The 8-Bit Guy I’ve had my dads old one for years. Just gave it a cleaning and power up tests. Still works great. Also has the ram expansion and dma controller card
Your memory expansion card, since it is 128k, appears to use 64k by 4 bit memory chips. Based on the number of empty sockets, you may be able to install 384k into this board, which combined with the 256k on the motherboard, would bring this system up to a full 640k. You'll need chips like these: www.ebay.com/itm/NEC-D41464C-10-D41464-64K-x-4-DRAM-DIP-18-x-1pc-/151057118990 You'll want to make sure you get chips that are at least as fast as the ones you are already using though. These are 100ns
Proportionately, early computers were far faster than today. People went from driving to the library, to a 4.77MHZ computer with a 300 or 1200 baud modem. People went from hand spreadsheets to electronic ones and from typewriters to word processors. Yes, they were slow, but compared to WHAT? It might take a while to boot a pc, launch a terminal, type ATDT XXX-XXXX and login, but it was still a lot faster than getting in your car (or bike or bus) and going to a physical place, waiting in line and pulling out reference guides. Compared to then, we have stagnated for well over a decade relying mostly on adding cores and fairly minor efficiency gains as far as processing speed goes. A computer from 2008 is still perfectly usable today, whereas a 1981 PC being used in 1991 was just unusable.
Unfortunately it appears that Autogard is no longer in business. Their web site is now occupied by a domain squatter and attempts to e-mail them bounce back with an error.
I got this PC brand new for i believe my b-day when i was about 10, so that would have been in 1995, its was so cool. Makes me wish i appreciated it more and kept it nice, as i got older i took it apart to see what it was like on the inside and then somehow lost track of it. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
We had this identical setup when I was a kid. Used to write my papers on WordPerfect. So many great memories of playing Wasteland, Thexder, Gunship, and Chuck Yeager's AFT. Played on this machine until I went to college in the 90s.
what a beautiful computer!. I never had one of those but somehow it made nostalgic of my XT days, my first machine was a 640k XT with CGA, I had a green monochrome monitor, and two 360k floppy drives. then upgraded to 20mb hard disk and color cga monitor. (it was horrible, I prefer monochrome instead of the horrible cga pallete!)
The Tandy 1000 EX was my first PC-compatible computer. I remember buying something called the "PC Music Maker" that was a MIDI interface that plugged into a PC printer port. Unfortunately, it didn't work at all with the 1000 EX. When I reached out to the PC Music Maker company, they very kindly provided me with an adapter that apparently moved some pins around to make their interface work. They didn't even charge me. That was very cool of them. I have fond memories of that computer. My friend went out and bought a 1000 HX that had the boot ROM and didn't require a floppy to be inserted to boot up. I was jealous. 😊
That moment at 5:45. I was just as excited as you, Adrian. I am new to this vintage computer hobby and having a blast with it and your videos. The hobby has rekindled the joy I got from computers (I started with an Apple IIe) that I somehow lost along the way. I started to take computers for granted, but really they have the same magic as ever: inside each one are endless worlds and opportunities for creativity and exploration. Thank you for making these videos and sharing them.
TH-cam rec'ing me old videos, but that ending spiel really resonates. I couldn't imagine dealing with loading a game or program off tape or floppy disk these days other than when I sometimes do it for a nostalgia kick. I get impatient waiting for an old hard disk equipped system to boot these days, spoiled by NVMe and a 6-core CPU.
It should be noted, for anybody who has a Tandy 1000 HX (not EX as shown here), that the 720KB drives are incompatible with standard PC drives, but for a different reason. The 3.5" drives Tandy used in the HX were powered via the ribbon cable, so you'd fry a normal PC floppy if you tried. On the EX, as shown here, the DS-0/DS-1 jumper on the floppy is because older floppies (this one is 320KB), were made before "cable select" was built into floppy cables (the twist in the ribbon before the end of the cable where the first drive is connected). That jumper selects which drive letter (order) the drive will be. I've also read that on such drives, it may be necessary to remove the termination resistor pack if it's not at the end of the chain (not drive a:), just as one would do on a SCSI disk.
@@lorumipsum1129 "Modern" 3.5" floppy drives (I'm dating myself, aren't I?) are hard set at ds1. The twist in the cable sets it to DS0 for A: drive. It may be possible to use a normal 3.25" floppy on the HX, but you'd have to cobble together your own cable that cuts out the power pins at the floppy drive so you can use a splice from the power supply, or integrate a power connector from the cable itself. I'd have to look up the pin-outs, but that should be possible.
I would love to see something like that running an SSH client (and hooked up to the Internet somehow). Thanks so much for the walk down memory lane, really enjoyed the video.
