Introduction

[CC Clarke]

Greetings 99ers!

 

I stumbled across this site this morning and was pleasantly suprised at the level of enthusiasm and expertise here. To me, this is amazing, thirty-three years after TI discontinued production for the 99/4. Since this is my first post, I'll introduce myself.

 

I'm CC Clarke. In the summer of 1982, I took a two-month motorcycle trip around the US. During the trip, I rode into Lubbock to serve as the Best Man at a wedding. While riding around Loop 289, I noticed this incredibly huge TI plant. On a whim, I filled out an employment application and received a phone call for an interview the next morning! I was offered a job on the spot, but told the hiring manager I needed some time to think it over. (After all, Lubbock was not a major magnet for people to move to.)

 

A month later, I found myself working as an Electronics Tech, in the Consumer Products Division, repairing 99/4A's as they went through the build process. The plant operated 24-7 and I was assigned to the graveyard shift (more money!) TI was hiring techs as fast as they could find them. Entire graduating classes of technical schools were snapped up. We operated one assembly line at night, with about forty techs on hand to repair the thousands of boards that were piling up from three shifts. It was an incredibly busy place, and interesting to see how electronic products are built on a mass scale, with auto-insert machines stamping components into PCBs and flow solder machines delivering finished boards at one end. The larger chips (9900 CPU, 9918 VDP, and 9901 PSI) were all inserted by hand, along with the white bus bars and power supply wires. The black exterior case plastics were wiped down with (lemon) Pledge furniture polish to make them shiny.

 

Our motherboard repair target goal for each shift was eighteen. The majority of the techs were fixing three to five, and nobody had schematics (or any type of decent familiarization training.) All training was conducted by sitting next to someone, watching how they swapped parts (the Monkey-See, Monkey-Do Method) based on the symptoms. Needless to say, the inefficiency was huge. I finally got ahold of technical documentation, learned how the machine operated, and my nightly numbers climbed rapidly. In two months, I was fixing a hundred boards a night! This encouraged a healthy amount of competition between the techs, and our repair numbers soared. I was quickly promoted to Lead Tech and transferred to a new assembly line on the other side of town in an old Levi Strauss plant hastily re-purposed to build Home Computers. One of the first things I did was conduct a two-night training class for newly arriving techs. That assembly line was shuttered in the Spring of '83, while the remaining techs (us) repaired thousands of boards that had been slowly accumulating in a far corner. When we were done, we were sent over to another building, (Warranty Repair) where I lasted all of two nights, (due to my senority) before moving back to the main building again, doing QC in a lab for a couple of months. One memorable job involved shorting the secondary of the power supply transformer, and measuring how long it took to fry. (About 45 minutes.)

 

TI was expanding operations so fast to keep up with demand that any semblance of organization was absent (At least on the graveyard shift.) I had eight bosses during the ten months I worked there, and I saw so many obvious mistakes occurring that I started becoming a bit of a sceptic. The final straw for me was when we were given a sales outlook that projected numbers that were so out of touch with reality, I wondered how long we could continue to lower prices and compete while increasing production. Our target competition (The VIC-20) was technically inferior, but that was what management kept their eye on, instead of the C-64. They hired Bill Cosby as a highly-compensated spokesman, but nothing could stop the loss of revenue. To me, the situation was headed downward, and fast! I accepted a job on the West Coast in June of '83 and told all my friends to start job-hunting. Most laughed. In the Fall, hundreds of employees were unemployed when TI exited the market. That giant building emptied out. (The execs used golf carts to move around.)

 

I continued to repair Home Computers for the next six years or so in the Seattle area, until the demand was so low, it didn't justify the long weekend trips to pick up and drop off computers at the two stores I supported. TI offered a 90-day warranty. Mine was for a year and I might have had two or three (out of hundreds) return to me. The money I made was reinvested in test equipment and the knowledge I gained at TI made attending many of my digital electronics classes in college optional. I ended up auditing them, receiving credit for passing the finals which was pretty cool. I learned more about electronics in six months at TI than I did in six years in the Navy, so the experience was a great career booster. In that regard, it was time well-spent.

 

The 99/2, ("Ground Squirrel") and 99/8 ("Road Runner") were built that Spring, ('83) and most were scrapped when the end came. I saw a room piled high with boxes of one of them. The transformer safety recall during that winter was a costly blow that cast more unwanted limelight onto the operation - even though it wasn't a huge safety issue - TI wanted to cover themselves from any potential liability.

