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I'm about to pack up a PEB so that a friend can sell it on e-bay. We're selling all of the cards and the box together. (Disk controller, 32K expansion, RS232 card) Does anybody have any advice on packaging it safely? I'm planning to remove the expansion cards, and put them in a separate package from the expansion box. I'm thinking I should leave the disk drive inside of the PEB, since it's fit pretty snuggly into the PEB anyway. I'll buy styrofoam to cushion the PEBs and use some left-over bubble-wrap for the cards. Does that all sound safe?
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My latest project is called SDD 99 and is both a multi-function expansion card and a PEB replacement. It's currently in the prototype stage and about 80% complete. The SDD 99 features an SD-card based disk, 32 or 64 MB of SAMS-compatible RAM, Wifi and a remote file server, and various ports. This video shows how to use the SDD 99, but be warned, I suck at YouTube. The SDD 99 uses an ARM Cortex M microcontroller and one SDR SDRAM IC. Programming the Cortex M has been both a breeze, and a nightmare. It's been super easy to create logic such as the cartridge emulation, but dealing with its peripherals such as SD, RAM, and Wifi has been major stumbling blocks that cost me months. I started this project end of last year, mostly since I wanted to see what a Cortex can do. Of course I'm fully aware that TIPI has long since been released, but I never meant to compete with or best TIPI. In fact, I abstained from AA for the past view months, since I didn't want to learn too many facts about TIPI. So, I'm aiming for completing this by next spring, but of course my original plan was to show the prototype in May.
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This is a work in progress.. will be happy to add anything missing - Greg A few bits of information, rules and guidelines on posting. Short links to our sub-forums: TI-99/4A Computers http://ti99.atariage.com TI-99/4A Development http://dev99.atariage.com Please read the AtariAge site guidelines which apply to and are enforced in our subs. Our sub-forums are divided to help cater to the varied interests in our beloved platform. The parent sub-forum, TI-99/4A Computers, contains general information and conversation regarding the TI-99/4A and its siblings, such as the 99/2, 99/8, CC-40, and BASICALCS. The sub-forum TI-99/4A Development is for conversations, information, announcements, etc. pertaining to programming, tinkering, or the development of software or hardware for these computers. This division is not intended to be a separation of the community but rather a way for those who have little interest in development but moreso in general discussions to focus their time on the fun-zone, while those who take more interest in the deep-down nitty-gritty and not so much general shenanigans to focus their attention just the same. The rest of us can spend all the time we want and will peruse both subs with reckless abandon. Insofar as development is concerned, once hardware or software has been completed or is at least ready for general consumption, an announcement should be made in the general TI-99/4A Computers forum for all to partake. Further development and inquiries should still be continued within the TI-99/4A Development sub-forum. The forum leader will move threads to a more appropriate forum. This may also be done by request should a thread be started in the wrong forum by accident or the trajectory changes from general to development or vice-versa. The forum leader will also merge identical threads started in both forums into a single thread in the proper forum. Per AtariAge guidelines, please refrain from posting identical threads in both sub-forums as way to ensure the topic gets viewed. Many people already browse both subs, and if your topic pertains more to development rather than general, or vice-versa, the thread should exist in the appropriate forum. As well, multiple threads created on the same topic in the same forum will be merged. Regular members can edit a post for 60 minutes after submission. This allows you to fix any issues you may notice with the post right away. Subscribers can edit posts for 30 days. In the Marketplace and Programming forums you can edit your posts indefinitely, since the flexibility of allowing editing of posts outweighs the potential abuse of the edit functionality. If you make a duplicate post in a thread, which can happen by accident or some unforeseen technical glitch, report the post by clicking on the "report" link at the bottom of the post and indicate in the report that the post is a duplicate. If you are not a subscriber, please help support AtariAge by using the eBay BBCodes ebay, ebayseller, and ebaystore when posting links to eBay! Click here for more information. Anything you would like to share with your fellow 99ers but is seriously off-topic for the forum may be posted in the official off-topic thread, located here To find the most popular threads click on sort by and select most popular. All of us are ready and willing to provide answers to your TI-99 questions if we can, some will just chime in if they cannot, and others will just lurk. If you have any questions specifically pertaining to the operation of our forums, please feel free inquire of the forum leader via Private Message (PM,) or one of the global moderators. BEFORE POSTING QUESTIONS PLEASE READ THE UPDATED TI-99/4A FAQ HERE: https://www.arcadeshopper.com/wp/ti-99-4a-faq/
