Date   : Sun, 05 Dec 1999 20:26:14 +0000
From   : Mike Tomlinson <mike@...>
Subject: Re: Questions

In article <3.0.5.32.19991023123248.0082d1e0@...>, Michael
Foot <mikef@...> writes
 
>2 of the BBCs are Econet only machines. The issue 7 motherboard tracks are
>a much brighter green than other BBCs I've seen and one has blue IC sockets
>for the ROMS.  Were there Econet only machines released by Acorn, 

Yes.  They even did the Master in an Econet only version called the
'Master ET' - Econet Terminal.  It had a lot of the non-essential
hardware missing.

>One of the BBCs has a Solidisk 32k s.w.e. ram board in it but I don't have
>the Solidisk software to load the board up. Can someone please send me a
>disk image of the utilities that originally came with this?

I have a disk labelled 'Solidisk Utilities'.  Not sure what this has on
it, and unfortunately it's one of the ones that won't read on my PC (I
can get most discs to read with a bit of furtling, but this is one of
the recalcitrant ones.)  It'll have to wait until next time I unpack the
Beeb and disc drive.

>As I said before, 2 of the BBCs don't work. All they do when switched on is
>to blow the (newly fitted) fuse.

if this is the fuse in the plug, check the cord at the point where it
enters the strain relief grommet at the back of the PSU.  It commonly
breaks here due to people winding the cable around the Beeb for storage.

if this is the internal fuse, most likely the bridge rectifier has
developed a short diode, or the switching transistor has failed.  Common
faults.

(Apologies if I'm replying to some of these posts several weeks later -
just got back from a couple of weeks in Florida.  It's nice to see the
list is keeping busy.)

-- 
Mike Tomlinson