 

For the purists out there, the build week is stamped on the bottom of the cases. The first two digits specify the week, followed by the two-digit year of manufacturer. The only rare item I still have is a PUT - a Power-Up Tester that plugs into the I/O Port. It's built from a Speech Synthesizer case and has a single momentary contact switch on top. When depressed, it tests the entire 99/4. Only a few of the techs had them and they were awesome - if the computer powered up. If you power up the computer and it screams with no TI Logo home screen, those are called "Deads". Those were my favorite faults to repair when they fell out of Burn-In, which to me, was more of a real-world repair scenario, that paid off later. Parsec cartridges are ideal for long-term burn-in testing, since they run loops that test sprites, which taxes the VDP.

 

​ That's my story and I'm sticking to it. If anyone has an issue with their computer malfunctioning, feel free to direct your questions to me and I'll help if I can! I still have my old parts bin with RAMS, ROMS, and a few of the rare, ceramic 9900s - we called them, "Golden Mamas" on account of the gold die covers on top. The CPU was often called, "The Mama".

 

Cheers!

 

CCC

Edited December 2, 2016 by CC Clarke

[RXB]

Nice story and hope you stick around.

[+Lee Stewart]

Glad to have you on board! Yeah, this is a good community that is a lot of fun—especially for an old computer geek like I am. I was bitten by the computer bug in 1963 and have never let it go!

 

...lee

[krslam]

Welcome aboard! Great story, too bad you didn't grab a bunch of 99/2 and 99/8's on your way out the door as you could probably live off the proceeds from selling them on ebay nowadays.

 

If you're still in the Seattle area you might consider attending the TI FestWest next spring (late April, I think). You could show off the PUT or any other TI-related stuff you might have and get to see some of the new tech folks have built around their trusty 99/4A's

[mister35mm]

Something tells me you might start getting a lot of broken 99/4a to fix.

[Shift838]

Ground Squirrel... Love that term for the 99/2.

 

If you have a picture of the PUT I would love to see it.

 

I live about 45 minutes from the Texas Instruments campus in Stafford.

 

I remember when I was a kid my mom had to take me there to exchange my p-code card.

 

I still drive past it about once a month.

 

Welcome back to the Fold. If you don't have any TI equipment there are plenty of emulator to choose from.

 

Still a few TI / Geneve BBS running here in the states. (2 here in Houston area and 1 in New York)

Edited December 2, 2016 by Shift838

[+Ksarul]

Does the PUT happen to have a row of LED lights on it that light up in a pattern to identify the problem area too? I've seen the schematics for that one (and I have a bare board for it), but I don't have a copy of the ROM code to make it run). Either way, pictures of the one you have would be great. I have all kinds of crazy-weird TI stuff, including a 99/2 and a pair of 99/8s. I also have a handful of 99/8 mother boards in various states of completion.

 

If you could read out the ROM in the PUT, that would be fantastic too, as we've been trying to make sure we can preserve any and all 99/4-era TI stuff, and that's one we haven't had access to yet.

 

Oh yes--welcome to the forum. We actually get a lot of requests for help in console repair, so you may have some questions thrown your way. . .were you the guy who put the New Technician's Guide together? I have one of those for the 99/4 and another for the 99/4A. . .the /4A one seems to come in at least two versions too (I have two different ones).

Edited December 2, 2016 by Ksarul

[RickyDean]

Also, if you don't know what a Geneve is, it is a 3rd party computer created by Myarc.

 

Here is the wiki location,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneve_9640 and the first sentence ' The Geneve 9640 is an enhanced TI-99/4A clone which was built by Myarc as a card to fit into the TI Peripheral Expansion System and used an IBM PC XT detached keyboard as well as a mouse. Released in 1987, it was in many ways similar to the earlier TI-99/8 which was in prototype form in early 1983. The Geneve, its custom ASIC chip, and the MDOS operating environment were designed by Paul Charlton. The graphical swan on the boot up screen was designed by Mi-Kyung Kim.'

 

Your work helped to bring this into being for us.

[CC Clarke]

Welcome aboard! Great story, too bad you didn't grab a bunch of 99/2 and 99/8's on your way out the door as you could probably live off the proceeds from selling them on ebay nowadays.

 

If you're still in the Seattle area you might consider attending the TI FestWest next spring (late April, I think). You could show off the PUT or any other TI-related stuff you might have and get to see some of the new tech folks have built around their trusty 99/4A's

 

I'm in CT, but will return to the Seattle area in a few years. It may rain a lot there, but I've never had to shovel it.

