Do I want this 7300?

[Norman Yarvin]

slimick at unix.cis.pitt.edu (John C Slimick) writes:
>Recently I was offered a 7300 that was in working
>condition in all but its hard drive. I assume that
>it is is of the smaller memory size, since the
>hard drive is 20M. Is it worth the price of
>a hard drive? If so, where can I get a decent
>20 M hard drive for it?

Whether it is worth the price of a hard drive you will have to decide for
yourself, but the extent to which the machine can be recovered/upgraded
depends largely on your technical ability.  The drive interface is a
standard ST506 one; thus many drives for the IBM PC can simply be plugged
in, up to a maximum capacity of 76 MB.  Higher capacity drives can be
obtained if you are willing to swap the WD1010 disk controller for a WD2010,
and/or install the P5.1 motherboard patch.  With a couple thousand
applications of the soldering iron, the memory on the motherboard can be
upgraded to 2 MB.  Then you can get Brian Botton's vidpal :-).

shwake at raysnec.UUCP (Ray Shwake) writes:
> We discovered, to our chagrin, that
>even getting into the 7300, much less replacing our drive, was a major
>adventure.

There have been a couple of postings recently about how to do this.  The
description in John Milton's HD2 posting was closest to the way I use:

|5.  Remove the two phillips screws on the back that fasten the plastic to the
|    metal frame. These are horizontal and go in from the back. There is a
|    little tab right next to it. There are two others near-by that go up and
|    are in a circular recess. These should not be removed, they are two of
|    six that hold the top and bottom halves of the plastic together.
|6.  Remove the plastic caps on the two posts where the keyboard sits, and
|    remove the two screws. Ahhh, so that's why those are there!
|7.  Remove the top, plastic part of the case. This is easier said than done.
|    There are two or three rachet hooks in the plastic of the case at the
|    very front of the machine. These latch into the sheet metal base where
|    you can't see. It takes two hands to lift up on the case, and two hands
|    to pry the two or three rachets ALL at the same time. If you get the
|    rachets loose, don't let the case fall back down or they will click back
|    in. At this point the back of the case will already be loose. No, you
|    can't just lift the back up far enough, there's wires still connected.
|    Once the rachets are loose, lift the plastic case, monitor and all
|    straight up about 4 inches. Be surprised at how much that *#&@$ monitor
|    weighs. Tilt the whole mess straight back so that the monitor is laying
|    on it's back, screen up. You will have to lay it down quiet close to the
|    back of the machine because there is a video cable and three power wires
|    still connected. Go ahead, scream and yell, that was a bitch to do.

I have found that if I lift the back of the case up enough (about 3 inches;
until the machine starts to complain), I don't have to manipulate the front
of the case at all; the ratchets just slip off.  At least I think that
worked; your mileage may vary.

--
Norman Yarvin					yarvin-norman at cs.yale.edu
 "Praise the humanities, my boy.  That'll make them think you're broadminded!"
	-- Winston Churchill