Funny thing is my father had this computer and we went to expand the memory from the card we got from radio shack. It booted up, showing that it had 512k of memory, and seemed to work for a few minutes. Then it crashed and just wouldn't turn on after that.
i have a Tandy 1000sx from 1986 with the Tandy color monitor cm5 and the Tandy dot matrix printer to go with it all in really good shape and i found all of it in the trash hahahaha
this is like trying to get a dead T-REX back to life. my modern GAMING PC is like 4 years old. that will make a TANDY 1000 look like a PONG my motherboard is MSI X(( GAMING GODLIKE with a i7 5930K CPU that is a 6 core 3.5GHz DDR4 16Gigs 2666 4 dims GTX 1070 SUPERCLOCK graphic card. 240GB SOLID STATE DRIVE and many standard hard drive. Now I remember the C-64 that is COMMODORE 64 that takes forever loading video games. yes Solid State is heck of a lot faster then floppy drive.. However installing GTA V and download its update took 80Gigs of my solid state drive.12 hours I had to go though 7 DVD discs and and downloading . loading GTA ONLINE takes forever. because it has to go though 80 gigs and uploading and downloading data to check rather or not I am not using any cheat mods. and it all ways fail due to server glitches.
Another bit of trivia about this computer, Tandy Mode graphics is the same mode as IBM's PC Jr graphics. You could change the graphics mode easily using debug, micorosofts cheesy little hex editor and assembly debugger. A\:>debug (with DOS disk in drive, debug's prompt is a dash "-") -a 0100 (this lets you enter assembly at 0100h, this is normal IP starting address for .COM programs) -mov ah,00 -mov al,08 -int 10 -int 20 (a "quick and dirty" way of returning execution to command prompt) Now we make sure instruction point register is set to 0100h. -r ip:0100 -g (this command says "Go") Look in amazement at the glorious huge, pixels capable of 16 colors, but far more than the 4 colors allowed by CGA. lol More about INT 10h : go to stanislavs(dot)org / helppc / int_10-0.html Lastly if you want to save, set the CX register to something like 50, then use -n pcjr (dot) com, then -w, but make sure you swap to a writeable disk first.
This was my first computer back in '85 I think. When you listed the DIR @ 9:56 there is a program called "SHIPTRAK.COM" I remember loading it at the A: prompt and the screen would echo off, beep and bright white flashing letters will appear at the top saying _"REMOVE POWER FROM THE SYSTEM NOW!!"_ I always wondered what the hell is that program for?
Great video! So glad you had success with this project! The Tandy 1000 EX was my first computer, and I have many fond memories of playing Sierra games, as well as coding in BASIC. I just bought one of these (working) on eBay and am very excited to find out that there are options if I ever need to repair or replace components. Thanks again for a great video!
Whoever told you the 5 1/4" drive was incompatible, was dead wrong. I routinely used floppies on my home Tandy 1000EX and read them with IBM PC XT 5 1/4 drives at my high school. The person who told you this was likely confused about *density*. Newer PC clones of the mid late 80s used high density 1.2 MB 5 1/4" floppies. So, if the person used that format, then tried to read them with a low density drive found on early IBM PC XT, Tandy 1000 EX or any of the other gazillion clones of that era, it wouldn't have worked.
I wish I kept some of my old computers. I had a 1000EX as well after my CoCo2. On the up side I did get a CoCo3 recently refurbished and have been collecting all kinds of items for it including a TP-10 printer, cassette drive, joysticks, multipack, and a nifty CoCoSDC which lets me use SD cards loaded with disk images. Oh the memories.
I found on lying ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD for God knows how long, I took it home and it turned on like it's been used everyday. I've been needing to clean it because theres a lot of dirt buildup and a bit of rust.
My first PC was an 80286 AT clone I got in 1990 instead of an Amiga. I am still a professional PC Technician/Network Engineer, so it was the righ decision even though it felt bad at the time!
Tandy 1000hx was the first computer my husband and I purchased when we first got married. And it was my sons first computer when he was 2 years old. I think you are super close to me in Portland. Would love to pick your brain Adrian about some Vintage Macintosh refurbs. I remember my husband expanding the memory size with expansion boards on the Tandy to the point that Taps plastics had to make a new cover because old one didn’t fit. Our Tandy ran GeoWorks.
I don't think these really took of in the UK but I may be wrong. I think Amstrad pretty much had the budget IBM PC clone market to itself around this time. They did make something similar to this and sold it under the Sinclair brand (PC200 I think) but think it had pure CGA graphics and just the PC beeper. The Tandy sound chip was great and I have no idea why more clones didn't make use of it. As a kid I always wondered why nobody made an IBM PC inside an Amiga style case without realising they did exist they were just not common in the UK.