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So I have my PEB which hasn't been used since the 1990s. It didn't turn on, so I looked inside. My older son tells me it wasn't working years ago, and the fuse we could check (next to the power cord) was OK. So he recalls that I had been thinking I'd probably have to replace the power supply, and was going to try to get one from someone on a BBS (I honestly don't recall that, but it makes sense that I would have thought that, because the fan was probably the only thing working). Anyway, one of us (one of my sons or I) had started to unhook everything, and so I found all the 110v side wires disconnected inside the box. This is 25 years later, so I have no recollection. But in the process today, I also peeled away the plastic and looked inside the transformer, as helpfully described by Mainbyte, and sure enough that hidden fuse was blown. So while I wait for a replacement to arrive, I'm trying to reconnect everything. I also got the schematics that were helpfully posted here. But our hastiness in disconnecting everything and then shelving it 25 years ago has left a big puzzle to solve. My main question is this: There is a fuseholder (holding the fuse that wasn't blown) built into the power cord receptacle, and it has five lugs, and also looks like it can be inserted different ways for different voltages. One lug goes in one end of the fuse, and four are for the other. All were disconnected, as were the wires to the power switch. (Only the fan was still connected via the wire joiners, so I'm good there). There are also three extra wires on the line voltage side of the transformer (black, brown, and orange), but only the whites and reds are shown in the schematic. Were those extra wires supposed to be for the voltage selection feature of the fuseholder, and if so, can I just leave them unconnected and just use the red and white wires like the schematic says? Once I get everything reconnected and solder in the new secret fuse, I'll have to test the power supply board. As bad luck would have it, just before I decided to resurrect the TI, I had recycled about six PC computers accumulated in the 25 years since we put the TI away, and an I also threw out extra ATX power supply. Dang it. I see here that the guts of an ATX power supply might be substituted if the TI power supply board doesn't work. My bad luck, or my poor planning. My wife had finally convinced me I might be suffering from hoarding disorder and I wanted to prove my sanity to her... Should have looked at all the TI stuff first. And she still doubts my sanity because - ... "The TI???? I thought you got rid of that!"
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ti994a TI99 MyArcXBII & P-Card in MESS/MAME emulation package-update
hloberg posted a blog entry in HLO projects
Update: moved packages to emulation section from software. I have put a together MAME/MESS emulation package that emulates the MyArc Extended BASIC II & TI P-Card for the Ti99. MyarcXBII: MyArc was a company that made peripherals for the TI-99 line. There most famous peripheral (if you want to call it that) was the Geneve. The Geneve was a complete TMS 9995 computer that fit in the TI-99 PEB as a card. Another peripheral that was lesser known, but just as revolutionary, was the MyArc Extended BASIC II. The MyXBII consisted of the 128k or 512k Memory card, a set of disk and a cartridge. When running the MYXBII had 3 times the memory of TIXB, was up to twice as fast as TIXB and was able to access all the graphic capability of the TI graphics card including the hi-rez. If a MyArc HD disk card was added the software could even boot from the MyArc hard drive. It turned the TI99 into a real power house. Unfortunately because of it's expense and the fact that you needed a PEB to run it, the MyArcXBII never really caught on. Now, though, with emulation it cost nothing so through the power of MAME/MESS the power is being released. Start the MyArcXBII at the TI99 main menu by choosing 3-128k BASIC and this will boot the MyArcXBII from the hard drive. P-Card: The P-Card was a card for the PEB that