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Hello all,
I recently had a lucky auction where I scored a used PNA for really cheap. It arrived last week! Sadly, there were some issue with it, the first is the broken LCD, I tough it was the display until i saw the LCD connector ripped off of the PCB. I guess someone didn't read the service manual! For now, an external display does the job!
Anyway, it has the old 266MHz computer with the 10Gb hard drive on Windows 2000 which works, but is really slow. I read in this forum?that I should change it to at least the 500MHz version. Someone lent me an other PNA for the parts (I can take whatever i want in it). That PNA is in very bad shape, but it has the 500MHz CPU in it. It also has a 10Gb hardrive that boots on Windows 2k, well, it should boot on W2K, but I can only start it in safe mode, otherwise it freezes on the welcome screen. And yes, I tried using the second partition to fix it, but it doesn't change anything.?
I would really like to upgrade my CPU to the 500MHz one, but without the Windows XP image, I can't do much.
Can I install from scratch windows XP and the software manually?
Does anyone has the Windows XP image?
Thanks,
Julien
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Where are you located.?
Pete wa2odo?
Hello all,
I recently had a lucky auction where I scored a used PNA for really cheap. It arrived last week! Sadly, there were some issue with it, the first is the broken LCD, I tough it was the display until i saw the LCD connector ripped off of the PCB. I guess someone didn't read the service manual! For now, an external display does the job!
Anyway, it has the old 266MHz computer with the 10Gb hard drive on Windows 2000 which works, but is really slow. I read in this forum?that I should change it to at least the 500MHz version. Someone lent me an other PNA for the parts (I can take whatever i want in it). That PNA is in very bad shape, but it has the 500MHz CPU in it. It also has a 10Gb hardrive that boots on Windows 2k, well, it should boot on W2K, but I can only start it in safe mode, otherwise it freezes on the welcome screen. And yes, I tried using the second partition to fix it, but it doesn't change anything.?
I would really like to upgrade my CPU to the 500MHz one, but without the Windows XP image, I can't do much.
Can I install from scratch windows XP and the software manually?
Does anyone has the Windows XP image?
Thanks,
Julien
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I have a new HDD for the 500MHz CPU, but you can also download the image from Keysight.
For assorted reasons, I don't want to post the link, but if you send me an email, I can give it to you.
It is a 4GB file and if too many people access it, it may overload the server and exceed bandwidth limits.? In that case they might remove it.? As old timers like me leave, Keysight shows little interest in helping hobbyists.? My guess is that they don't even know the HDD image is available on their server, and I do not want to draw attention to that fact.
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I should have added that, yes, the 266MHz cpu is useless and is not supportable.? There is no HDD image for that.? Never buy a PNA with that cpu unless you have access to a 500MHz cpu.
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I have an image of the 266 Mhz cpu should someone need one.?
Pete wa2odo?
On Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 12:39 PM Caesar Valenti < caesarv@...> wrote: I should have added that, yes, the 266MHz cpu is useless and is not supportable.? There is no HDD image for that.? Never buy a PNA with that cpu unless you have access to a 500MHz cpu.
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Pete, that is good to know.? The 266 was dog slow...and especially so when it only had 64mb of ram.? The max it could hold was 128mb.? The 500MHz cpu is capable of 512mb of ram.?
The support team at Keysight would not deal with any 266MHz cpu and would just give away a 500MHz CPU rather than trying to support that old thing.?
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Yes I know that.? ?I still have the 266 cpu and hd from the upgrade.? ?I will pass it on to someone who can find a 500 and needs it.? ?Paying it forward¡ ?
Pete
On Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 12:51 PM Caesar Valenti < caesarv@...> wrote: Pete, that is good to know.? The 266 was dog slow...and especially so when it only had 64mb of ram.? The max it could hold was 128mb.? The 500MHz cpu is capable of 512mb of ram.?
The support team at Keysight would not deal with any 266MHz cpu and would just give away a 500MHz CPU rather than trying to support that old thing.?
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On Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 1:00 PM Pete Manfre via Groups.Io <pmanfre= [email protected]> wrote: Yes I know that.? ?I still have the 266 cpu and hd from the upgrade.? ?I will pass it on to someone who can find a 500 and needs it.? ?Paying it forward¡ ?
