Osborne 1 software disks

[mwb]

I'm looking for a bootdisk for an Osborne 1 computer. It does start up and ask for a system disk. The unit has 2 5.25" floppies and a 300 baud modem. If I could get a boot disk with the modem software I could probably fumble my way through making more disks with some of the images I've seen online. But my problem is not being able to write the first disk from a peecee. If anyone can help, I'd apreciate it. I'd be willing to pay a small fee or trade for older peecee (XT and up) hardware and some limited software.
Thanks,
Marc

[Erik]

I can help you out, but not for a couple of months.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, the vast majority of my collection is in storage pending a move. As soon as I recover it all, however, I can make copies of my Osborne boot disk(s) and related software. I think I might also have a terminal emulation package around somewhere.

If you haven't gotten a more immediate response before I'm relocated I'll do what I can.

Erik

[Terry Yager]

I can help you out, but not for a couple of weeks. My O1 is also in storage, but given enough time I'll remember to drag it out and copy a bootdisk for ya. I need to make a trip over to the storage anyways. Don't be afraid to bug me about it if you still need them. I prolly need a few reminders. Let us know if you find them before I can help.

--T

[Terry Yager]

--T

[CP/M User]

"Terry Yager" wrote in message:

> Please disregard the double post...

Next to the [quote] button there should be
an [edit] button & next to that there should
be a button with [x] on it. You should be
able to press that to delete the second
post! ;-)

Cheers.

P.S. (This is what the edit button can do!) :-)
So even once you've posted it, you can
get rid of it. If not, I think Erik can! :-)

[Terry Yager]

Ok, I see the edit button, but there is no [x] button near it. I'm not sure how to use the edit function. I tried just uzing backspace to erase the extra post but that didn't work.

--T

[Erik]

I deleted the extra post.

I'm pretty sure you can delete your own posts, but I'll have to check on that since I can do just about anything with this account. . . :)

Erik

[CP/M User]

[quote="Erik"]

> I deleted the extra post.

> I'm pretty sure you can delete your own posts,
> but I'll have to check on that since I can do just
> about anything with this account. . . :)

Yes, I can delete my own posts using the [x]
button Erik! :-)

So Terrry should be able to as well.

Cheers.

[Terry Yager]

I can go back and edit my old posts, but I don't have an [x] button to delete them. Am I doing something wrong?

--T

[Terry Yager]

Ain't this strange? Now all of a sudden I have the [x] button, but only on this post. Earlier posts still don't have it.

--T

[Terry Yager]

Is it only the most recent post that may be deleted?

--T

[Terry Yager]

Yes, that seems to be what it's doing. Is this a bug, or is that how it's s'pozed to work? Only the last post has the [x] button.

--T

[Erik]

Well, again, I have delete for all posts.

Maybe you can only delete your last one. I'll have to check the FAQ or docs tomorrow when I get some time.

In any event, you can always clear a message with an edit and then PM me to delete it.

Erik

[Terry Yager]

mwb: (getting back on topic)

Bad news mate. I went to storage today and brougt home my O1, but I can't get it to boot. I don't know if my bootdisks have gone bad, or if it is the drives themselves. I'm on my way to the computer store right now, and hopefully will be able to fix my problem tonight. I'll keep you posted on my progress...

--T

[CP/M User]

"Terry Yager" wrote in message:

> Bad news mate. I went to storage today and
> brougt home my O1, but I can't get it to boot.
> I don't know if my bootdisks have gone bad,
> or if it is the drives themselves. I'm on my
> way to the computer store right now, and
> hopefully will be able to fix my problem
> tonight. I'll keep you posted on my progress...

Oh dear. Hope the machine wasn't stored in a
place too hot or too cold. Either of those
elements, could play havoc with the drives
themselves.

Cheers.

[Terry Yager]

mwb: (again)

Well, I took my bootdisks to the computer shop and tried them in my friends machine. Three out of five booted his machine ok, so my problem is hardware. I'll go back tomorrow and strip parts from his extra (parts) machine, and hopefully get my O1 back operational again. At any rate, I should be able to use his machine to make copies for ya. I'll need to know your address to send them along. Email me off the board if you don't want your addy posted in a public forum.
Just click on the (pm) button below. Also, I need to know whether or not you can uze double density disks. The original one like mine (tan case), only supported single densith drives, but with an aftermarket kit you could do double density. The later model, (blue and wbite) all supported double density, afaik.