was, more or less, a complete operating system apart from the TI99. It's a virtual machine processor on a card that ran P-Code. It was written totally in software and was based on Pascal and was able to run on other computers that also conformed to the P-Code specifications. It is nothing like a standard TI-99 and when booted takes over the TI-99 and even has a specially formatted disk it uses. There is a complete suite of software and if you can figure it out, kinda nice. To run the P-Card in MAME/MESS click under OPTIONS-DIP SWITCHES then turn on the P-CARD. Hard reboot the machine and the TI-99 will start in the P-Card mode (after a few seconds of beeping and blank pages). To go back to MyArcXBII just turn the P-CARd switch OFF then hard reset the machine. The MAME/MESS package works with any versions of MAME/MESS past version 222. Just merge your version of MAME/MESS into the MESSxxx directory and point the already created batch file in the root to that directory. Package includes manuals, software, batch files and everything you need except MAME/MESS itself. Enjoy. Download from my https://ti99resources.wordpress.com/emulation/ At the bottom of the page is MAME packages, click on MyArc Extended BASIC II to show download files. I have both a package with and without the P-Card. (a truly nice tripped out Ti-99 from mainbyte.com) -
I'm trying to add my Lotharek as DSK2 and DSK3 to my PEB with a single Tandon drive. For this I'm using a standard PC floppy cable with TWO floppy connectors, one of which is twisted. When I connect the Tandon drive only, I can catalog DSK1 just fine. When I connect the Lotharek only, I can catalog DSK2 and DSK3 just fine. (Note that jumpering the Lotharek appropriately will take care of the twisted cable, I think.) If I connect both, though, then cataloging either DSKx yields "DISK NOT INITIALIZED". I've also tried removing the resistor pack on the drive (I suppose this is "A" in the photo, not "B"?!), but it didn't affect the result at all. (Or are you supposed to plug in something else instead?) Is my approach misguided? What's the difference between attaching a single cable with two connectors to the main controller plug and attaching two cables with a single connector to both main and rear-facing controller plugs?
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I bought a PEB about 15 years ago on EBay with the hopes of someday getting a TI994/A setup going, but never had a computer to run it with until recently. I haven't started it up yet and wanted to ask a couple questions before I do. It hasn't been powered in the time I've had it, and I'm guessing some time before that. Is there any pre-work I should do on it before I apply power to it? Test out caps or pre-replace components? I don't want to power it on and have it blow itself up. The PEB is pretty well loaded up with a Disk Controller, 32K Ram Card, RS232 Card, the Flex cable interface, and a CorComp TripleTech Card with a speech synth card installed on it. Is there any risk the cards may damage the unit or vice versa if they are out of order? It also has a clear problem with its floppy drive. The little door you latch down seems to have been knocked off the front and into it, wedged between the drive circuit board and the metal frame of the drive door. I can't figure out how to get the drive out for the life of me. I've removed the four screws (2 under the top cover on the top of the drive cage, and 2 on the bottom side of the unit). It moves around in the cage after that but won't fit out the front that I can see. How the heck do you get the drive out? Thanks in advance!
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just got me a working PEB complete with 2 old TI full high drives of indeterminate functionality. I have been trying to initialize a disk on the drives and I get error 16 (not recognizing the drive or disk). the drive spins up on both when initializing and the light comes on but then I get that error after a minute or so in Disk Manager 2. Now the problem is all I have is double density/ double sided disk to test with. would i get an error like that with 2D/2S disk formatting? do I need to get some single sided disk to test it with (which are hard to find)?
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I just got a PEB (see my avatar). It has a full high ss/sd drive, memory, rs-232,-code cards installed. I know there is many, many ways of getting files to the TI-99 from the internet using the PEC; HxC drives, IDE card, Mod RS-232 card, TIPi card and probably more. BUT, some are no longer get-able and others are still not available. So, what do you all think is the best and most cost effective way of getting files to the TI-99 from the internet. I'm leaning to replacing my full high ss/sd with 1 or 2 HxC floppy emulators. Any thoughts on the subject?