Pete
On Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 12:51 PM Caesar Valenti < caesarv@...> wrote: Pete, that is good to know.? The 266 was dog slow...and especially so when it only had 64mb of ram.? The max it could hold was 128mb.? The 500MHz cpu is capable of 512mb of ram.?
The support team at Keysight would not deal with any 266MHz cpu and would just give away a 500MHz CPU rather than trying to support that old thing.?
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I wish this forum would allow the editing of existing posts...it would make things much easier.
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On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 2:03 PM Caesar Valenti <caesarv@...> wrote:
I wish this forum would allow the editing of existing posts...it would make things much easier.
_._,_._,_
_______________
Well, this isn't a forum. It's an email reflector/mailing list with a web interface. Mark
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@Pete I live in Montreal, Canada
@Caesar I sent you a PM.
Thank you very much, I wasn't expecting answers that fast!!!
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So why not download the image and store it somewhere else for list members ???
Quoting Caesar Valenti <caesarv@...>:
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I have a new HDD for the 500MHz CPU, but you can also download the
image from Keysight.
For assorted reasons, I don't want to post the link, but if you send
me an email, I can give it to you.
It is a 4GB file and if too many people access it, it may overload
the server and exceed bandwidth limits.? In that case they might
remove it.? As old timers like me leave, Keysight shows little
interest in helping hobbyists.? My guess is that they don't even
know the HDD image is available on their server, and I do not want
to draw attention to that fact.
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Bruce,
First, let's see if Julien can get this to work...I already sent him the link.? If so, then we can put somewhere, but as I said, it is a 4GB file.? I do not have a place to put it, but am open to suggestions.? I do not have the speed or bandwidth to upload this big a file, so it would be up to someone else.? Can we upload this large a file to this site?
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Follow up,
Thanks to Caesar, I have an installation of WXP for the PNA. Sadly, I tried 2 HDDs and both gave me blue screen. All hopes aren't gone.
When I try to start the PNA normally, I get the error?"Unmountable Boot Volume"
When I try to restore the primary partition, I get this error: "Page fault in nonpaged area"
Both error could be hardware, since this computer never fully booted yet, I think hardware fault is a real possibility. (correct me if I'm wrong)
For hard drives, I don't have any IDE hard drive on hand except the one that is working with W2K (and I won't mess with this one!). So I'm using modern HDD with a few adapters. I tested this setup with W2K on the 266MHz computer and it worked fine.?
I think tomorrow I'll try to test the different peripherals using UBCD.?
Any other thing I should try??
Thanks everyone!
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On Tue, 10 Mar 2020 at 18:03, Caesar Valenti < caesarv@...> wrote: I wish this forum would allow the editing of existing posts...it would make things much easier.
I don¡¯t consider this a forum. With a forum one must use a browser to create a post. Here one can just send an email.?
I turned the ¡°feature¡± of editing off after someone posted a message with quite a few attachments, then edited it. He did this several times. Everyone got sent all the attachments multiple times.?
I notice on some other groups people correct a typo, then the virtually unchanged email gets sent again.?
If you make a mistake in your post, and need to correct it, then the only good way to do that is by sending a correction. If you corrected an error on the server, and didn¡¯t send the message again, 95% would never see the correction.?
Dave.?
-- Dr. David Kirkby, Kirkby Microwave Ltd, drkirkby@...Telephone 01621-680100./ +44 1621 680100 Registered in England & Wales, company number 08914892. Registered office: Stokes Hall Lodge, Burnham Rd, Althorne, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 6DT, United Kingdom
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Hi Julien,
I'd try a Compact Flash card with a CF to IDE adaptor. The CF card supports IDE emulation natively, the adaptor is just that, no electronics. The adaptors are available for both 2.5" (44pin) and 3.5" (40 pin) drives. Plenty of choice on ebay and amazon.
Ive recently used these on a R&S radio test set that is very fussy (installer only works if DOS 6.22 is usd for FDISK and Formatting) with no problem and also on other old comuters.
I convert any test equipment with an embedded IDE drive to a CF card as they are faster and there is no mechanical wear-out.
