leaknoil
Experienced Member
I picked up a Advantage 8/16 this weekend from someone that used to work for Northstar. He told me it hadn't been turned on in 20 years and well it looked like it. Its still in excellent condition but, needed some serious cleaning.
Anyway, made it all new looking and reseated everything that could be reseated. All looks good. Power it up and get one beep and nothing more. Fuse in the power socket blew. Luckily it had a spare in it. Swap them and now it beeps and lights up and will even load a disk when I randomly mash keys but, the screen shows nothing. Nothing changes when I adjust the brightness knob in the back. It doesn't seem like the tube is being powered or may be dead. No typical CRT sounds and doesn't feel warm or make the hair on my arms stand up when pressed against it.
Dead tube ? I know nothing about the CRT side of old computers. Honestly I dont like messing with them. Welcome to any suggestions. Double checked all connections and they appear fine.
He also gave me what look to be original factory blue print schematics for the thing. Has hand written corrections on it and is an actual blueprint not something out of a manual. I guess he designed the production floor for the Advantage there. Also the internal telephone directory for Northstar in 1984 which is kind of cool. That and 50lbs of other docs. I'd love to get this working.
Anyway, made it all new looking and reseated everything that could be reseated. All looks good. Power it up and get one beep and nothing more. Fuse in the power socket blew. Luckily it had a spare in it. Swap them and now it beeps and lights up and will even load a disk when I randomly mash keys but, the screen shows nothing. Nothing changes when I adjust the brightness knob in the back. It doesn't seem like the tube is being powered or may be dead. No typical CRT sounds and doesn't feel warm or make the hair on my arms stand up when pressed against it.
Dead tube ? I know nothing about the CRT side of old computers. Honestly I dont like messing with them. Welcome to any suggestions. Double checked all connections and they appear fine.
He also gave me what look to be original factory blue print schematics for the thing. Has hand written corrections on it and is an actual blueprint not something out of a manual. I guess he designed the production floor for the Advantage there. Also the internal telephone directory for Northstar in 1984 which is kind of cool. That and 50lbs of other docs. I'd love to get this working.