Date   : Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:57:33 +0100
From   : mike@... (Mike Tomlinson)
Subject: Free Stuff Tranche III [Results]

In article <4C6042E9.7010402@...>, Rick Murray <rick@...>
writes

>Mmm, I wonder what that was?

Something to do with the video chip and setting a parameter that over-
drove the monitor scan circuitry, causing it to burn out.  The PET had
an integrated green screen monitor and that was the bit that went up in
smoke.

Bear in mind this was 25 years ago :-)

>but can 
>you kill a Beeb from software alone?

Doubt it.

> Or was the PET just a bit naff? :-)

Oh, it was very naff.  Horrible keyboard with no rollover and which
clanged hollowly as you struck a key.  External dual disc drives which
were the size of the PET base unit and dog-slow (remember the Commode
1542 on the C64?).  They were connected using IEEE488 - the recent
discussion about the Acorn IEEE488 adapter triggered my memory there.

The PET was was hinged at the back and you could open it by tilting the
fixed monitor back.  It had a ginormous circuit board, IIRC.

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