advice/help needed with 6300+

[Ken Yap]

My friend's 6300+ just broke down. She turned it on and the ROM
diagnostics stopped when it tried to access the hard disk. Then she
smelled something burning so she turned it off.

I opened it up for a look and it appears that the hard disk motor is
fried. I disconnected the power from the hard disk and it didn't make
any more smells. Also the computer tried to boot from the floppy so
the rest of the machine seems ok.

The disk a half-height 5.25" unit marked Olivetti XM5220/2 and holds 20
Mb. There are two cables, one 34 connector, one 20 (?) connector to the
disk controller.

Do you agree with my diagnosis? Is the disk drive interface standard
enough that one can plonk a similar 20 Mb unit and have it work (i.e.
have you had to do this kind of replacement)? Recommendations for
drives and places to buy them please?

Alternatively, if the cost of finding a replacement disk and service
charges are too high, I thought she might unplug the hard disk and put
in a hard card instead. Is this feasible?  Which hard cards work with
the 6300+?

Something else which hasn't been working for much longer is the clock.
I suspected the NiCd had shorted (the computer had been idle for a year
or two) and indeed I measured just 1.6V across the 3 cell pile. Is it
just a matter of plonking in a replacement pile or is the problem more
subtle? Somebody else asked a similar question but we don't get the
6300 group, whatever that is.

Please email unless you think others might be interested. I'll
summarize upon request. Many thanks in advance for any information you
can provide. My friend has gotten used to working on her computer and
she misses it.

	Ken
	ken at cs.rochester.edu
	..!rochester!ken