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and so it begins.

What's that supposed to mean?

My guess: Following temporally from the previous statement ("and"), in the manner exemplified by the utterance of the statement ("so"), a drawn out effort to keep vintage computing equipment in working order, along with discussions of said effort, and of the degree to which the effort was predictable and is worthwhile, accompanied by the provision of occasionally conflicting advice from various people ("it") starts ("begins"). Am I close? :) I don't have any experience with Laser 128s, but this sounds like a pretty general failure, like the ROM is no longer accessible or something. If this were an Apple II, the fact that you have text at all would indicate to me that the processor is running and the video circuits work, but the processor maybe be just hanging trying to run garbage code. ? Or, perhaps RAM is needed in order to get through startup far enough to beep and something's wrong with the RAM (though I think you can probably make it to the startup beep on the Apple II without functional RAM -- never tried). When I've seen a dead 6502 on an Apple II, it's usually not garbage text on the screen but just a kind of checkerboard, but I suppose that's another possibility (that the 6502 is not starting).

I don't have any experience with Laser 128s, but this sounds like a pretty general failure, like the ROM is no longer accessible or something. If this were an Apple II, the fact that you have text at all would indicate to me that the processor is running and the video circuits work, but the processor maybe be just hanging trying to run garbage code. ? Or, perhaps RAM is needed in order to get through startup far enough to beep and something's wrong with the RAM (though I think you can probably make it to the startup beep on the Apple II without functional RAM -- never tried). When I've seen a dead 6502 on an Apple II, it's usually not garbage text on the screen but just a kind of checkerboard, but I suppose that's another possibility (that the 6502 is not starting).

Adam and I taught ourselves how to open the (and more importantly, reassemble!) this system a few weeks ago when we first pulled both of VCFed's out of storage. I suppose it wouldn't hurt* if I open this one and make sure all its chips are seated. * Degnan, that's your prompt to ask "What could possibly go wrong with that plan?"

On Fri, Mar 10, 2017 at 5:48 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

and so it begins.

...

What's that supposed to mean?

Shakespere

On Fri, Mar 10, 2017 at 7:06 PM, william degnan <billdegnan@gmail.com> wrote:

On Fri, Mar 10, 2017 at 5:48 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

...

and so it begins.

...

What's that supposed to mean?

Shakespere

Maybe not Shakespeare but in addition to Tolkein, the phrase is used to describe the start of the Shadow / Vorlon war in the tv scifi show babylon 5 Basically the meaning, to undertake a battle or long drawn-out important event ending with a climax

On 03/10/2017 08:04 PM, Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic wrote:

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Basically the meaning, to undertake a battle or long drawn-out important event ending with a climax

Hey keep it family friendly.

MY EYE! -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

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In the event this turns into a "can't be fixed before VCF" type problem, I do have a clean, working 128 I can bring to VCF. It was part of my attack of the clones exhibit last year. Just so you know it have something to fall back on should that become necessary.

Thanks Tony. I can bring my regular //e to Trenton (3/18) but I'll need the Laser working for Southeast (last weekend of April). Plenty of time between now and then. Of course I hope this one can be fixed before Trenton simply because it's a lot easier to bring due to size + no need for a separate drive.