--T

[Terry Yager]

cpm user,

Not too hot or too cold, but they had been stored in a slightly damp basement for about a year, so they have prolly gone bad from that. The A: drive was always flakey since I've had it, but the O1 allows you to boot from the B: drive with a secret key combo, so it was never a problem for me. The A: drive would read and write disks, just wouldnt boot them. Now my B: drive won't boot either, although it does try to. The head loads, seeks track zero, and begins to read, then it steps thru two or three tracks, then hangs up. Mebbe cleaning the heads will solve the problem. Wish me luck.

--T

[Erik]

Head cleaning can go a long way. The other thing to look for, if you're taking the machine apart anyway, is gunk on the belt spindles. They need to be as clean as possible or the rotational speed of the drive can be affected causing read and write errors.

Erik

[Terry Yager]

Head cleaning can go a long way. The other thing to look for, if you're taking the machine apart anyway, is gunk on the belt spindles. They need to be as clean as possible or the rotational speed of the drive can be affected causing read and write errors.

Erik

Yes, it can. I've rescued other drives that way. I inspected the drive and it appears remarkably clean. In fact, the whole inside of the puter is nice and clean. I've had that machine disassembled before, but I don't rembr if I cleaned it at that time.
Another nice feature of the old drives is that the complete idiot (like me) can check the rotational speed with nothing more than a flouresent light. Some of them even allow you to adjust the speed with a pot on the logic board.

--T

[CP/M User]

"Terry Yager" wrote in message:

> Not too hot or too cold, but they had
> been stored in a slightly damp
> basement for about a year, so they
> have prolly gone bad from that. The
> A: drive was always flakey since I've
> had it, but the O1 allows you to boot
> from the B: drive with a secret key
> combo, so it was never a problem for
> me. The A: drive would read and
> write disks, just wouldnt boot them.
> Now my B: drive won't boot either,
> although it does try to. The head
> loads, seeks track zero, and begins to
> read, then it steps thru two or three
> tracks, then hangs up. Mebbe
> cleaning the heads will solve the
> problem. Wish me luck.

Yes, it sounds like a sad case of affairs.
I do hope it's something which can be
fixed, without resorting to buying more
hardware. I do hope All the Best with
that.

Cheers.

[Terry Yager]

As if ya could even find old parts for spares. Luckily, my friend (and fellow collector) has a parts machine. I might end up with one of those drives. I've donated a whole bunch of stuff to his museum over the years, so he helps me out when he can.

--T

[CP/M User]

"Terry Yager" wrote in message:

> As if ya could even find old parts for spares.
> Luckily, my friend (and fellow collector) has
> a parts machine. I might end up with one of
> those drives. I've donated a whole bunch of
> stuff to his museum over the years, so he
> helps me out when he can.

Well it helps to know someone like that too,
which is great. I don't really know anyone like
that unless there were any carning person in
the Amstrad community wished to donate spare
parts for their Amstrad to me! But as I find,
it's a very reliable machine. The only real
problem I had with it was related to something
in the monitor, fortunately I was able to take
my computer to a TV repair man to get that
problem fixed! :-)

Cheers.

[Terry Yager]

"Terry Yager" wrote in message:

Well it helps to know someone like that too,
which is great.

Cheers.

Yes, mark and I are great friends. He don't usually charge me anything for parts or service. Sometimes we trade off auto service for computer stuff. (As you may see from my profile, I used to be a mechanic). Almost all I know bout puterz I learned from him. He's a great teacher.
I'm afraid I'll only get one drive from him, if any. When uzing hiz O1 today, his A: drive was not working, so we'll prolly end up fixin dat too.

--T

[CP/M User]

"Terry Yager" wrote in message:

>> Well it helps to know someone like that too,
>> which is great.

> Cheers.

> Yes, mark and I are great friends. He don't
> usually charge me anything for parts or
> service. Sometimes we trade off auto
> service for computer stuff. (As you may
> see from my profile, I used to be a
> mechanic). Almost all I know bout puterz I
> learned from him. He's a great teacher.

It's interesting to see that there are a few
mechanics I know who have dabbled into
the likes of Computer Hardware.

I've heard about this bloke who did some
computer stuff on the side, but his main
profession was mechanics. This was
basically just with modern computer
hardware, sadily nothing vintage. But also
provided some other computer services,
such as CD-ROM backups.

<snip!>

Cheers.

[Terry Yager]

"
It's interesting to see that there are a few
mechanics I know who have dabbled into
the likes of Computer Hardware.

I've heard about this bloke who did some
computer stuff on the side, but his main
profession was mechanics. This was
basically just with modern computer
hardware, sadily nothing vintage. But also
provided some other computer services,
such as CD-ROM backups.

