Date   : Thu, 06 Dec 1990 19:48:10 GMT
From   : crash!mwilson@nosc.mil (Marc Wilson)
Subject: Strange Kaypro problems

In article <1990Dec2.050319.25685@techbook.com> fzsitvay@techbook.com (Frank
Zsitvay) writes:
>In article <1990Nov30.143804.28107@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> wieland@ea.ecn.purdue.edu
(Jeffrey J Wieland) writes:
>>In article <1990Nov29.234234.3270@techbook.com> fzsitvay@techbook.com
(Frank Zsitvay) writes:
>>>  now i'm wondering - do i have a 2x or a 2/83??  on my machine, the motor
>>>times out (in fact, it stops right after the disk access, but the light
>>>stays on.  this thing also has to be the fastest booting-from-the-floppy
>>>machine ever built.  (tick tick tick A>  )

[stuff deleted]

>   ok, mine has one serial port, and no graphics or attributes.  also,
>after formatting a double sided kaypro floppy on my AT with uniform,
>the kaypro claimed it was a single sided floppy, so apparently it has
>single sided drives.

     You got it.

>would i need to change the bios to add double
>sided drives??  (i'd like to put qd drives on it, or better yet, 1.2
>meg AT floppies by faking the controller to think it's talking to
>an 8 inch drive, if that's possible.  is there a rom available that 
>would allow 8 inch drives to be connected to a kaypro??

     No, you don't need to change the BIOS, but you DO need to:

       a) add double sided drives
        b) add one jumper to enable the side select line on the
           interface

     The Kaypro as sold cannot deal with 8" drives. The data transfer
rate over the interface is twice as fast as your 5" drives.  This goes
for the AT drives, too.  This is why you need a new controller when
you add a 1.2 or 1.44 Mb drive to a PC.

>   also, what is needed to upgrade the video to the 84 standard??
>i use vde as a text editor, and it need reverse video to show
>control characters.

    You don't upgrade it.

>   also, how do you tell if the machine has a IV motherboard???  if
>mine does, then i could probably get dsdd or qd drives to work
>in it.

     You've already done the test.  You only have 1 serial port,
therefore you have an '83 series machine.  Since it's only got SSDD
drives, probabilities are REAL high that you do, indeed, have a 2-83
motherboard.

     To tell for sure, look closely at your motherboard.  The original
2-83 had motherboard 81-110.  The 4-83 had motheboard 81-240.  They
are basically the same motherboard except for some jumpers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marc Wilson
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-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marc Wilson
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           ...!crash!pnet01!pro-sol!mwilson@nosc.mil
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