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I remember asking this several years ago. Since I fiddling with the 99/8 again I thought I ask again. The roms for the 99/8 on MESS never worked with disk drive controllers a while back. tape worked but not drive. it was because the rom or system uploaded for the 99/8 hadn't gotten far enough in development to support drives. this was about mess .149. just wondering if new mess has a working 99/8 as some newer 99/8 board been found since then?
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About 15+ years ago, I obtained a FREE (yes free) PEB from someone. It appeared to be in good shape. It was (is) empty. No floppy drives or cards. So, I never even put power to it. Recently, I obtained a flex cable for it so I thought it was time to see if this thing works. I have read the fan is super loud. After opening up the case, removing some cobwebs and other small critters, it's alive! I have to admit, it's not as loud as I was thinking it would be. No louder than a typical PC of the time. And I've got the top off. I may upgrade the fan sometime in the future with something quieter. Anyway, I'm excited about it. I've wanted a PEB since I was a small kid and I finally got mine to power on. This is only phase one of many phases to come. Time to start looking for cards. :-) Video Feb 03, 6 24 09 PM.mov
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So, I just bought a flex cable off eBay. I already own the PEB box but it's empty other than a PSU. I have never put power to the PEB so I have no idea of the PSU is good. I couldn't wait for my flex cable to get here before I asked some questions. 1) Assuming the PSU is totally shot, can they be replaced with modern ATX PSU's? I don't remember the form factor of it (need to get it out of storage). I could always recap the board but I like modern PSU's whenever I can. 2) Does the speech synthesizer connect to the side of the TI and the flex cable into the side of it? Or can the two be used together? 3) What kind of floppy drives can I use with the PEB/TI? I want to get a TIPI but I like actual drives too. Thanks!
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I finally went and bought myself a PEB, listed as untested, and complete with RS-232, Disk Controller, and 32K cards. And as seems to be usual with untested systems, it doesn't work. (at least not entirely) I typed in the following program listed in the Disk Memory System manual, in order to test the drive: 100 OPEN #1:"DSK1.X" 110 CLOSE #1 The LED on the controller lit up for a fraction of a second, but the drive itself was lifeless, with me getting an I/O ERROR 00. The manual, however, says that I should normally get an I/O ERROR 06, and that 00 means that the drive could not be found. For what it's worth, the drive spins up when the PEB is first powered on, and the LED on the drive lights up when shutting it off. Where should I start with troubleshooting this? (BTW, I thought that members here were exaggerating about how loud the PEB's fan is; turns out it really is that loud )
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I know the trend has been mini ... cost is an issue, even designing multi-function cards to reduce slot count. I look at the polls too. But I've been slowly moving forward with alternates - even if it ends up cost prohibitive to produce in mass the same time as applying power/fan mods to existing but dwindling PEBs. Metal forming isn't my forte nor do I have the equipment to reimagine existing products. I do love the mental challenge and the design process though. I took Thiery's Hyper-AMS idea and combined it with a 68-pin round cable, widen data path to replace the PEB interface. This would be a removable card, but not accessible - add another slot and give 9 back to the user. 14-16 lines leftover to bring out a lot of the inaccessible PEB backplane. Convinced myself may as well throw in a full 16-bit wide data path and perhaps expand AMA.A - AMC.A up to the equivalent addressing of A23-A0 with still plenty of ground/shield mixing on data pairs within cabling. Of course, a standard console couldn't utilize the additional signals, but I would have solid footing as I continue MB redesign to accommodate/utilize those. Weight would be an issue, which is why clear, acrylic cell cast square stock and sheet would help keep price down. $30 Meanwell 133 watt triple rail ( +5V @10 amps, +15V @ 4.5 amps, -15V @ 1 amp) power supply would do. I needed a +8V and a +12V supply, but those can be had with two more buck converters from the strong 5V rail - make each individual PEB slot able to jumper between +15V and +12, also +8 and +5 for those cards out there that people have removed regulators from to reduce heat. That should allow a mix of original + new designs. Perhaps adding a 16-pin card edge connector to a couple of the slots would allow future multi cards access to the benefits of a 68-pin cable interface. Heck lets get rid of most of the internal drive power cables too and let the PCB carry the drive power to a molex connector ... it was doing that already. Just one of another vaporware projects that keep my bench happy strewn with parts and schematics.