Great video Adrian! That was a gamble buying such an expensive clock chip with the high price of the shipping too, not knowing if the Tandy had other faults with rare/expensive custom chips. I felt your elation when you switched it on and it worked! Your channel has come a long way since this video, but your old stuff is still great too.
I was scraping at some ladys house and came across a tandy 1000 ex.... Boot disks desk mate joystick and some games... Booted right up. Expansion ram. Has 640k. And telecom ports. I didnt put that heat shield thst surrounds the motherboard and it kept shorting the board... Out it back on works great... Exceot the keyboard is wonky try to hit s and it tyoes quoa... So idk
Great Video Steve, i still have the 1000HX machine that my dad bought me in 1987 and i still use, the issue is the internal 3.5" 720k floppy no longer works, you cant find then anywhere as they are powered from the ribbon cable, I found some instructions on how to modify the ribbon cable and use a later model drive (modifying the ribbon cable cuts out the power lines to the new drive which is powered externally), issue now is, the new drive spins but the head does not move, do you have any experience or advice on how to fix this ? Thank you
Thanks again Adrian for the informative video, I'm a bit (cough) late in viewing this one, but was looking for someone who has cleaned the keyboard on an HX or EX where you had to remove the two flexible keyboard cables, was there a trick to getting them out and then again to putting them back in? Is it just pressure or do the size tabs actually release or tighten something to help remove and reinstall it?
I really really want one. But they are too expensive. I'll probably build this with a homemade board and a raspberry pi. It's funny how just 15 years ago, everyone was tossing these out at a high rate before they became multi-grand ebay gold. Wish I took the vintage beige machines and monitors when I still had the chance... I was in google maps the other day and searching through the neighborhoods of my house through the virtual first-person view with a panorama shoot of my street, and the map of my neighborhood had not been updated since 2008. I guess it was garbage day since there were garbage bags that day. And what I saw that was saddening was a giant massive pile of beige macintoshes stacked ontop of each other along with stacks of white electronic typewriters and tandy 1000 ex's littered on the side of the street ready to be thrown out. Could be that someone who had them died or left them behind when they moved or became homeless.
My first thought was that with older computers, caps tend to go bad. Did you try removing the 2 caps from the original chip and see if it works without the caps?
I had an SX which I believe came out before this one. It did have an internal clock. You can completely remove all power for years and not set the time when you reboot. Mine was in a closet for 10 years, still had the correct time when I set it back up. Actually, my battery only when bad about 6 months ago. It doesn't look like a battery, and I can't tell you were to find it on this model, but it should be there. I haven't replaced mine yet. I did remove the old one because I didn't want it to leak.
The tip on the DS0, DS1 is good. However it's not about anything proprietary. That's just the drive select line, so that the floppy knows if it's the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th drive on the chain. You can have a twist on the cable and keep all drives as DS0, or a straight cable and manually configure each drive.
thank you for posting. i believe you said the expansion bus is really just an isa bus. perhaps an XTide card & cf/sd hard disk could be accommodated ? maybe a dallas rtc chip too ? take care & stay safe.
I got one of these for free, busted External drive so I'm trying to put a Gotek in it. No luck, it just shows dashes on the gotek drive and when it's plugged in, messes with the operation of the internal drive.
I thought the floppy drive cable in these computers also provided power to the floppy drive as well as the data line. Does the external floppy drive gets its power from the computer or must it be plugged into a power socket?
I had a 1000HX too. There were no hard drives available from Tandy, you needed a third party kit to put a hard drive inside. They were also pretty expensive at the time.
This was my Grandfathers computer when I was growing up. I would sit in his room for hours, playing Rogue, Quest for Glory, Space Quest, Hero's Quest, Zaxxon, First Publisher, and more. When he moved on to the Tandy 3000 he gave this computer to me. I wrote all my high school papers on it, used it for rudimentary graphic design and more. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I'm going to fire up DOSBox on my MacBook Pro and have a round of Rogue for old time's sake :)
Oh man I did use that Tandy for years in our community center it was unique, fast and reliable and it did have the memory expansion board, thanks for sharing those moments of joy 👍
As a kid when I'd stay up late playing on my HX, I would pull the fan cable so my mom would have less of a chance of hearing me up late. I had both the memory board eventually upgraded to 640K and also had the serial board as well.