<snip!>

Cheers.

It's also interesting to note how many computer techies dabble in mechanics. My friend Mark is very knowlegable in that area also.

--T

[Terry Yager]

mwb:

Made a copy of my single density bootdisk today. Just waiting fr your address to send it to.

--T

[mwb]

Thanks a lot, Terry. My Osborne is of the tan variety. It was the first 'vintage' computer I got. I got it from a friend of mine who collected phonographs, as I did in the past. I've had it for about 7 years and have never been able to get it working because of not having the bootdisks. I'll be moving soon, and am sorting out my collection. I'll only be able to keep a few of them (10 or 12) and the Osborne is one of the 'keepers'. I'll post some of the ones I'm getting rid of here, probably. If there's anyone in southeastern MA/RI (near Boston or Providence) that wants a bunch of tandy or Armstrad stuff (only two amstrad's but 4 or 5 tandy's) and can meet me somewhere, there're yours.
As for mechanics and computers, my last three employers (two repair shops and one small consulting firm) ALL had car repair shops in the past. They said that computer repair was much cleaner if not more frustrating. I myself am pretty useless when it comes to any sort of major repairs, instead helping out my mechanic with his computer problems for reduced rates for repair.
One thing they both have in common, I guess, is the proccess. It's mostly logical thinking, along with the tricks you pick up after doing it for a while. And at least for me, the fun involved with getting it to work. My mechanic friends feel the same way about auto restoration, too, but I don't see it.... :wink:

[Terry Yager]

O h, you musta never wrenched on a '47 Willis before. Talk about your fun...

--T

[Terry Yager]

Oh oh, you said the "A" word... Expect you'll hear from cpm user soon. He's the resident Amstrad freek 'round here.

--T

[CP/M User]

"mwb" wrote in message:

> Thanks a lot, Terry. My Osborne is of the
> tan variety. It was the first 'vintage' computer
> I got. I got it from a friend of mine who collected
> phonographs, as I did in the past. I've had it for
> about 7 years and have never been able to get it
> working because of not having the bootdisks. I'll
> be moving soon, and am sorting out my
> collection. I'll only be able to keep a few of them
> (10 or 12) and the Osborne is one of the
> 'keepers'. I'll post some of the ones I'm getting
> rid of here, probably. If there's anyone in
> southeastern MA/RI (near Boston or Providence)
> that wants a bunch of tandy or Armstrad stuff
> (only two amstrad's but 4 or 5 tandy's) and can
> meet me somewhere, there're yours.

Amstrad based IBM compatable PC are they?
Or are they the PCW or CPC kind?

Maybe Erik might be interested, but the US is
such a big place, so I'm guessing Boston is
nowhere near San José.

> As for mechanics and computers, my last three
> employers (two repair shops and one small
> consulting firm) ALL had car repair shops in the
> past. They said that computer repair was much
> cleaner if not more frustrating. I myself am
> pretty useless when it comes to any sort of
> major repairs, instead helping out my mechanic
> with his computer problems for reduced rates
> for repair.

I myself only like to dabble in the ol'er IBM
compatables because they are less complicated
than a modern IBM in a way.

> One thing they both have in common, I guess,
> is the proccess. It's mostly logical thinking, along
> with the tricks you pick up after doing it for a
> while. And at least for me, the fun involved with
> getting it to work. My mechanic friends feel the
> same way about auto restoration, too, but I don't
> see it.... ;-)

It's like a car, my Dad was a mechanic once, but
car engines today are nothing like what he used to
work on. A simular thing could be said about
computer hardware.

Cheers.

[CP/M User]

"Terry Yager" wrote in message:

> Oh oh, you said the "A" word... Expect you'll hear
> from cpm user soon. He's the resident Amstrad
> freek 'round here.

Really depends on which Amstrad he's talking about.

I'm guessing it might be a IBM compatable based
Amstrad. Though I've heard of people who came
from Canada who had a CPC & if my map (in my head)
of America is correct, Boston is on one side & Canada
the other! :-)

Some of the Amstrad IBM compatables were quite
unusal, there was one with a Sega MegaDrive (or
Genesis - depending on where you come from)
which came with one.

Cheers.

[Terry Yager]

"Terry Yager" wrote in message:

> Oh oh, you said the "A" word... Expect you'll hear
> from cpm user soon. He's the resident Amstrad
> freek 'round here.

Really depends on which Amstrad he's talking about.

