I would've been interested in the monitor advertised here recently, if it were
in
the US. However I have a problem which a replacement monitor, whether an actual
Sinclair or other (QLers here in Oak Ridge may make the Walterman adapter for
using
a non-Sinclair monitor) would only partly solve:
A year ago, or whenever it was, the QL worked. The 3.5 drives didn't behave
entirely
right, wouldn't format a diskette e.g., but for the most part things worked.
At some point I took the platform out of service--something to do with the 3.5's
I believe, or maybe it was a guess of there being problems with the batteries. I
eventually replaced both the square red battery on the SGC and three-layer
battery
on the end of the long wires "under the hood" off I believe it's the Minerva.
When I finally fired the QL up again, the first time or two I got the whir from
the microdrives, the one LED on the black box that still had juice lit I
believe,
the 3.5 drives had one LED come on & stay on (flp1_ I believe) and the other
flickered on & off for quite some time.
The monitor, an old Acorn RGB-III, always had a loose part (the knobs that stick
out the front & their base) which had to be poked (with a pencil, certainly
not a screwdriver!) to get it to come on. Eventually I had it on in one startup,
and got only black & white stripes overlaid with the message "QL ROM ...
not recognized / Please contact Miracle Systems."
Phoebus said off-list this most likely was a problem between the SGC card and
its
socket--a bent pin and/or bad seating. So I popped the hood, saw no bent pins,
and
re-seated it. It seemed to jump into the socket.
The monitor gave out; I substituted a monochrome I had, put the hood back, and
fired
up. Now there is no whir from the microdrives, no LED lighting on the black box,
no LEDs on the 3.5 drives, and again the "not recognized" message (the
monitor does come up). The modem when turned on at this point does show the
first
two LEDs. The printer is live.
So, Phoebus, while I can't say you were wrong, I don't know what _is_ going on.
I've never heard of these sorts of symptoms before.
Analyses anyone? Direction(s) to go? I now have several QLs, two PCs and a few
Macs...
printer, scanner... it would (could?) be fun to get them all talking to each
other
and making use of each other ("in your dreams"!) .
Doug L. 37830 USA
SGC, 4MB, 2 x 3.5, Falkenberg, Minerva, USR 14.4, Hermes, no HDD / Aurora /
etc.--near/half original Black Box.
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