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TRS-80 Model 3 - (no floppy drives on system - 16K) Strange boot screen

L

lennyfortnash

New Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2024
Messages
5
I just repaired a TRS-80 Model 3 that I bought on OFFERUP, that was delivered with a broken CRT. I installed a new CRT, and things seemed to be fine, expect it boots up with a strange screen that I can not find anywhere on the internet. Really, I have looked for hours. Fortunately, that is how I found, and became a member of this forum.
It boots to the following screen:

NO CARRIER:CHECK PHONE LINE & MODEM NTAT PG7
SYMB LAST TICTREN CHANGE BID ASK HIGH LOW SETTLE
>

I do not have a cassette hooked up, so is the default to try to boot to a MODEM, or is there possibly some kind of a custom ROM?

Pressing BREAK, or CLEAR does nothing. Trying to boot while holding down BREAK does nothing. The same screen come up no matter what keys are pressed during boot up.
And Nothing you enter at the ">" prompt does anything.

Any guidance is greatly appreciated.
Thank you
-Lenny
bad boot screen.jpg
 
Yeah, that looks like a custom ROM conversion. I’m guessing the machine has the optional RS-232 card installed?

I suspect you’ll have to replace the ROMs to turn in back into a normal Model III; I’m sure someone would be interested in dumping and archiving these ROMs, though. Never heard of a conversion like this.
 
Eudimorphodon said:
Yeah, that looks like a custom ROM conversion. I’m guessing the machine has the optional RS-232 card installed?

I suspect you’ll have to replace the ROMs to turn in back into a normal Model III; I’m sure someone would be interested in dumping and archiving these ROMs, though. Never heard of a conversion like this.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the response. Any idea where I can get the original ROMs? I have looked on eBay, but do not see any.
 
lennyfortnash said:
Thank you for the response. Any idea where I can get the original ROMs? I have looked on eBay, but do not see any.
Click to expand...

Ugh, that's a good question. Maybe someone else knows of a source that's selling the original parts? (A couple years ago there was a guy on eBay that was selling Model III motherboards for around $20 each; I bought one with the intention of seeing if I could hack it into a frankenputer but I haven't gotten to it yet; unfortunately the cheapest Model III motherboards now are $100 BIN.) It should also be possible to replace the original ROMs with programmed EPROMs; it might be necessary to adapt the sockets slightly, maybe another poster knows off the top of their head what specific EPROMs are directly compatible?

... That does raise an interesting question; are the replacement ROMs in there mask ROMs, or EPROMS?
 
Patrick.B (TTR) said:
by the display it looks like a custom "stock exchange" rom/boot terminal conversion
Click to expand...
Looks like you are 100% correct. When I just tried booting while holding down the BREAK Key, I saw on the very top line of the display STOCKWATCH.
So now at least I know what this TRS-80 was used for. At this point, I either need to find some ROMs, or disassemble and sell the parts (not something I want to do). Thank you Patrick.
 
lennyfortnash said:
Looks like you are 100% correct. When I just tried booting while holding down the BREAK Key, I saw on the very top line of the display STOCKWATCH.
So now at least I know what this TRS-80 was used for. At this point, I either need to find some ROMs, or disassemble and sell the parts (not something I want to do). Thank you Patrick.
Click to expand...
If you know anyone that can read those ROMs please consider having them dumped.
 
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