> Sorry, but I really doubt it. Even with a writer, the infrastructure
> needed to hook it up and use it is almost certainly history. What's
> more, the people who once knew how to operate a 23FD ("minnow file")
> writer probably retired years ago, and the code that got loaded to them
> might or might not still be around anywhere--much less at the EC levels
> you would probably need to make the machines do anything useful.
It is a shot in the dark, yes, but worth taking.
I will likely have to hack something together using an old Shugart or
something. I suppose I should try to find some spare 23FD drives.
> The 3830 was the control unit for 3330's (and 3350's), and it wasn't
> even new when I joined IBM in 1977. I think the last machines to use
> 23FD's were probably manufactured in the early 1980's.
This 3830 was used with 3350s.
> I suspect that you might have better luck scouring the planet for more
> disks in hopes of finding readable ones, but after 25-30 years it's way
> past the expected end of life for digital magnetic media manufactured in
> that era, and it'll be a crapshoot.
The 4331-2 disk is mostly readable - it gets a check halfway thru the
load, and the previous owner devised a complicated song-and-dance act
that one needs to do to get past the problem. It works, but is just
itching to get worse over time. I do not have a similar song-and-dance
for the 3830, so if that gets troublesome, things will be bad.
It seems to me that each set of IPL floppies was tied to a specific
machine, serial number, features, and all. Using disks from other
machines would not work. Is this true?
This 4331-2 ran its last job only about a month ago (it never had a CE
call, either!), and the owner, a small midwest service bureau,
apparently powered the system down just about every weekend to save
electricity. That's a lot of IPLs for these poor floppies!
> On the other hand, in my dusty old CE toolbag at home, I think I still
> have a few spare bulbs that fit 3830 control panels (probably both
> colors, too), and of course other machines' panels if they used the same
> commonly-used push-in grey bulbs with two prongs in the base. Send me
> your address offline if you want them. First come, first served!
Thanks, I will bother you offlist for these.
--
Will
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