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Date   : Mon, 12 Aug 1991 21:26:22 GMT
From   : cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!csus.edu!csusac!sactoh0!ijpc!ianj@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Ian Justman)
Subject: Re: This televideo thing...update

Earl W Phillips <ephillip@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> writes:

> 1) It seems to boot up off the floppy, which I think it calls a>

Are you CERTAIN it's booting off the floppy?  I'm pretty certain
it's booting off the hard drive.  Unless of course you happen to
have a floppy disk in the floppy drive...

> 2) The harddrive (hd) seems to be copnfigured to be the b> & c>
> drives. b> is ok, but c> is trashed with sector problems. I'm going
> to attempt to format some floppies and dump the contents of b> to
> them, then reformat the hd. Anybody got any docs on this procedure?
> Also, anyone know how I can get it to boot off the hd w/o a floppy
> in the drive?

Have you watched the floppy's activity light (if it even has one,
which is rare these days)?  If it lights up when you reference
the C: drive, that's probably why it appears trashed.

> 3) When I type dir at the a> prompt, I get a LOTTA stuff. Can all
> this be on one little old floppy? Or is it mebbe somehow running
> the dir of b> ?

Define "LOTTA stuff".  Try using the command "STAT d:DSK:", where
d: is the drive letter, and that will tell you the capacity of
each "drive".  Check the number next to "Kilobyte Drive
Capacity".  If it's some number above 730,000 then it's your hard
drive partition.  Also you have neglected some very, EXTREMELY
important information.  What model is your Televideo?  Also,
what's the capacity of your hard drive (if you know)?  Without
that information, it will be difficult to help you.

> 4) Is it possible to obtain manuals for this thing, or is that a
> pipedream?

I don't think you'll have all that much trouble.  There are
probably quite a few Televid users out there...

> 5) It seems to have a connection for a paralell printer. Is it a
> straighforward connection, and works immediately upon, say, sending
> stuff to the printer in WS, or do I gotta run some funky printer
> driver/control program too? I'd REALLY like to use one of today's
> high speed printers with this thing. That and the hd is the only
> reason I'm playing with this thing!

I'm not entirely sure that's a "parallel" printer port.  It may
just be a serial port.

> 6) A modem. Where/how to connect it, since it seems nothing came
> outta the other RS232 connector when I had the terminal hooked to it.

Hold on a sec, son.  A DB-25 connector is not necessarily an
"RS-232c" connector.  In fact, I can tell you right now, it is
not.  It's just the most commonly used connector for a serial
port.  "RS-232C", or its more verbose name, "Recommended Standard
232 Revision C", is nothing more than a document recommending
standards for serial communications put out by the Electronic
Industry of America (EIA).  The connector doesn't say it's
"RS-232".  In fact, the connector is used all the time for
parallel ports on IBM and compatible machines as well for serial
ports.  Conversely, not all RS-232C ports use DB-25 connectors.
On most AT's, a male DB-9 is used.  On Macintoshes, Apple II GSs,
and Apple IIc Pluses, they use an 8-pin mini-DIN (Deutsche
Industrie Norm) jack.  On some computers like the Dynabyte
Monarch and the AT&T 3B2/400, modular jacks are used.

Conclusion:  BE ---*** V E R Y ***--- CAREFUL WHAT YOU PLUG INTO
WHATEVER PORT YOU PLUG A PERIPHERAL IN!!!!!!  I fried a parallel
printer on my XT by plugging the cable that goes between the back
of the case and the card with a DB-25 at one end and a 16-pin DIP
header at the other end to the game connector on the multi-I/O
card.

> 7) The terminal that came with it seems to require a lot of key
> punching just to get it going; I gotta reset the baud rate, etc
> everytime I turn it on. Can I just use a simple old dumb terminal,
> preset to the proper baud rate, and leave it at that?

Again, you should have stated what kind of gear for those of us
"who just joined us" to know what the heck is going on.  I might
be able to help because I might have some Televid docs floating
around.

> Well, there's the update! Any further advise is appreciated!

I'll see what "advice" I might be able to give.  Good luck.


Ian Justman               | ...!{ames|apple|sun}!pacbell_
6612 Whitsett Drive       | ...!ucbvax!ucdavis!csusac____|-!sactoh0!ijpc!ianj
North Highlands, CA  95660| "If you can't believe what you read in the comics,
(916) 344-5360            | what CAN you believe?"  -- Bullwinkle J. Moose

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