CC

[CC Clarke]

Does the PUT happen to have a row of LED lights on it that light up in a pattern to identify the problem area too? I've seen the schematics for that one (and I have a bare board for it), but I don't have a copy of the ROM code to make it run). Either way, pictures of the one you have would be great. I have all kinds of crazy-weird TI stuff, including a 99/2 and a pair of 99/8s. I also have a handful of 99/8 mother boards in various states of completion.

 

If you could read out the ROM in the PUT, that would be fantastic too, as we've been trying to make sure we can preserve any and all 99/4-era TI stuff, and that's one we haven't had access to yet.

 

Oh yes--welcome to the forum. We actually get a lot of requests for help in console repair, so you may have some questions thrown your way. . .were you the guy who put the New Technician's Guide together? I have one of those for the 99/4 and another for the 99/4A. . .the /4A one seems to come in at least two versions too (I have two different ones).

 

The only difference between the PUT and a regular Speech Synthesizer is a momentary (SPST) contact switch on the top. It displays the test being run and the results on the monitor as it places a checkmark next to each test. As for pics, I have to rummage through the basement to locate it. I've got a box down there with a (NIB) CC-40, a couple of 99/4s, and a 99/4A (QI) in a beige case - implemented to cut costs over the more expensive (and better-looking) black plastic, aluminum-clad 99/4A.

 

The QI (Quality Improved) model contained fewer parts, so it was (a little) easier to fab and cheaper to market. Too little, too late. I think it came out in the Spring of '83. At one point, I had a bunch of TI hardware, but tossed it all in a dumpster six years ago during a move to CA. I might have tossed my in-house technical manual that had tons of useful troubleshooting info, but do have a DIY troubleshooting tree I created from the notes. I showed it to Craig Miller in the mid-eighties, but he was pulling out of the TI market. I sure loved his stuff (GRAMkracker, MG Newsletters and software he offered.) I sold a complete system with all the goodies to a guy in the late 80's for $700 so he could learn assembly language and poke around with the GRAMkracker.

 

I moved on from the 99/4 to the Amiga with it's amazing graphics and GUI. That pulled me into the Video Toaster, and eventually got me interested in professional CG via Lightwave 3D years later. Ten years ago, I attended the DAVE School at Universal Orlando to learn Lightwave from the pros. That was a great experience. Ron Thornton (VFX guru behind Babylon 5) was an instructor there; he passed away last week. Anyway, as an engineer, I also do technical animation to showcase our products at work. Fun stuff, and it all started with the 99/4!

 

I forgot to mention the best part of working at TI: On our (two) ten-minute breaks, (there was no lunch on the graveyard shift) there were stations in the cafeteria where we could have video game tournaments. Everybody gravitated towards Tombstone City until Parsec came out. I saw more than one joystick smashed to pieces when someone lost!

 

--As for the New Technician's Guide, I am not aware of authoring it, though it's been awhile. Is there a link to view it here?

 

CC

Edited December 2, 2016 by CC Clarke

[+mizapf]

Also have a look at our Wiki at http://www.ninerpedia.org/.

 

You may find it interesting to find the TI-99/8 in MAME (complete with all ROMs), and the 99/2 is currently under work, like the 99/5.

[CC Clarke]

I found my box of TI stuff. In addition to what's listed above, there were three wall transformers, eleven 99/4 power supplies (seven were still new, in their bags) a copy of Dr. Ron Albright's, "The Orphan Chronicles", and of course, the Power-Up Tester, which I've disassembled on my bench to photograph the innards to share with you. The majority of the power supplies are of the QI type, which Tandy bought from TI when production ended (along with a lot of the keyboards) and mass-marketed them through their Radio Shack stores in 1984. I probably bought most of both available in the Seattle area at that time. The power supplies sold for $4.95 each, and are a lot better than the originals.

 

If you haven't read The Orphan Chronicles, (published by Millers Graphics) it's worth a read (172 pages) if you're into the history of the 99/4 and what happened after production ended as the 99'er community wondered, "What now?"

 

Stay tuned, more to follow.

 

CCC

[+Schmitzi]

.

Hi CCC,

 

really cool to hear about all of this, love reading this great old stories

 

thx

 

 

Here some pics I found on the web some times ago, I think it is Lubbock.

 

 

[kl99]

Have a nice Welcome!

