On Thu, Jul 25, 2019 at 10:46 PM Eric Dittman via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:> >> I pulled my Pro380 out of storage... > > Okay, I looked at the slot and it looks like one of the first pins is > missing: > > https://www.dittman.net/pro380/pro380missingpin.jpg
Bummer. I have a floppy controller that had the wiper in the ZIF socket fail so it won't unclamp all the pins to slide down the backplane slot. I suppose you need what I need - a dead board to steal the connector from. There are short and long connectors - so far, I see the short connectors on I/O cards and long connectors on memory and video cards. I haven't dug into the reference manual deep enough to see the signal differences. > I removed the HD controller and it fails to boot from floppy as well. > The error codes change but seem to point to the RX50 drive being bad. I've had 1 or 2 RX50 drives go out over the years. They are essentially unrepairable outside of simple mechanical failures (broken door latches mostly). > I had another Pro380 but it's come up missing so I can't swap parts. > I guess I'll keep an eye out for another one. I only have one Pro380 (a former console for our VAX8530 from the 90s) but I've been able to borrow test parts from a Pro350. Unfortunately, I have fewer full-sets of cards than I have boxes (classic N-1 problem). I seem to have a lot of memory cards and only one extra bitplane (color graphics) card. I think I have one wonky primary video card (garbage video) and one RX50 controller with a broken ZIF connector. 20 years ago, it was easy to find cheap/free Pro350 pickups. I haven't seen Professional boxes in the wild in quite some time, and I don't remember anyone selling loose cards. Perhaps they did but they weren't visible about it. -ethan
