AB T47 Programming Terminal

I was given a T47 to test and on power up it says: Invalid configuration information - please run SETUP program. Is this the BIOS setup. It appears that the hard drive is bad, but I'm not sure yet.

Is there a way to get into the BIOS and look at the boot sequence. The floppy drive works. When you try the 'C' prompt, it comes back with: Invalid drive specification.

Any help appreciated.

thanks,

CTG

1784-T47 Programming Terminal

I agree, that sounds like the common BIOS prompt for most IBM computers, which would mean the BIOS backup battery is dead.

I found an old document that says Ctrl-Alt-ENTER or Ctrl-Alt-S are key combinations that bring up the BIOS configuration screen.

There is also a bootdisk BIOS configuration utility available from the RA Knowledgebase as Answer ID # 20098.

Wow, that brings back memories! If I recall, the bios setup was accomplished by a boot floppy.

Got some DOS software to run on that? I think the last thing we used was either ICOM or 6200 for the PLC3 and 2. Ouch.

tomalbright said:

...Got some DOS software to run on that? ...

Click to expand...

It's not much use for anything else.
from memory - 386/SX @ 16 MHz with 1 Meg of ram

Back in those days, you had to manual configure the hard drive in the Bios. So when you lost your bios settings, you lost your hard drive access. You will need to pop the hood, and if your lucky, the hard drive specifications will be on the hard drive. If not, you might be able to get it by googling the part number.

You will also need to setup the floppy drives (5.25 or 3.5, 1.2mb or 1.44), and maybe the amount of memory too, been along time since I messed with a 386. A 386 of that vintage probably had a 40 meg hard drive, 80's were around back then, but not common.

If you were lucky you had a 40. They shipped with 20 meg. I had one I returned 3 times for a bad screen, third time they sent the 40 meg model as a replacement. Those were the days!

The only thing special about it was the built-in DF1 connector. Unless you have the cable for the PLC you want to use it on, it's just another PC. I said in another post, if you have to go with older equipment for comms, like with DH+, find a 1770-KF2, and that way you won't be tied to a boat anchor PC for service. Use any PC with a serial port.

KR - Would you please verify RA Answer ID#20098. It didn't come up in my search on RA's KBase.

I have DOS 5.0 on a floppy. I'll pop the hood today and see if I can find the battery. Keep you posted

Thanks all,

CTG

Replaced bad 3.6 VDC battery. You would think there is a keystroke combo that would get you into the bios setup but I can't find it. I'm determined to get this thing running but I'm going to need some help. There's nothing on the net that I can find that would provide a config utility, etc.

If anyone comes across some info, I would appreciate an email at [email protected]

thanks,

CTG

The RA Knowledgebase Answer ID # 20098 is definitely the downloadable BIOS configuration diskette image for the 1784-T47 programming terminal.

That document comes up when you do a "phrase" search, an "Answer ID" search, but not if you do a "Previous TN#" search.

Or follow this direct link: Answer ID# 20098

Ken - This is what I get when I followed your link:

Permission Denied

You do not have permission to access this document.I'm logged in okay. Is this a 'premium' account that I need?

thanks,

CTG

No, that's an ordinary public document, as far as I can tell.

Try logging in normally to the RA Knowledgebase in another browser window, then try to follow the link from this window. Or log in and do a search for that Answer ID.

I will also send you the documents in e-mail.

FYI, it's also known as a "Data General Walkabout". This is all coming back to me. I found disk 1 of DOS 4.01 for the thing. No setup files, sorry!

If you can find DOS 6.22 to run on it, that's even better. There were no version issues with anything I ever ran on that.

Oh, and don't wear polarized sunglasses when operating. You will be in Ray Charles mode.

Ken - I got your email and the config file. I copied the files over to my boot disk. I ran the config and got the T-47 to boot and got the HDD to configure. All is in working order thanks to you. The HDD is a 40 Meg Conner and still works, believe it or not. CMOS is fine as the old battery was discharged.

It looks like we have a good T-47. I have a cable and will be trying it on a PLC2 today.

I'm probably doing something wrong but that Answer ID# 20098 does not come up at all. I did a manual search page-by-page. When I got to page 587 this morning, 12/12, it starts with #20097. When I go to page 586, it ends with #20099 (I have the search mode reversed).

Searching by ID# 20098 shows zero answers. All other valid ID searches return a good value. Any suggestions?

Anyway, I'm up and running thanks to you and the group. Good work by all as usual.

thanks,

CTG

T-47 config program

i was hoping to also get this config program (or whatever it is) for the T47 walkabout....i've got one here (my cousin's, actually)....last night we took it apart so as to temporarily stick its Conner 40MB into another box, then just copy the files off of it.....for some reason it will now not boot up, either within the T47 itself, or within another typcial pc.....i tried booting up with a DOS 4.01 boot floppy but it and run fdisk (just to see if it recongnized the Conner) but it didn't even see the hardrive (tried running sys, as well, same results - no hardrive).....interestingly, i stuck the hardrive into an old redhat 7.2 linux box with a kernel compiled for DOS FAT and VFAT etc.....i was able to mount the drive but a "ls" gave a bunch of garbled filenames (and dir names).....that is, the names of all the files where goofy/unprintable characters....really wierd........after doing the first "ls" it seemed like it corrupted my linux command line terminal, insofaras any command and output after that appeared as garbled gibberish.....

so i'm guessing from what i read above, that i need this "config" file that you're referring to, so that i can reset my bios?

if anyone could point me to a manual for this unit (T47 Portable Programming Terminal) i would be very gratefull...but most importantly i really need this config program...

very gratefull for any help someone might provide
thanks .... maris malic

For people who are looking for TN 20098 - you will not find it on the public site, this is RA Internal document available from techsupport only.