 

Here are some technical documents, that got preserved already:

http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/99-4%20Computer/TI-99_4%20New%20Technician%20Guide%20(Reduced%20pp%20001-080).pdf

http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/99-4%20Computer/TI-99_4%20New%20Technician%20Guide%20(Reduced%20pp%20081-156).pdf

 

http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/Diagnostic%20Software%20from%20TI%20manual.pdf

http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/Specifications/Peripheral%20Expansion%20System%20Theory%20Of%20Operation%20and%20Technical%20Traning%20Guide%201982-09-03.pdf

 

http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/Hardware/99-4A%20Console%20and%20peripheral%20Expansion%20System%20Technical%20Data.pdf

http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/Hardware/99-4%20%20console%20specification%20and%20schematic.pdf

 

http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/Hardware/Schematics.pdf

http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/Hardware/TI%20Circuit%20Diagrams%20and%20Schematics.pdf

 

Maybe a bell rings, if you hear the names Rick Payne or Herman Schuurman? First one was working in Quality control as well, and also had to face the Power Supply Replacement Issue.

Later was working in Development when the 99/4 and 99/7 were specified/planned. He wrote the DSR for CS1 and DSK and was involved with Text2Speech.

 

If you like to see some information about the TI-99, I just released some unboxing video of the original 10" TI Color Monitor, but you can further find 99/8, 99/2 and Hex-Bus Hardware Videos and Information:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwTlFDfcbVnjdzXpAt7G5oQ

http://www.ti99.eu

 

I am wondering which were the main hardware issues in the support center? Did you repair only consoles or other hardware as well? With only being 36 years old, I have only heard stories of how relaxed the situation was when you had a problem with the TI. You brought the faulty console to the support center. Instead of testing it while the customer was in, he directly got a boxed console and left the support center with a big smile.

 

I am still wondering how to find out which 99/4 power supply is required for the 99/4. Afaik there are two types, one AC and one DC. If you use the wrong one, you blow the power supply. Lately I have got a 99/4 without a power supply and have yet to disassemble it to at least check out the innerts to help me find out. I should have a standard 99/4A US power supply.

 

Here are some pics of the opened unit:

 

Those comments in your technical guide would be very valuable I guess. The console is still the base unit for most of us 99ers.

Edited December 3, 2016 by kl99

[speccery]

Hi CCC,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for writing your faschinating story with the TI!

 

Erik

[CC Clarke]

Thanks for the kind words and hearty welcome everybody! I really appreciate hearing from you all.

 

There were multiple versions of the power supply, depending on model (99/4, 99/4A, & QI). The connectors went through a couple of revisions as well, from the Molex-style w/white wires to the square, straight insertion one with brown wires.

 

Answers to questions: The only part I remember being built in Lubbock was the console. We went from 100,000 a month to 100,00 a week during the period I was there (Aug '82 until June '83.) Production ceased in Oct '83 and all my friends in production were laid off if they couldn't transfer within the company. When we (the techs) were taken off the production line in my building, we went to the Warranty Repair Center on the other side of town. On the first night, we were shown a movie of how chips are fabricated, and offered immediate positions (with hefty pay raises) to move to the Dallas area. A night or two later, I transferred back to the main (North) building, to serve as a tech in the incoming QC department. That's a whole different story in itself.

 

For performance testing, TI burned the previously-tested computers in on huge racks while they ran looped programs for about 72 hours. If they passed that final test, they were boxed and shipped.

 

There was a lot of pilferable merchandise at the Warranty Repair Center, and like the production facilities, everyone was subjected to random searches as they left the building by Security. My next-door neighbor and I car-pooled, and on our second night there, she was chosen for this "special honor" as we were leaving. She lowered her head and removed her jacket, revealing a dozen watches on each arm. She was fired on the spot, and I had to drive back and forth alone.

 

As for warranty repairs, the customers were sent new computers and their old motherboards were repaired and placed inside new cases. When I was repairing computers (on the side) years later, the first time I stopped by a new shop, I was given something like 30 computers to fix. That was a nice haul at $25 each for me. I think she charged her customers $50. After that, the shop owner wanted me to swap repaired boards into different cases, which I argued to be unethical, and subsequently quit working with her. To me, it was important to fix and return the same computer to a customer, rather than someone else's that might have been all scratched up. She gave me the, "You'll never work in this town again!" parting shot and I left with my conscience intact, which is way more valuable than money. Two years later, she saw me at a computer show and begged me to work with her again --if I'd quit supporting another shop thirty miles away. Again I refused her offer and she subsequently went out of business.

 

 

I've been blowing thirty-plus years of dust out of my brain thinking back on those experiences during the last two days!

 

CC

Edited December 3, 2016 by CC Clarke

[+Schmitzi]

.

omg, can somebuddy please write an adventure game of all your amazing stories and remembrance ? pls

this would be a great game, running from plant to plant, learning stuff, collecting PUT´s, buying parts and spares,

repairing consoles, travelling through the states, helping people, doing deals, hunting seldom parts.... a.s.o.

