[Coco] Resurrecting a CoCo (26-3001) with a 26-3029 FDC.

[Ryan Pritchard]

Hello out there,

Newby to CoCoList and to running a CoCo, but not OS-9 which I am  
looking forward to running the NitrOS-9 flavour.

Fourth attempt to post but this time it should work thanks to Dennis  
telling me some information about the mailing list server.


I have recently got the bug to play with a CoCo I had acquired years  
ago.  The good news for me, is the 26-3001 model I have is the  
Revision E mother board which has all the jumpers on it to go all the  
way up to 32K (and likely 64K since I know the 64K x 1 chips I have  
are all good as they are coming from an Apple 80 Column card.

Currently the CoCo has 16K in it, and boots up to Color Basic 1.1.  It  
has an empty ROM socket where if I have understood correctly I could  
install and Extended Basic ROM if I had one.

I am having a problem getting the Disk Basic on the 26-3029 FDC to  
boot, and thus cannot format or other wise do anything disk related.   
Is there any common issues with the FDC that I should look at to  
determine why the CoCo is not detecting the cartridge and booting from  
the FDC ROM?  The PCB for the FDC has the markings LEIA MV-1 38 84,  
and has the WD-1773-PH controller chip.  The markings on the ROM are  
TMS4764-30NL, B8428L, ZA64342, 804-5364A.

It does not appear visually to have any burnt caps, resistors, or  
chips, though I have not tested any of them.  Also I have tried the  
time tested eraser on the contacts to see if that would resolve the  
problem, though I have not fully inspected the slot on the CoCo.

Like many people before me, playing with a CoCo for the first time in  
their lives, help would sure be appreciated.

Regards,

Ryan Pritchard
Fun Extends All Basic Life Expectancies