Date : Sun, 30 Oct 2005 21:49:37 +0000
From : Annihilannic <annihilannic@...>
Subject: Re: Guess age from serial number?
(apologies for sending directly to you the first time, Pete)
Pete Turnbull wrote:
>> I've got a Beeb here with the serial number 001013. It seems to be
>> quite an early one - the power supply is one of the black variety,
>> half the RAM chips are socketed. Unfortunately I can't see the
>> issue number because a disk-controller daughterboard covers it.
>> Anyway - anyone know if it's possible to guess an age from a serial
>> number?
I have just started playing with one that a friend gave me last year;
Ser# 02-B01-213287, with an Issue 7 board. I presume it's one of the
more common garden varieties?
> All the early machines had a black linear PSU, so that's not too
> surprising, though Acorn did try fairly hard to get them all
> replaced. There were, IIRC, three different types, and all were
> troublesome. One type was merely underpowered and didn't last well
> (or stay very cool) in a fully fitted machine; others were less nice.
> One was known as the "adapter and exploder" because of a trait it
> sometimes exhibited when overloaded. I doubt many of those are left,
> somehow.
Anyway, last night I was happily typing in the Lunar Lander programme
from the BBC User Guide with the beeb sitting on my lap when suddenly
pfffffft! and some foul smelling white smoke started floating out of the
speaker holes... I switched it off and turned it over, and more white
smoke came out of the vents underneat... I guess my leg was covering the
vent under the power supply. It had been on for an hour or so... could
that be the only reason, or is the PSU just showing its age? The
machine kept running, and still boo-beeps when I plug it in, although
I'm hesitant to leave it on now.
Could this PSU be one of the ones you were talking about?
http://galaxy4.net/misc/beeb_mainboard.jpg
I did have a 5-pin DIN to stereo RCA audio cable plugged in at the time,
I hope the two missing pins are the ones used for motor control on the
special 7-pin DINs. A perhaps foolhardy assumption I made when plugging
it in to my laptop to use as a recording device (works a treat).
On another note, I gather a Wordwise ROM is installed... what is
Wordwise, and how would I load it? Are the other slotted chips nearby
also optional ROMs (only WordWise and DFS are listed in *HELP)?
http://galaxy4.net/misc/beeb_roms_perhaps.jpg
--
Annihilannic