Comment from 12:30: Tandy tried to maintain compatibility with older computer and accessoires. The parallel printer cable was compatible with the one for TRS-80 model I, III and 4/4P. The joysticks were compatible with the standard ports on the Color Computer/ Co.Co.2/3. As for the serial port: AFAIK Tandy followed the IEEE-configuration for DTE and DSE, and the IBM standard did not. Didn't you forget the anti-theft disposition on the EX (and the HX too) enabling the computer to be bolted to the desk in computer classes ? That was the main public for the EX/HX models: schools.
jan80trs: About that parallel port: I believe you're correct regarding compatibility with the models I, III, and 4/4P. I owned a Model III, and it had a card-edge connector that was very similar to that (probably identical). The other (printer) end was a standard D-shaped parallel connector. FWIW... and assuming my ever-aging memory still has a decent grip on this... my printer was a 7-pin dot-matrix model LPT-VII, which only printed at something like 30 characters per second. Slow and loud as hell, but unlike a lot of other printers of its day, it could print graphics, not just text! And got a speed boost because it could print BI-DIRECTIONALLY! Ahhhh those were the days. We were all a lot easier to impress back in ~1982.
Little note that this is your 'actual' reaction isn't needed! Can usually tell when you're being genuine I think. Love the videos! Thank you for doing this
Love the video. Just seeing how excited you got when you got it working after swapping out the chip makes me want to hunt for some old 8-bit computers and bring them back to life haha
Hmm, I wish you had posted a link to that service manual, as I couldn't find a good one to fix my Tandy 1000 EX. The error code I get doesn't yield an exact match, but the match I got correlated the error code to the chip part number, and my error code, while different, does correlate to a chip part number. Could it be that easy?
Err I/O of 8253, and there is an Intel 8253. The thing is, the post of the guy that had Err I/O of 8259 says that replacing the Intel 8259 didn't fix the problem, so it may be something else. Unfortunately, the service manual I found doesn't mention what Err codes mean.
Really enjoying the videos... I dug out the Tandy 1000hx from top of garage today... Fired up and it worked! Registered 640k ram.. Few floppies still worked also shockingly....
Yours had the RS-232? Lucky bastard. And where'd you get that CM-5 monitor? Did it come with the machine? And yes, much like the guy you got this machine from, I grew up on a similar machine, the Tandy 1000 HX. I still have it, and it still works.
great video! I just got one of these too, along with the 1000HX too. Both of mine work.
Hey 8-Bit Guy, I just picked up a 1000hx with a scsi card and an internal hdd! Have you ever seen one?
The 8-Bit Guy I’ve had my dads old one for years. Just gave it a cleaning and power up tests. Still works great. Also has the ram expansion and dma controller card
😊
A warm feeling when vintage hardware comes back to life... Nice work!
i agree
Your memory expansion card, since it is 128k, appears to use 64k by 4 bit memory chips. Based on the number of empty sockets, you may be able to install 384k into this board, which combined with the 256k on the motherboard, would bring this system up to a full 640k.
You'll need chips like these:
www.ebay.com/itm/NEC-D41464C-10-D41464-64K-x-4-DRAM-DIP-18-x-1pc-/151057118990
You'll want to make sure you get chips that are at least as fast as the ones you are already using though. These are 100ns
Proportionately, early computers were far faster than today. People went from driving to the library, to a 4.77MHZ computer with a 300 or 1200 baud modem. People went from hand spreadsheets to electronic ones and from typewriters to word processors. Yes, they were slow, but compared to WHAT? It might take a while to boot a pc, launch a terminal, type ATDT XXX-XXXX and login, but it was still a lot faster than getting in your car (or bike or bus) and going to a physical place, waiting in line and pulling out reference guides.
Compared to then, we have stagnated for well over a decade relying mostly on adding cores and fairly minor efficiency gains as far as processing speed goes. A computer from 2008 is still perfectly usable today, whereas a 1981 PC being used in 1991 was just unusable.
Good points.
I sold the Tandy 1000 EX/HX for Radio Shack during the Christmas season of 1986. What a fun time!
Yep. That's when we got ours. The salesman was trying to sell us a CoCo pretty hard.
Unfortunately it appears that Autogard is no longer in business. Their web site is now occupied by a domain squatter and attempts to e-mail them bounce back with an error.
The machine I took to college back in the fall of '87. I was one of the few students with a computer in the dorm.
That tantalum cap on the original clock may have failed short and caused the lack of a clock
Those both appear to be ceramic disc caps
CTRL IS ON THE RIGHT SPOT!!! NO NEED TO ctrl:nocaps!!!!! Wish keyboards like this were still available and easier to find!
That was the computer that got me through high school. I also had the TRS-80 Model 100. Awesome save.