 

"CCC and the raiders who lost MyArc" or so

 

With some scenes i.e. in Europe, it could be an International Adventure

[CC Clarke]

Alright, since you asked, here's a small sample of the journey that has become my life. As a certified raconteur and genuine character, it gives a small insight into the voodoo I do. Because, Life is short. If something isn't fun, it isn't worth doing. And if it's worth doing, then it should be done well. Let us begin to begin. . .

 

 

Here’s my favorite TI story:

Having just come out of the Navy, (punching holes in the ocean aboard submarines during the height of the Cold War) I wasn’t accustomed to working with women. At TI, (for our location) the ratio of women-to-men was something like 7-3. For a single, twenty-four year-old guy like me, this was a target-rich environment! The majority of the Techs were a few years younger and were away from home, working their first jobs, and not very worldly. My attitude toward life in general was . . let's just say, a little different.

On my second night at the plant, I carried an ESD tote with about a dozen motherboards over to a diagnostic test station, operated by the most beautiful woman I’d seen on the shift. She connected each board to her test machine, and it checked the I/O, GROM, Cassette, Joystick, Keyboard and Video ports simultaneously. If something failed, the machine spit out an un-intelligeable slip of paper, describing the fault.

I was instantly smitten. I started asking all the Techs who had been there awhile about her, looking for a way to open a dialog with her, but all of them were too intimidated to even talk to her, so I was on my own.

A few weeks later, she was transferred to a little assembly line where consoles moved on a conveyer belt to each workstation where they received another test, (Cassette, I think) before being sent off to the Burn-In area. Each unit had a couple of pieces of paper attached, held in place by the GROM port door called a Traveler. Anytime the unit passed a test station or was worked on by a Tech, information was annotated on it. Each traveler had a staple in it, and the guy in charge of the line was a real screamer, always berating the women working for him –because he could. We overheard him telling the women he would fire the next one who let a stapled traveler get through his checkpoint (to avoid scratching a console.) Several of the women were reduced to tears. It was really sad to witness, and to this day, I hate bullies. Being a submariner, understanding human nature is a big part of the process of being accepted by the crew, who view any new guy as dangerous and wasting their oxygen. Because. . . they are. Without their help, you'll never learn what you need in order to gain your coveted dolphins. I've always felt that any submariner should receive an honorary PHD in Psychology. Everything I've learned about dealing with situations (and people) during my life comes from that chapter of my life.

Dealing with this guy, I could potentially fix a problem, and if I was real lucky, maybe gain the attention of my new crush. The devious part of my brain had been working overtime. For free.

This was the perfect opportunity to make my move.

On our next ten-minute break, (we got two per shift, with no lunch period on the graveyard shift) I made it a point to sit in the cafeteria next to her and in a conspirator’s voice, asked her about her boss. Of course, she unloaded on me telling me how obnoxious he was, etc. I looked around and said, “If you could get rid of him, would you?” She looked at me funny and said, “You don’t mean kill him, do you?” “Of course not!” I laughed, “I just mean, if you can you keep a secret, I have an idea that might turn the situation around.” She started giggling as I explained how we would proceed and our conspiracy began that very night. I had her raise her hand and swore her to absolute secrecy.

On our second ten-minute break, I took a hand-written note (written by her with her feminine writing from a script I wrote) and placed it on David’s desk while he was still on his break. It said,

“Dear David,

I can’t stop looking at you, wondering what makes you tick. You have so much authority and know how to get things done. This is a huge turn-on to me. Every time you look in my eyes, I nearly blush. If I weren’t so shy I would tell you this in person, but I just wanted you to know how much you impress me. I can’t help but stare at you when you’re near, and think about you when you aren’t.”

--Like I said, there were a lot of women working on the shift, so David was staring intensely at every woman he talked to, looking for any kind sign of recognition. It was absolutely hilarious to witness. The two of us laughed continuously, and waited a few days before delivering the next letter – always during a break when we knew he wouldn’t see it. Since he wasn’t looking at guys, I did all the footwork, watching and waiting until he was busy being a pest to some poor, unsuspecting woman. It was almost too easy.

“Dear David,

You spoke to me and I almost melted. This is driving me crazy with desire, because I’m so torn over my shyness, but you seem to really be interested in me. I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid I might just lose control and betray my feelings.”

For the next two weeks, David was on a rampage, he was so pre-occupied with trying to find out who his secret admirer was, he rarely harassed the women who worked for him. He seemed to concentrate his attention on the most attractive women, so that was a good sign that we had his undivided attention.

