Iarsin wrote on 2023-04-03, 21:34:

Hi, I recently bought a Unisys pw/2 500 without any documentation and a replaced WD1003V-MM1 MFM Controller Card with a ide/FD/m […]
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Hi, I recently bought a Unisys pw/2 500 without any documentation and a replaced WD1003V-MM1 MFM Controller Card with a ide/FD/multi I/o card and an CF Card Adapter. My problem is, that I now want to Test the mfm hard drive that was within the package and was the original HDD I think. But the WD MFM controller doesn't support to disable the floppy controller of the MFM board, and the on board controller is currently enabled.
Therefore, I need to know the jumper or dip switch settings, to disable the onboard floppy controller in order to use the MFM controller card.

I had no luck at all, to find either the Mainboard manual, nor the jumper settings or computer manual.

I only found this thread about the pw/2 300 286/10 in this thread and I'm interested in the PDF of the scanned documentation.
Re: Reviving an old Unisys 286

But the manual of the exact Mainboard and/or computer would be really helpful.

What are my options? Try and error?

The pw/2 300 286/10 manual in the thread you linked is available here (its a series of jpegs rather than a pdf, so is quite large) - https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fil … &menustate=28,0

There's also some jumpers and connections info for the UNISYS PW2 300/486 motherboard here - https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fil … &menustate=28,0

Yeah old Unisys 300 and 500 series stuff is very hard to find info on....

Horun wrote on 2023-04-03, 23:31:

Yeah old Unisys 300 and 500 series stuff is very hard to find info on....

Also, not sure if any of this might be useful later to the OP - ftp://wingzeroismine.privatedns.org:24/Software/Utilities/Unisys/

Thank you guys for your help! I really apreciate it! I'll try to figure out, which jumper/switch to use for disabling the onboard floppy. One manual says J2, the other J3. So maybe they did it similar with the pw/2 500 16A 386sx?

I also found this prospect ad with specs

https://www.1000bit.it/ad/bro/brochures.asp?id=476

https://www.1000bit.it/js/web/viewer.html?fil … f#zoom=page-fit
https://www.1000bit.it/js/web/viewer.html?fil … f#zoom=page-fit

It seems also, acer incorporated unisys. Maybe I can find something on archive.org on the acer website in the 90ies?

PC Hoarder, I could not log into that site with Filezilla (cert expired 3/19 and wrong login using anonymous ...sigh)

Horun wrote on 2023-04-04, 01:08:

PC Hoarder, I could not log into that site with Filezilla (cert expired 3/19 and wrong login using anonymous ...sigh)

Oddly I had no trouble earlier from an IE11 Window session???...maybe I've triggered some security! - anyway I got the address from here on archive.org so these'll do just as well https://archive.org/details/@owtbound?query=unisys

Weird it worked today. Maybe I just did something wrong 😒

Horun wrote on 2023-04-04, 21:38:

Weird it worked today. Maybe I just did something wrong 😒

I couldn't log in either that day. Didn't try it yet, though.

I think, because Unisys that time produced it's products by multitech (and they by Koryo Systems Inc, Korea, and Mobo PCBs by Foxconn), the Acer 1100 and 1116 are maybe similar, but those jumper settings at stason didn'tatch, also their mobos are baby AT, but the pw² 500 comes with a sliced Mobo. One slim and one small one.

I somehow managed on measuring voltages, or by a faulty and loose Molex connection of the 3,5" FDD, because the floppy didn't work, to maybe destroy the onboard floppy controller chip (don't know if that's really the case, but the floppy no longer working at all onboard connected).

I then found out, that the Chinon floppy drive didn't work in the first place due to it's mechanic stucks and it didn't seated the floppy discs well. Don't ask me how that come.

The Unisys labeled wd1003V Winchester Controller doesn't have a soldered floppy connector on board. I didn't noticed it before. Therefor, I think it wouldn't conflicting with the onboard floppy controller at all, in the first place.

So I did it the hard way by destroying the onboard controller somehow, so that it now works with the floppy controller on my wd1006V-SR2.

But, I didn't manage to test one of the four MFM drives I have functional with either the Unisys diagnostics utility floppy 💾 (thanks for that!), nor Norton ndiaga or calibrat. Calibrat didn't find any suitable device, and ndiags once tested the belonging NEC D3142 642/8/128/664/17 (rll 26) okay on read tests and rpm, but I think the stepper motor maybe was very slow. Unfortunately it now doesn't work at all a short time after those tests. There wasn't a park utility on the Norton recovery diskette. I forgotten to copy it on there as I did with calibrat.

Maybe it now got issues with header sticktion on the platters?

Is it possible to use one IDE and one MFM controller at the same time, if none comes with it's own BIOS, and the Phoenix BIOS only supports two HDD? I managed though, by disabling the (maybe as well destroyed floppy drive controller??) floppy controller of the IDE multi I/O card, and using another solei for the floppy. This works also with the floppy controller on the MFM controller.

So I'm currently feeling to be the wrong person for such open computer case tasks and maybe I'll rename my profile name to something like fdc-destroyer ...

Ps: thanks for mentioning the pw² 300 manual and the three Unisys floppy's. I turned them into 3.5" images.

What is in the ftp directory? Today I still cannot log in. I downloaded the three 1.2Mb floppy images from archive.org.
What are user:pw?
anonymous: anon@somedomain.tld
Didn't work.

Iarsin wrote on 2023-04-07, 11:15:

What is in the ftp directory? Today I still cannot log in. I downloaded the three 1.2Mb floppy images from archive.org. What are […]
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What is in the ftp directory? Today I still cannot log in. I downloaded the three 1.2Mb floppy images from archive.org.
What are user:pw?
anonymous: anon@somedomain.tld
Didn't work.

Don't bother now with the ftp...you've got everything that was in the unisys directory - the 3 floppy images & some pics of the disk labels

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2023-04-07, 19:18:

Iarsin wrote on 2023-04-07, 11:15:

What is in the ftp directory? Today I still cannot log in. I downloaded the three 1.2Mb floppy images from archive.org. What are […]
Show full quote

What is in the ftp directory? Today I still cannot log in. I downloaded the three 1.2Mb floppy images from archive.org.
What are user:pw?
anonymous: anon@somedomain.tld
Didn't work.

Don't bother now with the ftp...you've got everything that was in the unisys directory - the 3 floppy images & some pics of the disk labels

Yep that is all and Found the issue, uses port 24 today (not typical 21) or at least I could look around and DL stuff today at : ftp://wingzeroismine.privatedns.org:24/Software/Utilities/
Nearly everything there is also up at archive.org AKAIK

Here are some test and diagnostics screens.

Unisys diagnostics HDD test (stepper Motor and heads are in action)

D3142 successful test in Norton utilities ndiags

Norton utilities calibrat doesn't recognize it

DOS 4.0 can't access

Is it possible to get MFM and IDE Controller to work without conflicts if none has it's own BIOS?

(Submit was greyed out after uploading and annotating the screenshots successfull. Therefor I reloaded the page, and hoped, that the uploaded images are still referencing correctly, but ... Maybe I'll reupload them later with my extra ordinary cellphone ... Argh ..)