I got this PC brand new for i believe my b-day when i was about 10, so that would have been in 1995, its was so cool. Makes me wish i appreciated it more and kept it nice, as i got older i took it apart to see what it was like on the inside and then somehow lost track of it.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Same here except it was my family's computer. I wrote my first program on one of these.
We had this identical setup when I was a kid. Used to write my papers on WordPerfect. So many great memories of playing Wasteland, Thexder, Gunship, and Chuck Yeager's AFT. Played on this machine until I went to college in the 90s.
what a beautiful computer!. I never had one of those but somehow it made nostalgic of my XT days, my first machine was a 640k XT with CGA, I had a green monochrome monitor, and two 360k floppy drives. then upgraded to 20mb hard disk and color cga monitor. (it was horrible, I prefer monochrome instead of the horrible cga pallete!)
The Tandy 1000 EX was my first PC-compatible computer. I remember buying something called the "PC Music Maker" that was a MIDI interface that plugged into a PC printer port. Unfortunately, it didn't work at all with the 1000 EX. When I reached out to the PC Music Maker company, they very kindly provided me with an adapter that apparently moved some pins around to make their interface work. They didn't even charge me. That was very cool of them. I have fond memories of that computer. My friend went out and bought a 1000 HX that had the boot ROM and didn't require a floppy to be inserted to boot up. I was jealous. 😊
perhaps one of those caps failed dead short and is pulling the clock low (or even high)?
This is a real trip down memory lane. I had a Tandy 1000EX. It was my first IBM Compatible PC.
That moment at 5:45. I was just as excited as you, Adrian. I am new to this vintage computer hobby and having a blast with it and your videos. The hobby has rekindled the joy I got from computers (I started with an Apple IIe) that I somehow lost along the way. I started to take computers for granted, but really they have the same magic as ever: inside each one are endless worlds and opportunities for creativity and exploration. Thank you for making these videos and sharing them.
Well done! This brings back memories of my first computer (also a 1000EX).
The keyboards are actually very decent. In fact, these were well made machines.
When I was s kid I remember playing a game of strip poker on a Tandy 1000
2:17 oeprate
Wow. This sure brings back some memories. Thanks for doing this video!
TH-cam rec'ing me old videos, but that ending spiel really resonates. I couldn't imagine dealing with loading a game or program off tape or floppy disk these days other than when I sometimes do it for a nostalgia kick. I get impatient waiting for an old hard disk equipped system to boot these days, spoiled by NVMe and a 6-core CPU.
My Xbox takes 3 minutes to start up and I'm ready for murder. Yet, 5 years old, Christmas 1986, we unboxed this machine and used it for 15 years.
I love your dedication and your passion to being these machines back to life. Eagerly waiting for new videos.
10:17 - the speed of the floppy will determine the speed in this case!
That bring back so much good memory, that was my second computer, my first PC compatible one, good video!
Really cool video. My first computer was a Tandy 1000 EX. I had a stealth fighter game for it and a few other programs.
I like how you're doing you video's :-) You've got a new subscriber! ;-)
Awesome ! Great work. My first computer (back in '87...) !
It should be noted, for anybody who has a Tandy 1000 HX (not EX as shown here), that the 720KB drives are incompatible with standard PC drives, but for a different reason. The 3.5" drives Tandy used in the HX were powered via the ribbon cable, so you'd fry a normal PC floppy if you tried.
On the EX, as shown here, the DS-0/DS-1 jumper on the floppy is because older floppies (this one is 320KB), were made before "cable select" was built into floppy cables (the twist in the ribbon before the end of the cable where the first drive is connected). That jumper selects which drive letter (order) the drive will be. I've also read that on such drives, it may be necessary to remove the termination resistor pack if it's not at the end of the chain (not drive a:), just as one would do on a SCSI disk.
BlackEpyon are thier any floppy drives you can get for it that will be powered from the data cable?’ Also , do you still need a jumper for ds0 and 1?
@@lorumipsum1129 "Modern" 3.5" floppy drives (I'm dating myself, aren't I?) are hard set at ds1. The twist in the cable sets it to DS0 for A: drive. It may be possible to use a normal 3.25" floppy on the HX, but you'd have to cobble together your own cable that cuts out the power pins at the floppy drive so you can use a splice from the power supply, or integrate a power connector from the cable itself. I'd have to look up the pin-outs, but that should be possible.
This was the first computer I ever had. Awesome video man. Thanks!
I would love to see something like that running an SSH client (and hooked up to the Internet somehow). Thanks so much for the walk down memory lane, really enjoyed the video.
Oh good, you have a PLUS memory board
My first IBM compatible. I loved this machine.
My first computer. I wish I had been able to expand the RAM at the time. The unhelpful goons at Radio Slack told me it wasn't possible.