It might be worth geting an old Win XP machine to practice on. Much eaasier to do an inital install? on that than the PNA. An old PC should cost next to nothing, try Freecycle, Craigslist etc. I have an old Dell small desktop that has IDE as primary drive interface but supports USB and SATA, has a bootable CD-ROM and 3.5" floppy drive. It is invaluable when sorting this stuff out.
Robert G8RPI.
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You can also use a small SSD with a SATA to IDE adapter.
On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 5:20 AM Robert G8RPI via Groups.Io <robert8rpi= [email protected]> wrote: Hi Julien,
I'd try a Compact Flash card with a CF to IDE adaptor. The CF card supports IDE emulation natively, the adaptor is just that, no electronics. The adaptors are available for both 2.5" (44pin) and 3.5" (40 pin) drives. Plenty of choice on ebay and amazon.
Ive recently used these on a R&S radio test set that is very fussy (installer only works if DOS 6.22 is usd for FDISK and Formatting) with no problem and also on other old comuters.
I convert any test equipment with an embedded IDE drive to a CF card as they are faster and there is no mechanical wear-out.
It might be worth geting an old Win XP machine to practice on. Much eaasier to do an inital install? on that than the PNA. An old PC should cost next to nothing, try Freecycle, Craigslist etc. I have an old Dell small desktop that has IDE as primary drive interface but supports USB and SATA, has a bootable CD-ROM and 3.5" floppy drive. It is invaluable when sorting this stuff out.
Robert G8RPI.
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CF cards were designed for just that use... but...
They are flash RAM cards, and as such are vexed with a
limited number of write cycles per block.
They are much longer lived than SD or microSD cards.
Many operating systems (Linux) have the ability to set the
file system so that it limits the repetitive writing that
is very characteristic of cached file systems, and virtual
memory systems. What it does is keep a shadow copy of the
disk in RAM, and only writes the dirty (changed) bits very
infrequently.
It doesn't take very long for a CF card to reach its 10K write
limit on a normal unix system.
The better SSD's have internal batteries, or super caps, and
enough RAM to be a substantial fraction of the drive's flash
RAM capacity.
They read into the RAM as the drive reads data from the flash
RAM, but they only write to the flash RAM when the power is
turned off... or the drive is specifically ordered to sync.
-Chuck Harris
Robert G8RPI via Groups.Io wrote:
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Show quoted text
Hi Julien,
I'd try a Compact Flash card with a CF to IDE adaptor. The CF card supports IDE emulation natively, the adaptor is just that, no electronics. The adaptors are available for both 2.5" (44pin) and 3.5" (40 pin) drives. Plenty of choice on ebay and amazon.
Ive recently used these on a R&S radio test set that is very fussy (installer only works if DOS 6.22 is usd for FDISK and Formatting) with no problem and also on other old comuters.
I convert any test equipment with an embedded IDE drive to a CF card as they are faster and there is no mechanical wear-out.
It might be worth geting an old Win XP machine to practice on. Much eaasier to do an inital install? on that than the PNA. An old PC should cost next to nothing, try Freecycle, Craigslist etc. I have an old Dell small desktop that has IDE as primary drive interface but supports USB and SATA, has a bootable CD-ROM and 3.5" floppy drive. It is invaluable when sorting this stuff out.
Robert G8RPI.
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Thanks for your suggestions.?
@Michael, that's exactly what I tried.
@Robert, I might try this, but receiving all the required hardware will take a few days or week before I get them on hand to test. On the other hand, I agree with Chuck that CF cards are not ideal for an OS.
I will continue my tests tonight when I get home.
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Hello, I can host it on my server, in theory - but, and this is a big but, if it contains Windows, I cannot. Microsoft is super strict re that and my server is in West Germany. Tam
With best regards Tam HANNA (emailing on a BlackBerry PRIV) Enjoy electronics? Join 14k other followers by visiting the Crazy Electronics Lab at Am 11. M?rz 2020 00:26:59 MEZ schrieb Caesar Valenti <caesarv@...>:
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Bruce,
First, let's see if Julien can get this to work...I already sent him the link.? If so, then we can put somewhere, but as I said, it is a 4GB file.? I do not have a place to put it, but am open to suggestions.? I do not have the speed or bandwidth to upload this big a file, so it would be up to someone else.? Can we upload this large a file to this site?
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Dr. David Kirkby, Kirkby Microwave Ltd
Michael A. Terrell