Olivetti A12 'notebook' - disk issues. - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

HMV 1120 · 6th Feb 2010, 9:08 pm

Hi all,

I've been attempting to run the above circa 1991 laptop in order to extract various contest results and logs for the Cambridge and district ARC. When booting it displays a '1790 - disk 0 error', which I assume to be the hardrive (20mb fitted?) but loads up MS-DOS 6.22 fine from the floppy drive (720K). When you come to open any of the logging programs they load until the .exe command is reached, where upon I am prompted 'PKSFX: disk full' and it halts.

The machine has ~2mb RAM and I assume this means it has run out of RAM and, presumeably, it is unable to continue?

Is there a way of getting it to recognise its hardrive (it hasn't been powered up since 2006 - maybe it has 'forgotten' its settings due to low battery charge?) and copy the program across?

If I am overlooking anything obvious, please forgive me. its my first experience of MS DOS and most of the commands I've printed off websites simply return a 'bad command' prompt.

On a brighter note, it does accept the date as being 2010!

paulsherwin · 6th Feb 2010, 10:19 pm

I can't explain exactly what the problem is, but PKSFX was a self extracting wrapper for a PKZIP compressed archive. The message is produced when the archive can't be extracted because of a lack of disk space. It may be that the HD simply isn't being recognized resulting in the message.

PCs of this era require you to set a 'disk type' in the BIOS. The setup software for this is generally on a floppy disk. It may not be obvious which 'disk type' is the correct one, so you will need to try a few possibles until something works.

Paul

ColinB · 7th Feb 2010, 4:52 pm

Maybe too obvious, but could you not remove the HDD and attach it to a newer machine as a slave drive and access the data that way?

2.5 to 3.5 IDE adapters are easy to find and cheap, so a standard desktop PC should do the job.

The drive will be FAT16 if it was running MS DOS, so should be readable with XP or similar. The only stumbling block may be, will a more modern machine BIOS support such an old drive, I doubt the disk will be auto detected correctly...

Best of luck.

Colin

paulsherwin · 7th Feb 2010, 4:59 pm

If the data you want is on the floppies it may be simpler to just extract it from there using a different computer.

If you post me copies of the floppies I will uncompress any archives and put them on a CD or email them to you. Send me a PM if you want me to do this.

Paul

HMV 1120 · 8th Feb 2010, 9:01 pm

Well, the keys have now started to give trouble and typing is a hit and miss affair. i think its a lost cause.

Paul, I'll send you a PM shortly.

Regards,
Robs.

6th Feb 2010, 9:08 pm	#1
HMV 1120 Hexode Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Weeting, Norfolk. Posts: 465	Olivetti A12 'notebook' - disk issues. Hi all, I've been attempting to run the above circa 1991 laptop in order to extract various contest results and logs for the Cambridge and district ARC. When booting it displays a '1790 - disk 0 error', which I assume to be the hardrive (20mb fitted?) but loads up MS-DOS 6.22 fine from the floppy drive (720K). When you come to open any of the logging programs they load until the .exe command is reached, where upon I am prompted 'PKSFX: disk full' and it halts. The machine has ~2mb RAM and I assume this means it has run out of RAM and, presumeably, it is unable to continue? Is there a way of getting it to recognise its hardrive (it hasn't been powered up since 2006 - maybe it has 'forgotten' its settings due to low battery charge?) and copy the program across? If I am overlooking anything obvious, please forgive me. its my first experience of MS DOS and most of the commands I've printed off websites simply return a 'bad command' prompt. On a brighter note, it does accept the date as being 2010! __________________ Real radios glow in the dark M6GLD

6th Feb 2010, 10:19 pm	#2
paulsherwin Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 27,943	Re: Olivetti A12 'notebook' - disk issues. I can't explain exactly what the problem is, but PKSFX was a self extracting wrapper for a PKZIP compressed archive. The message is produced when the archive can't be extracted because of a lack of disk space. It may be that the HD simply isn't being recognized resulting in the message. PCs of this era require you to set a 'disk type' in the BIOS. The setup software for this is generally on a floppy disk. It may not be obvious which 'disk type' is the correct one, so you will need to try a few possibles until something works. Paul

7th Feb 2010, 4:52 pm	#3
ColinB Heptode Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Newton Abbot, Devon, UK. Posts: 761	Re: Olivetti A12 'notebook' - disk issues. Maybe too obvious, but could you not remove the HDD and attach it to a newer machine as a slave drive and access the data that way? 2.5 to 3.5 IDE adapters are easy to find and cheap, so a standard desktop PC should do the job. The drive will be FAT16 if it was running MS DOS, so should be readable with XP or similar. The only stumbling block may be, will a more modern machine BIOS support such an old drive, I doubt the disk will be auto detected correctly... Best of luck. Colin

7th Feb 2010, 4:59 pm	#4
paulsherwin Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 27,943	Re: Olivetti A12 'notebook' - disk issues. If the data you want is on the floppies it may be simpler to just extract it from there using a different computer. If you post me copies of the floppies I will uncompress any archives and put them on a CD or email them to you. Send me a PM if you want me to do this. Paul

8th Feb 2010, 9:01 pm	#5
HMV 1120 Hexode Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Weeting, Norfolk. Posts: 465	Re: Olivetti A12 'notebook' - disk issues. Well, the keys have now started to give trouble and typing is a hit and miss affair. i think its a lost cause. Paul, I'll send you a PM shortly. Regards, Robs. __________________ Real radios glow in the dark M6GLD