The next letter read in part,

“Dear David,

The other night I nearly fainted when you spoke to me. I don’t know how much longer I can take this. The power you exert over me makes me tremble with desire. If you’re interested in me, I need a sign to prove it. My favorite color is green. Please where something green and maybe I can work up the courage to tell you who I am.”

The next night would be the finale, if all went well. And so it did. David came to work looking like . . . a leprechaun. He had a lime-green suit, topped off with a green hat! The two of us couldn’t stop laughing when he wasn’t around. We weren't the only ones to get a laugh out of his outrageous outfit.

The time had come to spring the trap. . .

On our first break, I placed the final letter. It was imperative that it be retrieved to remove any trace of our involvement after it was read.

“Dear David,

I’m losing my mind just staring at you. I know you want me, because I can see it in your eyes. I’ve never done anything like this in my life, but you look so handsome tonight, I’m going to just go for it. If you want me as much as I want you, go to the following bathroom, and take off all your clothes and wait for me in the last stall. We’ll only have ten minutes, so let’s make it count. I want to give you an experience, neither of us will ever forget. If you’re up for it, fold this letter and leave it standing on edge on your desk as a signal to me, and I’ll be right behind you. I’m so excited I could just scream!”

During the next couple of hours before the next break, David was a man on a mission. He made the rounds to all the attractive women he could find, lingering with each one, looking for a sign, --anything. It was plain to see, all of them were irritated just by his presence; the suit wasn’t helping matters either. When he was far enough away from his desk, I made my move and pocketed the upended letter from his desk.

When the second break began, I watched him make a beeline for the bathroom mentioned in the note. Once he was inside, the fun began.

But first: A little background:

For this story to make sense, you have to have a picture in your mind’s eye of the building layout. The “North Building” as it was called, was a gigantic facility. –And I mean big! There was a central hallway called “The Spine” and a bunch (maybe six or eight, I don’t remember) of huge assembly areas (called modules) attached to the sides of the spine. The spine was so long, the execs at the other end where their offices were located, rode golf carts to visit the modules. TI-99/4A assembly was performed in Module “B” (if I remember correctly) which was about the size of two football fields, and held two complete assembly lines, of which only one was operational at night. Across the spine, Module “A” housed the plastics area where all the covers for computers, calculators, Speak and Spells and whatever else we built were produced. On the graveyard shift, these were the only two modules operating, the rest of the building was dark. There were bathrooms located all along the spine and the bathroom David was directed to was naturally, a Women’s bathroom, far enough away that even the Spine wasn’t lighted there. It seemed like a perfect place for a late-night rendezvous.

We gave David a minute to get naked, and with script in hand, my new girlfriend called Security in a hysterical voice. “Oh my God!! There’s a naked man in bathroom XXX!” She quickly hung up and we waited patiently.

A few minutes later, our patience was rewarded. Big-time. David, dressed in his weird-looking suit was led down the spine toward the Security office by two big, burly guys. Naturally, he had no plausible explanation what he was doing in a women’s bathroom naked, and with no note to prove he was set up, he was fired right then and there.

The next night, the ladies he had harassed so often were abuzz with excitement. “Did you hear what happened to David?” was asked over and over again. My response, “You’re kidding! No way!!” The Naked-David-in-the-Women’s-Bathroom story was Big News for a long time.

In the end, a really good guy was promoted to the spot vacated by David; the women on the line were spared any further indignities, and I ended up with a new girlfriend. She made the remainder of my stay in Lubbock much more enjoyable.

CC

Edited December 4, 2016 by CC Clarke

[kl99]

Let's hope the guy never finds out what really happened to him.

What a clever way to get rid of your enemy.

What about the attractive woman? Did you get a chance to kiss here?

Hearing about this reminds me again on the 'Halt and Catch Fire' series, where one main cast is working for TI and in the meeting where they decide to discontinue the 99/4A.

 

BR Klaus

[CC Clarke]

Kiss her? Hell, I married her!

 

CC

[+Schmitzi]

A*M*A*Z*I*N*G

[Sinphaltimus]

Kiss her? Hell, I married her!

 

CC

 

That's the part I was waiting for. Now is a perfect story.

 

And funny enough, I too went Amiga and feel in love with the computer. Always wanted a videos toaster and lightwave. Ended up with Imagine and animation as a hobby.

 

I have a dead ti99/4a (black screen and tone) but lack the necessary tools for proper troubleshooting.

[CC Clarke]

It was a big jump for me to go the Amiga route, but I had a lot more fun with the computer due to the wealth of software titles and ease of use of the GUI, which was light-years ahead of DOS, and better than the earliest version of Windows. There was no way I could justify the expense (or afford) a full Video Toaster system, which properly outfitted, ran well over $15k.