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32K RAM pulled working from a TI-99/4A Peripheral Expansion Box. Includes manual. Also have a non-working Flex Cable Interface. I'm told it is "probably" an easy fix (replace a couple of chips and capacitors.) Don't have the ability to do this myself as my hands are not steady enough for the solder work. I do own a cat, so apologies, but please expect some cat dander 32K RAM card: Asking $50 plus shipping & PP fees. SOLD Flex Adapter: Asking $20 plus shipping & PP fees. SOLD Will consider reasonable offers.
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So, I'm going to be away for a few weeks (more than a few) and away from my home-base where I can record new videos. So, in this thread I wanted to post those videos that have been created in the past couple weeks. I will be creating more, I know in the last video it appears it's the last, but it isn't, I just knew I'd be away for several weeks (i.e. 5ish due to work assignment out of town ). I have more ideas after this series that I want to develop but I won't be able to for at least a month and I have new items on order that have not arrived to review. So, it's not the end of the TI 99/4a Wagner's TechTalk videos. If you haven't seen these, I hope you take the opportunity to look around and hopefully it will be fun/helpful for you. Please comment below with any recommendations and I'll do my best to add them when I return in late April (I will have internet access, just not the ability to create new TI content as my TI will be at home and I won't be). Best to all! -Jon Part I - TI 99/4a Home Computer Introduction and History - Part I https://youtu.be/mFZgnH32Kag Part II - AWESOME TI 99/4a Upgrades - the nanoPEB - Part II https://youtu.be/hsQD0i4pZFk Part III - Preparing and Managing the nanoPEB CF Card with TI99dir - Part III https://youtu.be/cJ5v9d3LeJg Part IV - TI-99/4A Part IV - Various Upgrades: Video converters, TI99Sim, FlashRom99 and more! https://youtu.be/-0bffE-61qo
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I'm not sure if it's anecdotal evidence, but it appears (at first glance) a portion of the active TI community may be shifting away from the peripheral expansion box as their primary configuration. This poll is designed to ascertain quantities, trends and actual use overall. I would appreciate your participation whether or not you own a P-Box. Thanks!
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Just purchased an empty PEB and want to find a disk drive and disk drive controller card for it. Also looking for a 32K Memory card.
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For the next few weeks I want to spend some quality time with my real iron and spice up my working standard PEB (featuring TI 32K, TI serial, TI controller and a single TI SSSD drive). Some immediate improvements would be to replace the noisy fan and to add a Lotharek drive to the box. Further down the road I also have a non-working US PEB I would like to run on 230 V. Much further down I might even tinker with some custom-designed expansion cards. Now I'm a noob when it comes to the analog aspects of hardware, but the one thing I remember about the PEB is that it can provide only 1A of power safely. For running non-standard stuff, e.g., dual drives, one should do the 2A mod. On the other hand, back in the day my original (and now lost) PEB did have two slim drives, and I doubt that the vendor applied this modification to the PEB. Question 1. Will I be able to run the TI Disk Controller with a single TI SSSD Drive and the Lotharek drive (plus the other cards) safely together, or do I need the 2A mod? The 2A mod refers to the 12V line, but Lotharek uses 5V only. Question 2. Could I additionally power a standard 12V PC fan from the drive power line? This has been done, but what about the 1A power limit? (On second thought: Papst 2600 rpm @ 1,3 W / 12 V = 100 mA, but Papst 1000 rpm @ 0,35 W -> 30 mA seems OK?) For my broken PEB I would at the very least have to replace the fuse, which is hard to get at (rocker switch PEB). Worse, I need to handle 230 V. So I considered replacing the entire power supply with a modern PC one, knowing full well that this is obviously considered a bad idea by several people. If I understood above articles correctly, the PEB requires 8V and 16V instead of the PC 5V and 12V, but all cards will do their own voltage regulation anyway and thus can handle 5V and 12V as well. I absolutely do not doubt these experts and their experience, but still ... When I look at