Free Linux and OpenOffice - even if your email address doesn't

[Tony Duell]

> I never take delivery on a car until AFTER I have a copy of the FSM
> (Factory Service Manual).

You have sense!. Although I suspect I'm one of the few people who 
actively uys serivce manuals for cars (and other devices) that I am very 
unlikely to ever own. Just for interest.

> 
> I don't often have that option with computers, but in 1981, I spent a lot
> of time in the PC Tech Ref before I turned on the 5150.

I certainly read through the IBM PC/XT Techref before I got my first 
PC-compatible machine (which was a genuiine 5160 PC/XT). I also took that 
machine totally apart the day I got it, looked at the PCBs, read the 
schemaitcs again, and so on.

On a couple of occasions I've bought (small-ish) bits of classic computer 
hardware becuase I had the technical manuals. An example : Many years ago 
somebody was clearing out an office and said 'Hey, you like old 
computers, are these any use to you?' and handed me the manuals for the 
Sharp PC1350 pocket computer. Not just the BASIC-programming user manual, 
but also the machine language manual and the service manual. Of course 
(beling me), I accepted them with thanks. About 10 years later I fianlly 
found an affordable example of that machine to go with the manuals.

ObCC. That machine takes litlte RAM cards, specific to Sharp. Mine came 
with 2 or 3 8K cards, and upon taking one apart (very  easy to do, but be 
careful separating the very thin PCB from the self-adhesive bits fo the 
frame -- the correct way to pull it is shown in that service manual...), 
it was obvious that the card consisted of a single SMD 6264 RAM chip and 
that there was space on the PCB for a second RAM chip and a 14 pin chip, 
which, after a little tracing, had to invert a signal. It was clear a 
74HC00 would do the job. Those were easy to obtain in SMD packages, the 
RAM is not easy to find now. In the end I took apart an HP42S calculator, 
carefully desoldered the RAM from that machine, replaced it with a 62256 
and moved the link (thus making a 32K HP42S) and soldered the salvaged 
6264 and a 74HC00 into the Sharp RAM card, thus making it a 16K one. And 
yes, it did all work in the end.

-tony