 

Fifteen years later, I found full Toaster systems on eBay for $700 and bought a couple to configure and play around with. My biggest interest was learning how to model and render 3D objects. Even though the accelerated Amiga 4000s I had were really slow to render simple things, and the old version of Lightwave 3D (2.0) was very limited, I became interested enough to buy LW 3D (8.5) for my modern PC. After three months of self-teaching, I made a presentation and showed the Director where I worked what was possible, since we had always wanted a way to improve our presentation packages on large contract bids. He liked what he saw, and being the visionary that he was, said, "This is a great start, but it looks like you need professional training." I did some research, and discovered the DAVE (Digital Animation and Visual Effects) School at Universal Studios, Orlando online. While attending a one-week Lightwave "Master" course in Orlando, (which only taught me how much I didn't know) I scheduled an appointment for a DAVE School tour and explained my situation (I couldn't take a year off from work, but could attend three-month blocks (this is the way the curriculum is arranged) periodically.

 

I returned to CA and with the support of our management, immediately returned to Orlando to start Block 1, which concentrated on hard-core 3D modeling, taught by none other than William Vaughan -the best LW instructor on the planet. I lived in a nice hotel, and spent twelve hours a day, doing homework and refining my skills. On the second day, I arrived early and took a permanent seat on the front row - I didn't want to miss a single word of what he said. It was like having Einstein explain math principles, or learning to play the guitar from Paul McCartney. If you've ever have the opportunity to learn from a true master, teaching something you are passionately interested in, then you can relate to what I'm describing.

 

The whole experience was a dream come true. I returned the following year for the animation block and subsequently hired the instructor to work in CA with us. The big lesson I took away from this experience is dreams really do come true if you know what you want and work (smart) to make them happen. The learning never ends, and the more skills you acquire, the more doors you can open to new opportunities and challenges. Change is inevitable and usually, good. Fighting it leads to frustration and obsolescence in a lot of career fields these days.

 

I took a big chance to go to work for TI. It wasn't planned, but the opportunity presented itself and I had to weight the pros and cons of moving to a very isolated place like Lubbock from the Seattle area. It was mainly a college town in the middle of nowhere but it offered the opportunity to attend school while increasing my technical knowledge working at TI. Ten months later, as the writing on the wall became clear to me that our operation at TI was going to eventually implode, another job offer (I had applied there before working at TI) back in the Seattle area presented itself, and I jumped at the opportunity. Again, this wasn't planned, and I lucked out with the timing. My life has always been blessed in this way. Each experience has built a stairway to the next, and each one has been a step upwards.

 

As for your dead computer, decide if you want to pursue getting it repaired and I can take a crack at it for a nominal fee, plus shipping. I don't really want to get back into the computer repair world, but the occasional odd repair job could be nostalgically enjoyable; I usually have multiple little projects going on at once. You're in PA, so it isn't far. PM me if interested.

 

Cheers,

 

CC

Edited December 4, 2016 by CC Clarke

[LynxHandyCaster]

Greetings 99ers!

 

I stumbled across this site this morning and was pleasantly suprised at the level of enthusiasm and expertise here. To me, this is amazing, thirty-three years after TI discontinued production for the 99/4. Since this is my first post, I'll introduce myself.

 

I'm CC Clarke. In the summer of 1982, I took a two-month motorcycle trip around the US. During the trip, I rode into Lubbock to serve as the Best Man at a wedding. While riding around Loop 289, I noticed this incredibly huge TI plant. On a whim, I filled out an employment application and received a phone call for an interview the next morning! I was offered a job on the spot, but told the hiring manager I needed some time to think it over. (After all, Lubbock was not a major magnet for people to move to.)

 

A month later, I found myself working as an Electronics Tech, in the Consumer Products Division, repairing 99/4A's as they went through the build process. The plant operated 24-7 and I was assigned to the graveyard shift (more money!) TI was hiring techs as fast as they could find them. Entire graduating classes of technical schools were snapped up. We operated one assembly line at night, with about forty techs on hand to repair the thousands of boards that were piling up from three shifts. It was an incredibly busy place, and interesting to see how electronic products are built on a mass scale, with auto-insert machines stamping components into PCBs and flow solder machines delivering finished boards at one end. The larger chips (9900 CPU, 9918 VDP, and 9901 PSI) were all inserted by hand, along with the white bus bars and power supply wires. The black exterior case plastics were wiped down with (lemon) Pledge furniture polish to make them shiny.