I'm guessing it might be a IBM compatable based
Amstrad. Though I've heard of people who came
from Canada who had a CPC & if my map (in my head)
of America is correct, Boston is on one side & Canada
the other! :-)

Some of the Amstrad IBM compatables were quite
unusal, there was one with a Sega MegaDrive (or
Genesis - depending on where you come from)
which came with one.

Cheers.

I dunno bout all he has to offer, IBM PC compatible or not. The sega / pc sounds interesting though...

--T

[CP/M User]

"Terry Yager" wrote in message:

Hi Terry,

>>> Oh oh, you said the "A" word... Expect you'll hear
>>> from cpm user soon. He's the resident Amstrad
>>> freek 'round here.

>> Really depends on which Amstrad he's talking about.

>> I'm guessing it might be a IBM compatable based
>> Amstrad. Though I've heard of people who came
>> from Canada who had a CPC & if my map (in my head)
>> of America is correct, Boston is on one side & Canada
>> the other! :-)

>> Some of the Amstrad IBM compatables were quite
>> unusal, there was one with a Sega MegaDrive (or
>> Genesis - depending on where you come from)
>> which came with one.

> I dunno bout all h3e haas to offer, hough IBM PC
> compatible or not.

Sorry, I cannot quite follow this, do you mind cleaning
it up?

> The sega / pc sounds interesting though...

For memory that machine was either a 386 or 486
(maybe both had the Sega on the side) based
IBM compatable. However having the Sega & PC
under one box might be an interesting machine to
have for a programmer. Unfortunately I could be
wrong about this, but if it were possible to access
some of the effects the Sega provided through the
PC, it would be possible to write some custom
made programs for that machine. The later
Amstrad CPC Plus machines had a console built-in
with the machine, but was also available seperate,
however one of the features with the Console was
the ability to display 4096 colours, aparantly at
first Amstrad claimed that this wouldn't be possible
to do under BASIC, however a little bit of time
proved them wrong. So, in that instance it worked.

Cheers.

[Terry Yager]

Were they ever sold in the states, d'ya know?

--T

[CP/M User]

"Terry Yager" wrote in message:

> Were they ever sold in the states, d'ya know?

Probably the best person to answer this question
would be Cliff Lawson, here's his e-mail:
ask_uncle_cliff@amstrad.com

Support at Amstrad themselves should also be
able to answer that question too:
support@amstrad.com

But as far as I know, I don't think they did release
any of their own computers in the states.

Cheers.

[Terry Yager]

mwb:

I actually remembered to get down to the Post Office today and sent yer bootdisk. Keep us posted on how it works. And, if you do decide to disassemble it to clean the drives, look for a double density mod. It will be on a daughter card located on the main board. Mine has "double density" screened on it so ya can't miss it. I have some other disks that are double density if ya cn uze them. Just rembr, when you go to remove the disk drives, you must remove the entire computer from around the drives...

--T

[Terry Yager]

"mwb" wrote:

It's like a car, my Dad was a mechanic once, but
car engines today are nothing like what he used to
work on. A simular thing could be said about
computer hardware.

Cheers.

These days there isn't much difference. All cars are computerised. All the inputs are connected to outputs. It's a *system*. One sensor going bad affects the entire system.

--T

[CP/M User]

"Terry Yager" wrote in message:

>> It's like a car, my Dad was a mechanic once, but
>> car engines today are nothing like what he used to
>> work on. A simular thing could be said about
>> computer hardware.

> These days there isn't much difference. All cars are
> computerised. All the inputs are connected to
> outputs. It's a *system*. One sensor going bad
> affects the entire system.

Yes, well there was nothing like that back in my Dad's
day as a mechanic since it was all mechanical.
Nowadays you'd need some sort of computing degree
to fix a car! :-)

Cheers.

[mwb]

Terry,
Thanks so much for the disk. Unfortunately, it didn't boot the first time I tried it, so I put it aside until the weekend when I can be a bit more patient with the computer. I fear I may have to open up the case to have a closer look at things. The disk actually arrived on friday, but I didn't have a chance to try it until now. I will update you as soon as I try it further.
Thanks again,

Marc

[Terry Yager]

If the A: drive is not working then you should try booting from the B: drive. At the prompt fr a bootdisk, hit the shift key and the " key and it will try to boot from the other drive. You should at least see the drive light come on as it trys to access the drive.

--T

[mwb]

Thanks- I was wondering if there was a key to press or if it just defaulted (which it didn't seem to do) to the 'B' drive. Can't wait to try it.