Funny thing is my father had this computer and we went to expand the memory from the card we got from radio shack. It booted up, showing that it had 512k of memory, and seemed to work for a few minutes.
Then it crashed and just wouldn't turn on after that.
i have a Tandy 1000sx from 1986 with the Tandy color monitor cm5 and the Tandy dot matrix printer to go with it all in really good shape and i found all of it in the trash hahahaha
Wow!! Time warp! This was my first ever PC. Thank you for uploading this great video, brought back a lot of memories!
this is like trying to get a dead T-REX back to life. my modern GAMING PC is like 4 years old. that will make a TANDY 1000 look like a PONG my motherboard is MSI X(( GAMING GODLIKE with a i7 5930K CPU that is a 6 core 3.5GHz DDR4 16Gigs 2666 4 dims GTX 1070 SUPERCLOCK graphic card. 240GB SOLID STATE DRIVE and many standard hard drive. Now I remember the C-64 that is COMMODORE 64 that takes forever loading video games. yes Solid State is heck of a lot faster then floppy drive.. However installing GTA V and download its update took 80Gigs of my solid state drive.12 hours I had to go though 7 DVD discs and and downloading . loading GTA ONLINE takes forever. because it has to go though 80 gigs and uploading and downloading data to check rather or not I am not using any cheat mods. and it all ways fail due to server glitches.
Another bit of trivia about this computer, Tandy Mode graphics is the same mode as IBM's PC Jr graphics. You could change the graphics mode easily using debug, micorosofts cheesy little hex editor and assembly debugger.
A\:>debug (with DOS disk in drive, debug's prompt is a dash "-")
-a 0100 (this lets you enter assembly at 0100h, this is normal IP starting address for .COM programs)
-mov ah,00
-mov al,08
-int 10
-int 20 (a "quick and dirty" way of returning execution to command prompt)
Now we make sure instruction point register is set to 0100h.
-r ip:0100
-g (this command says "Go")
Look in amazement at the glorious huge, pixels capable of 16 colors, but far more than the 4 colors allowed by CGA. lol
More about INT 10h : go to stanislavs(dot)org / helppc / int_10-0.html
Lastly if you want to save, set the CX register to something like 50, then use -n pcjr (dot) com, then -w, but make sure you swap to a writeable disk first.
This was my first computer back in '85 I think. When you listed the DIR @ 9:56 there is a program called "SHIPTRAK.COM" I remember loading it at the A: prompt and the screen would echo off, beep and bright white flashing letters will appear at the top saying _"REMOVE POWER FROM THE SYSTEM NOW!!"_ I always wondered what the hell is that program for?
How about a 1000 RLX on eBay? How much? Hard drive and floppy drive? Fully working.
Great video! So glad you had success with this project! The Tandy 1000 EX was my first computer, and I have many fond memories of playing Sierra games, as well as coding in BASIC.
I just bought one of these (working) on eBay and am very excited to find out that there are options if I ever need to repair or replace components.
Thanks again for a great video!
Whoever told you the 5 1/4" drive was incompatible, was dead wrong. I routinely used floppies on my home Tandy 1000EX and read them with IBM PC XT 5 1/4 drives at my high school.
The person who told you this was likely confused about *density*. Newer PC clones of the mid late 80s used high density 1.2 MB 5 1/4" floppies.
So, if the person used that format, then tried to read them with a low density drive found on early IBM PC XT, Tandy 1000 EX or any of the other gazillion clones of that era, it wouldn't have worked.
I love your videos they are very informative.
I wish I kept some of my old computers. I had a 1000EX as well after my CoCo2. On the up side I did get a CoCo3 recently refurbished and have been collecting all kinds of items for it including a TP-10 printer, cassette drive, joysticks, multipack, and a nifty CoCoSDC which lets me use SD cards loaded with disk images. Oh the memories.
an early Adrian video...and lovely to hear and see the Tandy come back to life....and to hear an early Adrian WOW!!!!!!!
I found on lying ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD for God knows how long, I took it home and it turned on like it's been used everyday. I've been needing to clean it because theres a lot of dirt buildup and a bit of rust.
My first PC was an 80286 AT clone I got in 1990 instead of an Amiga. I am still a professional PC Technician/Network Engineer, so it was the righ decision even though it felt bad at the time!
my first computer was a Tandy TL/2.... miss it.....enjoying your videos!
If you are looking for a developing software, you can run Turbo Pascal v3: edn.embarcadero.com/article/20792
Tandy 1000hx was the first computer my husband and I purchased when we first got married. And it was my sons first computer when he was 2 years old. I think you are super close to me in Portland. Would love to pick your brain Adrian about some Vintage Macintosh refurbs. I remember my husband expanding the memory size with expansion boards on the Tandy to the point that Taps plastics had to make a new cover because old one didn’t fit. Our Tandy ran GeoWorks.
