IBM PC Diagnostics Advanced 1.02 (Cassette and Disk)

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Release notes

The IBM PC Diagnostics are possibly the only IBM PC software distributed on cassette. It is intended for use with a "bare bones" IBM PC 5150, that could exclude floppy drives.

The "IBM PC Advanced Diagnostics" were bundled with the IBM Hardware Maintenance Service manual, a manual intended for repair personnel and advanced users. Each manual contained both a floppy disk and cassette tape.

WANTED:

• Diagnostics 1.00 cassette
• Advanced Diagnostics 1.00 disk and cassette

Installation instructions

The IBM Advanced Diagnostics cassette consists of a two part program. The first is a BASIC loader stub. The second is a binary machine language program that the stub loads.

To begin loading the diagnostics, where "ldcass" is the program name, type:

load "ldcass"

Since computers can't "pause", you must hit the pause button on your player software the moment the loader stub finishes loading (listen for the second relay click). Type "RUN", and then resume playback.

The loader stub also provides the ability to copy the advanced diagnostics to a new cassette tape.

This involves loading the stub, saving it as "ldcass", then typing "run 100" which will load and re-save the binary machine language portion.

Details are provided in the stub's program listing comments. If you are transferring from computer to a real cassette recorder, this also involves switching the cables.

For full documentation, see the IBM PC Hardware Maintenance Service manual (1982).

When playing back audio from a computer, you will probably need to adjust the "treble" and "bass" setting, turning them all the way up. Volume should be turned all the way up, and the 5150 should be attached to a speaker out or headphone port.