daifuse Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Switched on the desk - it failed to boot but produced the usual p.o.s.t. beeps. The monitor came up with a report suggesting 220 cleanup by inputting 'Y' or 'N' on the keyboard for normal start up. However, the desk has always refused to boot with the keyboard connected. Plugging in the keyboard after booting was the only option. 'Y' or 'N' results in just a bleep and a monitor report of 'no signal'. Until now the desk has always performed faultlessly. Unfortunately I have no software disks for it - it runs OS version 2.6. I do have other keyboards to try but they are modern - will they be compatible? For the time being - I've got a play coming up shortly - I've had to use an MX48 but I need to get the 430 back up asap. Any suggestions as to my next move? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_s Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 There was a functioning 430 at the Theatre Royal Plymouth when I was there last - admittedly a couple of years ago, but they might still have discs etc, so worth a phone call to the electrics department, I would think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinntec Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 You probably have this, but just in case the Strand Archive advertises the 430/530 Agents Maintenance Manual for £5? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianknight Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 It could be the battery on the motherboard needs changing - the serial number for the 400/500 series was kept in a separate EEProm store so it wouldn't be affected by the CMOS battery failing. More often than not it's a CR2032 - it's not rechargeable so will run down sooner or later but generally (like most PC's) it will boot the POST test then hang waiting for a press of f1 to set defaults. If there's nothing on the display than it can be one of two things - the video card has failed or the motherboard has failed, my money would be on the motherboard. You can use any old fashioned AT motherboard with a 486 you can find - there's no point trying to use a Pentium because you'll see no benefit (I think the "I" series had separate unlock codes) and it's about 30 minutes to do the swapover (have someone hold the case open though). Strand used to insist on an Intel chipset motherboard but that was really only to prevent them from having to solve weird timing issues that theoretically could arise. If you have an old PC about then you could try booting it from the hard disk in the 430 - it will show whether or not the hard disk is ok (the OS will protest about no serial number more than anything) but it should boot to prove the HD hasn't popped it's clogs. If you get stuck for a motherboard, the Albany Theatre in Coventry had a working 430 knocking about that they might be happy to do a deal on - the case on theirs is a bit shabby and the trackball is stuffed but everything else should be ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 One word of caution, though... Plugging/unplugging a PS2 mouse or keyboard from a PC (which basically is what the desk is) is always a risky thing to do. Whilst sometimes you'll see no effect whatsoever, there is a significant risk of blowing the motherboard. I did that myself inadvertently at work many years ago when moving a desktop that was powered up and pulled the mouse out of it's socket, and I know of several others which have suffered a similar fate when either PS2 have been disconnected whilst on.... Whilst you clearly have some sort of problem which means you've had to follow this procedure to get the thing working, it's clearly not right, so I would take a great deal of care with this if you do get the desk running again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daifuse Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 Thanks everyone for the info - knew I could rely on the BR for some help. Just one extra - I got it to boot but after about 5 secs. everything froze! Wouldn't respond to any button presses - corrupted files perhaps, but I'll try and get the agents manual for it and check the on-board battery.I've got the operators manual, all 346 pages of it! but it tells me that the keyboard connector is a 6 pin din. It isn't, it's 5 pin. I'm wondering if the wiring is the same but just using 5 instead of 6 pins. Any ideas? Once again, thanks to all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianknight Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Thanks everyone for the info - knew I could rely on the BR for some help. Just one extra - I got it to boot but after about 5 secs. everything froze! Wouldn't respond to any button presses - corrupted files perhaps, but I'll try and get the agents manual for it and check the on-board battery.I've got the operators manual, all 346 pages of it! but it tells me that the keyboard connector is a 6 pin din. It isn't, it's 5 pin. I'm wondering if the wiring is the same but just using 5 instead of 6 pins. Any ideas? Once again, thanks to all. If it's a PC Keyboard with a DIN Plug (or a PS2 keyboard and adaptor) then it should work - I think the IBM PC "standard" specified 5 pin DINs - Strand might have used a 6 pin DIN to discourage folk from using a "non Strand" product... I had an original IBM keyboard with Cherry mechanisms when I ran the 430 at The Albany and it was fine, the keyboard alwys felt positive too being Cherry keys. If it froze as it booted, then it's very likely that Config.Sys or Autoexec.bat is corrupt - there's a very slight possibility that Config.sys is freezing as DOS loads the Extended Memory Manager and it finds one of the Ram SIMM's failed or faulty. If you can find an old PC then it would be worth trying the HD in that before you start trying to recreate the HD only to find that the RAM is faulty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daifuse Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 Thanks everyone for the info - knew I could rely on the BR for some help. Just one extra - I got it to boot but after about 5 secs. everything froze! Wouldn't respond to any button presses - corrupted files perhaps, but I'll try and get the agents manual for it and check the on-board battery.I've got the operators manual, all 346 pages of it! but it tells me that the keyboard connector is a 6 pin din. It isn't, it's 5 pin. I'm wondering if the wiring is the same but just using 5 instead of 6 pins. Any ideas? Once again, thanks to all. If it's a PC Keyboard with a DIN Plug (or a PS2 keyboard and adaptor) then it should work - I think the IBM PC "standard" specified 5 pin DINs - Strand might have used a 6 pin DIN to discourage folk from using a "non Strand" product... I had an original IBM keyboard with Cherry mechanisms when I ran the 430 at The Albany and it was fine, the keyboard alwys felt positive too being Cherry keys. If it froze as it booted, then it's very likely that Config.Sys or Autoexec.bat is corrupt - there's a very slight possibility that Config.sys is freezing as DOS loads the Extended Memory Manager and it finds one of the Ram SIMM's failed or faulty. If you can find an old PC then it would be worth trying the HD in that before you start trying to recreate the HD only to find that the RAM is faulty. Yes, it's definitely a 5 pin din and I've tried two keyboards with no success. I'll try to have another go at it tomorrow - been working on it all day without much luck - the brain is beginning to get numb so I think I need to take a break, but thanks for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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