintenance, I never seen a bad Fuji, this may be the first one, although I haven’t tested the system with a known good drive yet.

I also got an electric screwdriver for doing screws with one hand, so now there is more I can do myself, there is still maintenance stuff I can’t do, although I managed to fix and get booting my old 1000.

While thinking about both of these 1000’s it occurred to me that my old 1000 was a REV. A, and the new 1000 is a “XP”, the first and the last of the model, I will test whether SCSI (for SCSI2SD) was a part of later boot proms, or SCSI required different proms?
 
I think you're correct classic, but either way, one of the projects I have backed up, is to burn some backup boot proms. I don't know if the SCSI proms I have will boot SASI drives either, we'll find out. I have a known good pre-reef CMI 10mb, and questionable Quantum 30mb, and Fuji 70mb SASIs that I want to test.
 
Finally back in Alaska for the summer and dragged the AM1200 out again. As Murphy would have it it's not as good as it was last fall! Now the self test says

Controller # 1 - Controller Self-test passed
Controller # 1 - Drive One:
Find diagnostic cylinder failed*
?Disk error: AA 70 00 02 00

I used a zuluscsi rp2040 to backup that drive last year, so thought to just remove the old hd & hookup the zuluscsi as drive zero. No Go. Here's the zulscsi log attempting normal (not self test) boot

[10ms] Platform: ZuluSCSI RP2040
[10ms] FW Version: 23.05.04-release May 4 2023 16:37:33
[11ms] DIP switch settings: debug log 0, termination 1
[11ms] SCSI termination is enabled
[12ms] Flash chip size: 4096 kB
[14ms] SCSI target/disk mode selected by DIP switch, acting as a SCSI disk
[22ms] SD card detected, FAT32 volume size: 29496 MB
[22ms] SD MID: 0x27, OID: 0x50 0x48
[23ms] SD Name: SD32G
[23ms] SD Date: 3/2022
[23ms] SD Serial: 0x21022071
[24ms] Reading configuration from zuluscsi.ini
[25ms] Active configuration:
[26ms] -- SelectionDelay = 255
[26ms] -- EnableUnitAttention = No
[26ms] -- EnableSCSI2 = No
[27ms] -- EnableSelLatch = No
[27ms] -- MapLunsToIDs = No
[28ms] -- EnableParity = Yes
[75ms] Finding HDD images in directory SamplerZone:
[76ms] -- Opening SamplerZone/HD00_moded.hda for id:0 lun:0
[95ms] DBG ---- Image file is contiguous, SD card sectors 4218944 to 4503983
[96ms] ---- Read prefetch enabled: 8192 bytes
[99ms] -- Platform supports ROM drive up to 3740 kB
[100ms] ---- ROM drive image not detected
[100ms] SCSI ID:0 BlockSize:512 Type:0 Quirks:0 ImageSize:142520kB
[201ms] Initialization complete!
[23950ms] DBG ---- SELECTION: 0
[23952ms] DBG scsi_accel_rp2040_finishRead(0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 ) detected parity error
[23953ms] DBG ---- COMMAND: TestUnitReady
[23953ms] DBG ------ OUT: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
[23954ms] DBG ---- STATUS: 2 CHECK_CONDITION, sense 0x00004700
[23959ms] DBG ---- MESSAGE_IN
[23959ms] DBG ------ IN: 0x00
[23960ms] DBG -- BUS_FREE
[23960ms] DBG ---- SELECTION: 0
[23961ms] DBG scsi_accel_rp2040_finishRead(0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 ) detected parity error
[23962ms] DBG ---- COMMAND: TestUnitReady
[23963ms] DBG ------ OUT: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
[23963ms] DBG ---- STATUS: 2 CHECK_CONDITION, sense 0x00004700
[23969ms] DBG ---- MESSAGE_IN
[23970ms] DBG ------ IN: 0x00
[23970ms] DBG -- BUS_FREE
[23970ms] DBG ---- SELECTION: 0
[23972ms] DBG scsi_accel_rp2040_finishRead(0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 ) detected parity error
[23973ms] DBG ---- COMMAND: TestUnitReady
[23973ms] DBG ------ OUT: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
[23974ms] DBG ---- STATUS: 2 CHECK_CONDITION, sense 0x00004700
[23983ms] DBG ---- MESSAGE_IN
[23983ms] DBG ------ IN: 0x00
[23983ms] DBG -- BUS_FREE

"SELECTION: 0" thru "BUS_FREE" repeats endlessly...

Suspecting either bad zuluscsi config or incompatible boot roms. Here's the zuluscsi.ini

[SCSI]
# Settings that apply to all devices
Debug = 1 # Same effect as DIPSW2, enables verbose log messages
SelectionDelay = 255 # Millisecond delay after selection, 255 = automatic, 0 = no delay

# Settings that can be needed for compatibility with some hosts
Quirks = 0 # 0: Standard, 1: Apple, 2: OMTI, 4: Xebec, 8: VMS
EnableUnitAttention = 0 # Post UNIT_ATTENTION status on power-on or SD card hotplug
EnableSCSI2 = 0 # Enable faster speeds of SCSI2
EnableSelLatch = 0 # For Philips P2000C and other devices that release SEL signal before BSY
MapLunsToIDs = 0 # For Philips P2000C simulate multiple LUNs

# Settings that can be specified either per-device or for all devices.
Vendor = "rhcomp" # 8 char max string
Product = "SCSI2SD" # 16 char max string
Version = "5.2" # 4 char max string
Serial = "1234567812345678" # 16 char string
Type = 0 # 0: Fixed, 1: Removable, 2: Optical, 3: Floppy, 4: Mag-optical, 5: Tape
TypeModifier = 0 # Affects only INQUIRY response
SectorsPerTrack = 18 # For floppies
HeadsPerCylinder = 255 # Drive geometry

# Where the images are
Dir = "SamplerZone"

Not totally sure which big IC's are the boot proms, but the two 2764's near U75 have alphamicro copyright notices on them and are labeled 178-00 B05 and 178-01 B05.

Wondering if anyone has traveled this way before...
 
Sorry Mike, can you refresh my memory on what hard drive you're trying to boot from?
 
attempting to boot from a zuluscsi containing an image from original hard drive, pictures attached
 

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