I don't think these really took of in the UK but I may be wrong. I think Amstrad pretty much had the budget IBM PC clone market to itself around this time. They did make something similar to this and sold it under the Sinclair brand (PC200 I think) but think it had pure CGA graphics and just the PC beeper. The Tandy sound chip was great and I have no idea why more clones didn't make use of it.
As a kid I always wondered why nobody made an IBM PC inside an Amiga style case without realising they did exist they were just not common in the UK.
Great video Adrian! That was a gamble buying such an expensive clock chip with the high price of the shipping too, not knowing if the Tandy had other faults with rare/expensive custom chips. I felt your elation when you switched it on and it worked! Your channel has come a long way since this video, but your old stuff is still great too.
I was scraping at some ladys house and came across a tandy 1000 ex.... Boot disks desk mate joystick and some games... Booted right up. Expansion ram. Has 640k. And telecom ports.
I didnt put that heat shield thst surrounds the motherboard and it kept shorting the board... Out it back on works great... Exceot the keyboard is wonky try to hit s and it tyoes quoa... So idk
Great Video Steve, i still have the 1000HX machine that my dad bought me in 1987 and i still use, the issue is the internal 3.5" 720k floppy no longer works, you cant find then anywhere as they are powered from the ribbon cable, I found some instructions on how to modify the ribbon cable and use a later model drive (modifying the ribbon cable cuts out the power lines to the new drive which is powered externally), issue now is, the new drive spins but the head does not move, do you have any experience or advice on how to fix this ? Thank you
Thanks again Adrian for the informative video, I'm a bit (cough) late in viewing this one, but was looking for someone who has cleaned the keyboard on an HX or EX where you had to remove the two flexible keyboard cables, was there a trick to getting them out and then again to putting them back in? Is it just pressure or do the size tabs actually release or tighten something to help remove and reinstall it?
I had that model as a kid. Took me back man. Great video and repair!
I really really want one. But they are too expensive. I'll probably build this with a homemade board and a raspberry pi. It's funny how just 15 years ago, everyone was tossing these out at a high rate before they became multi-grand ebay gold. Wish I took the vintage beige machines and monitors when I still had the chance...
I was in google maps the other day and searching through the neighborhoods of my house through the virtual first-person view with a panorama shoot of my street, and the map of my neighborhood had not been updated since 2008. I guess it was garbage day since there were garbage bags that day. And what I saw that was saddening was a giant massive pile of beige macintoshes stacked ontop of each other along with stacks of white electronic typewriters and tandy 1000 ex's littered on the side of the street ready to be thrown out. Could be that someone who had them died or left them behind when they moved or became homeless.
No hard drive possible, had CompuServe with 14.4k modem and we liked it!
My first thought was that with older computers, caps tend to go bad. Did you try removing the 2 caps from the original chip and see if it works without the caps?
It looks like your UK chip supplier is now selling off their stock of chips. Would it be worth someone buying it?
Im sure "aluminium foil" in british is "piddle-wrap" "bingeley boo" or some other bullshit.
I had an SX which I believe came out before this one. It did have an internal clock. You can completely remove all power for years and not set the time when you reboot. Mine was in a closet for 10 years, still had the correct time when I set it back up. Actually, my battery only when bad about 6 months ago. It doesn't look like a battery, and I can't tell you were to find it on this model, but it should be there. I haven't replaced mine yet. I did remove the old one because I didn't want it to leak.
That printer looks exactly identical to my Epson FX-100 by the way.
The tip on the DS0, DS1 is good. However it's not about anything proprietary. That's just the drive select line, so that the floppy knows if it's the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th drive on the chain. You can have a twist on the cable and keep all drives as DS0, or a straight cable and manually configure each drive.
thank you for posting. i believe you said the expansion bus is really just an isa bus. perhaps an XTide card & cf/sd hard disk could be accommodated ? maybe a dallas rtc chip too ? take care & stay safe.
Do you know where one can get a replacement drive cage and expansion cover for a 1000HX?
Maybe this computer was the ancestor of the Amiga and other similar formfactors?
709 and 649 are probably the date codes, as in the 9th week of 1987 and the 49th week of 1986
I got one of these for free, busted External drive so I'm trying to put a Gotek in it. No luck, it just shows dashes on the gotek drive and when it's plugged in, messes with the operation of the internal drive.
I thought the floppy drive cable in these computers also provided power to the floppy drive as well as the data line. Does the external floppy drive gets its power from the computer or must it be plugged into a power socket?