 

Our motherboard repair target goal for each shift was eighteen. The majority of the techs were fixing three to five, and nobody had schematics (or any type of decent familiarization training.) All training was conducted by sitting next to someone, watching how they swapped parts (the Monkey-See, Monkey-Do Method) based on the symptoms. Needless to say, the inefficiency was huge. I finally got ahold of technical documentation, learned how the machine operated, and my nightly numbers climbed rapidly. In two months, I was fixing a hundred boards a night! This encouraged a healthy amount of competition between the techs, and our repair numbers soared. I was quickly promoted to Lead Tech and transferred to a new assembly line on the other side of town in an old Levi Strauss plant hastily re-purposed to build Home Computers. One of the first things I did was conduct a two-night training class for newly arriving techs. That assembly line was shuttered in the Spring of '83, while the remaining techs (us) repaired thousands of boards that had been slowly accumulating in a far corner. When we were done, we were sent over to another building, (Warranty Repair) where I lasted all of two nights, (due to my senority) before moving back to the main building again, doing QC in a lab for a couple of months. One memorable job involved shorting the secondary of the power supply transformer, and measuring how long it took to fry. (About 45 minutes.)

 

TI was expanding operations so fast to keep up with demand that any semblance of organization was absent (At least on the graveyard shift.) I had eight bosses during the ten months I worked there, and I saw so many obvious mistakes occurring that I started becoming a bit of a sceptic. The final straw for me was when we were given a sales outlook that projected numbers that were so out of touch with reality, I wondered how long we could continue to lower prices and compete while increasing production. Our target competition (The VIC-20) was technically inferior, but that was what management kept their eye on, instead of the C-64. They hired Bill Cosby as a highly-compensated spokesman, but nothing could stop the loss of revenue. To me, the situation was headed downward, and fast! I accepted a job on the West Coast in June of '83 and told all my friends to start job-hunting. Most laughed. In the Fall, hundreds of employees were unemployed when TI exited the market. That giant building emptied out. (The execs used golf carts to move around.)

 

I continued to repair Home Computers for the next six years or so in the Seattle area, until the demand was so low, it didn't justify the long weekend trips to pick up and drop off computers at the two stores I supported. TI offered a 90-day warranty. Mine was for a year and I might have had two or three (out of hundreds) return to me. The money I made was reinvested in test equipment and the knowledge I gained at TI made attending many of my digital electronics classes in college optional. I ended up auditing them, receiving credit for passing the finals which was pretty cool. I learned more about electronics in six months at TI than I did in six years in the Navy, so the experience was a great career booster. In that regard, it was time well-spent.

 

The 99/2, ("Ground Squirrel") and 99/8 ("Road Runner") were built that Spring, ('83) and most were scrapped when the end came. I saw a room piled high with boxes of one of them. The transformer safety recall during that winter was a costly blow that cast more unwanted limelight onto the operation - even though it wasn't a huge safety issue - TI wanted to cover themselves from any potential liability.

 

For the purists out there, the build week is stamped on the bottom of the cases. The first two digits specify the week, followed by the two-digit year of manufacturer. The only rare item I still have is a PUT - a Power-Up Tester that plugs into the I/O Port. It's built from a Speech Synthesizer case and has a single momentary contact switch on top. When depressed, it tests the entire 99/4. Only a few of the techs had them and they were awesome - if the computer powered up. If you power up the computer and it screams with no TI Logo home screen, those are called "Deads". Those were my favorite faults to repair when they fell out of Burn-In, which to me, was more of a real-world repair scenario, that paid off later. Parsec cartridges are ideal for long-term burn-in testing, since they run loops that test sprites, which taxes the VDP.

 

​ That's my story and I'm sticking to it. If anyone has an issue with their computer malfunctioning, feel free to direct your questions to me and I'll help if I can! I still have my old parts bin with RAMS, ROMS, and a few of the rare, ceramic 9900s - we called them, "Golden Mamas" on account of the gold die covers on top. The CPU was often called, "The Mama".

 

Cheers!

 

CCC

 

 

What a wonderful post. I love that you've been able to document your time at TI for all of us on the forum. I really eat this kind of first-person history up, especially when the history is about my first and favorite micro computer. And I also very much appreciate that your repair knowledge, which sounds quite considerable, has now been added to the already considerable expertise that 99ers on these forums have offered in the past (and continue to do so). Welcome to the fold, Carlton, and if you ever happen across a forgotten 99/2 or 99/8 prototype that you stashed away in your basement or garage, I'll for one would b happy to take it off your hands...just PM me

 

MillipedeMan

Ti (and Atari) Afficionado