How very cool Joe! I learned to write RPG III programs on a S/38 at IBM in my hometown in Sweden back in the late 1980's. It didn't last long though before they replaced it with a big AS/400. It's a long story but I had someone take me under their wing and teach me that stuff back then. He also helped me find my first job as an RPG programmer in 1990. I finally got away from the production line at Volvo.
I know pretty much nothing about the hardware in one of those though so I can't help there unfortunately. - Peter On Tue, Jun 23, 2026 at 9:13 AM Paul Berger via cctalk < [email protected]> wrote: > You may want to look around inside for seized fans. S/38s typically ran > 7/24 and when turned off one or more fans would fail to start when the > system was restarted. Another thing to check would be the motor on the > on the 72MD diskette drive. My experience when servicing S/38 was > whenever I wanted to run diagnostics from diskettes I would first have > to free up or replace the motor. Like a usual 8" diskette drive the > spindle motor is an AC motor that is powered whenever the system is > turned on. Most customers rarely used the diskette drive so did not > notice it was seized. > > My recollection is the logic in the systems is solid, perhaps the > weakest part is the 62PC (Piccolo) disk unit inside that stored the > systems microcode. Most customers isolated it from the storage pool so > they would not have to reload the entire system when it packed it in. > > What do you have for storage on the system? Originally the systems > supported multiple 62PCs inside or 3370s (the controller is not the same > as the one used on 370s) Later there was an option offered to support > attachment of 9332 or 9335 disks. The 9332 200 and 400 are probably the > most robust of the lot. > > Paul. > > On 2026-06-22 20:53, Joe George via cctalk wrote: > > We've been working on restoring and powering up a fairly rare bird of > IBM Midrange machine, the IBM System/38. > > > > We had some good success this past weekend that I'd like to share. > > > > https://crusty.computer/?p=89 > > June Work Recap: Edith – The Crusty Computer Club > > crusty.computer > > > > > > tl;dr: she powered up and no smoke came out and no sparks came out! > There are several repairs needed but they are known and fixable. >