the TI RS-232 interface card, which happens to lie on my table right now, it states as input power requirements . + 7.5 TO + 10.0 VDC @ 0.600 AMPS + 14.0 TO + 18.0 VDC @ 0.100 AMPS - 14.0 TO - 18.0 VDC @ 0.100 AMPS . Question 3. Is it really safe to run a PEB on 5V/12V? Would that also solve the power (amp) shortage from above? If I'm not mistaken, the (European) console power brick also delivers 8V and 16V. Question 4. Couldn't you butcher something for the PEB out of that? And if I ever get around to play with PEB prototyping, I only have the "TI 99/4A and Peripheral Expansion System Technical Data" manual right now. According to that manual, a PEB card may draw up to 250/500/30 mA. Question 5. So did I get this right that the 1 A limitation above only refers to the floppy drive power cable and that I could run up to 8 cards at 500 mA each on the bus? (If so the fuse part confuses me ...) Question 6. Are there any other good resources for creating PEB cards? Are the schematics and/or sources for the PEB prototype board available somewhere? Sorry, that's a lot of questions ... Have I already mentioned that I'm a power noob?
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http://www.codesrc.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=SCSI2SD I am considering one of these for my TI. I am using the WHT SCSI card. Anyone have any thoughts on whether it will work or not? What about size limitations?
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So I came across a PEB yesterday. It was sold as is untested for $50 I figured thats less then shipping alone would be if I was even able to get a deal on ebay. At first I passed on it, but later I went back and talked him down to $40. I figured theres a decent chance I could fix this thing if it is broken. It cleaned up pretty nice a few dings and scratches. So I hooked it all up and tried to save a basic HELLO WORLD program to a blank disk. No luck I got I/O error 66. I still think the results are somewhat promising. All the lights on the PEB seemed to light up at the right times including the floppy drive led. The drive never makes the sounds I have come to expect from a floppy drive. So my initial thought is that its the floppy drive thats the issue. No problem I wanted to do the 3.5" mod anyway. I have a half height 5.25" and I'd like to have that and a 3.5". I haven't really started looking into to much yet but I'm curious if my assumption of the drive being the likely culprit is way off. Any other tips or ideas of what I can do with this PEB would be appreciated. I know this is going to give me a lot more options for my little TI and I'm very excited.
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Hi, So I'm getting my computer room/office set up and I just got my TI 99/4a setup and now I've run into a strange issue. When I turn on my TI 99/4a with the PEB turned on, the screen flashes for a moment and then turns black. When I turn the TI 99/4a on without the PEB being on, I get the usual ready screen and can access basic or cartridges. the disk drive in the PEB spins the disk with the red ractivity light on for a moment when the computer is turned on. I've tried cleaning out the connectors on the 99's expansion port and the PEB's connector with quick drying contact cleaner, which got a lot of grime out but hasn't change the function. Anyone here know how this is supposed to work/know whats up? I've got a couple floppies that are supposed to be new with games and an auto loader on them as well as the disk manager 2 cartridge.
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Hi All, Looking for help - bought a HRD off eBay. It only reports 182K, gets errors on the memtest, however it loads the DSR OK and seems to function as it should. (have not tested for corrupt files) In any event - I suspect some of the jumper wiring might have come off over the years and need some assistance. Anyone have a build manual? Anyone have this card??? http://www.tyde.net/2.jpg If you have it - can you look at the expansion jack pad and tell me if yours looks like mine??? http://www.tyde.net/1.jpg In general, it's a clean looking card that appears to have suffered no electrical (visible) or physical damage. I'd love to put it back into service (I run a pretty big 35 year old database on my TI99). Is there anyone out there with the skills and time to take a shot at fixing it? (it's beyond my skills to do a component level debug - though I could probably fix anything if I knew what to do). Any assist would be very much appreciated... Cheers, Arthur...