If someone could book me a ticket back to the 80s, I wouldn't mind putting up with the low speed processors and waiting times
I just picked up a 1000hx with a scsi card and an internal hdd! I didn't know they existed.
I had a 1000HX too. There were no hard drives available from Tandy, you needed a third party kit to put a hard drive inside. They were also pretty expensive at the time.
I added the v-20 , memory and a external H-D. I had to leave the top panel off for the ribbon cable
I'm learning a lot with your videos, thanks!!!
I thought that you are one of the best at explaining the Tandy line I have a sx1000 do you have any insight on those machines
This was my Grandfathers computer when I was growing up. I would sit in his room for hours, playing Rogue, Quest for Glory, Space Quest, Hero's Quest, Zaxxon, First Publisher, and more. When he moved on to the Tandy 3000 he gave this computer to me. I wrote all my high school papers on it, used it for rudimentary graphic design and more. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I'm going to fire up DOSBox on my MacBook Pro and have a round of Rogue for old time's sake :)
😢5⁵great video !"nice christmas demo
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your voice is good here. what happened to your voice after this ???
Oh man I did use that Tandy for years in our community center it was unique, fast and reliable and it did have the memory expansion board, thanks for sharing those moments of joy 👍
My first PC. I miss that thing. Maniac Mansion and Kings Quest were my favs on this thing.
I like the big hammer...final solution?
I owned one of these and every time I powered on and I see “memory size 256k” I cried since everyone I knew had 512k or 640k!
Yep. Lot of family fights occurred because the games I wanted were 384k and up to run
This was a great video! I'm dying! Soooo muuuch hardware porn!! :D lol
Tandy 1000 EX + imprimante + Deskmate mon premier pc lol♫
As a kid when I'd stay up late playing on my HX, I would pull the fan cable so my mom would have less of a chance of hearing me up late. I had both the memory board eventually upgraded to 640K and also had the serial board as well.
Were one of those soldered on caps bad on that chip? Shorted maybe?
This board is RAM up to 640k
Good vid
Strong bad's computer?
Comment from 12:30: Tandy tried to maintain compatibility with older computer and accessoires. The parallel printer cable was compatible with the one for TRS-80 model I, III and 4/4P. The joysticks were compatible with the standard ports on the Color Computer/ Co.Co.2/3.
As for the serial port: AFAIK Tandy followed the IEEE-configuration for DTE and DSE, and the IBM standard did not.
Didn't you forget the anti-theft disposition on the EX (and the HX too) enabling the computer to be bolted to the desk in computer classes ? That was the main public for the EX/HX models: schools.
jan80trs: About that parallel port: I believe you're correct regarding compatibility with the models I, III, and 4/4P. I owned a Model III, and it had a card-edge connector that was very similar to that (probably identical). The other (printer) end was a standard D-shaped parallel connector.
FWIW... and assuming my ever-aging memory still has a decent grip on this... my printer was a 7-pin dot-matrix model LPT-VII, which only printed at something like 30 characters per second. Slow and loud as hell, but unlike a lot of other printers of its day, it could print graphics, not just text! And got a speed boost because it could print BI-DIRECTIONALLY! Ahhhh those were the days. We were all a lot easier to impress back in ~1982.
I have one of these, needs cleaned. I also need an RGBI monitor.
Little note that this is your 'actual' reaction isn't needed! Can usually tell when you're being genuine I think. Love the videos! Thank you for doing this
Does F1-F4 work the same way on a Tandy 1000?
Love the video. Just seeing how excited you got when you got it working after swapping out the chip makes me want to hunt for some old 8-bit computers and bring them back to life haha
maybe in amstred computers as well
With all software and accessories?
Hmm, I wish you had posted a link to that service manual, as I couldn't find a good one to fix my Tandy 1000 EX. The error code I get doesn't yield an exact match, but the match I got correlated the error code to the chip part number, and my error code, while different, does correlate to a chip part number. Could it be that easy?
Err I/O of 8253, and there is an Intel 8253. The thing is, the post of the guy that had Err I/O of 8259 says that replacing the Intel 8259 didn't fix the problem, so it may be something else. Unfortunately, the service manual I found doesn't mention what Err codes mean.
Really enjoying the videos... I dug out the Tandy 1000hx from top of garage today... Fired up and it worked! Registered 640k ram.. Few floppies still worked also shockingly....
Yours had the RS-232? Lucky bastard. And where'd you get that CM-5 monitor? Did it come with the machine?
And yes, much like the guy you got this machine from, I grew up on a similar machine, the Tandy 1000 HX. I still have it, and it still works.