LisaList2

I've got the 12MB RAM mod GAL on my XLerator with 4MB SIMMs installed in all four sockets...

 Holy...

That's the ultimate. Wow.

I know that MacWeb needs about 2MB of free RAM to run, which I can just barely pull off with 4MB total system memory under 7.5.5. Are you running out of memory?

I've got the 12MB RAM mod GAL on my XLerator with 4MB SIMMs installed in all four sockets, so unfortunately I don't think it's a memory problem! I wonder if I've just been downloading bad copies of browsers or something? And come to think of it, I'm not sure that I've ever tried Mosaic, so maybe it would work for me as well. I'll have to give it a shot next time I pull out an XLerator!

well done - it is interesting the roundabout approach to interacting with today's web (ethernet) - dialup made it easy to connect back then (do those even still exist?) - CompuServe, gopher, Bulletin Boards, and later Netscape - quite a time.

Funny enough, I still have POTS (plain old telephone service) to the house just so I can play with dial-up services once in a while. dialup4less.com is one such provider that still operates in my area, and works with both LisaTerminal and Apple Data Modem 2400. Ethernet is just so much easier and more practical, though - if that word can even apply here. "Set it and forget it," so to speak.

Great work! Have you been successful in running anything other than MacWeb on your Lisa? Every other browser that I've tried crashes with a system error and I'm wondering if anyone else has had the same problem.

I've only tried two web browsers so far and they both work! MacWeb 2.0 and NCSA Mosaic 1.0.3. Here's a screenshot of the latter:



Not sure what's going on with the GIF artifact there, but surprised that it's showing an image at all. MacWeb does not, at least in its default configuration. Edit: I know that MacWeb needs about 2MB of free RAM to run, which I can just barely pull off with 4MB total system memory under 7.5.5. Are you running out of memory?

Great work! Have you been successful in running anything other than MacWeb on your Lisa? Every other browser that I've tried crashes with a system error and I'm wondering if anyone else has had the same problem.

well done - it is interesting the roundabout approach to interacting with today's web (ethernet) - dialup made it easy to connect back then (do those even still exist?) - CompuServe, gopher, Bulletin Boards, and later Netscape - quite a time.

Successfully browsed LisaList2 on my Lisa Well, Macintosh XL to be precise. But this is something that should not happen on a 40-year-old machine, right?




The Mac XL is running System 7.5.5 and using the MacWeb 2.0 browser from 1996. The XLerator with 4MB of RAM and SCSI is what's making this possible, with a DaynaPORT SCSI/Link-M connected to the rear SCSI port (and a SCSI2SD v5.5 attached to that). A simple patch of MacTCP from 2.0.6 to 2.1 enables the Lisa to connect to the nearby router.

Thanks to everyone here for sharing the knowledge that makes these things possible. Cheers.

Adjusting my calculation to skip segments of days where we have yet to track a single Lisa having been produced, the tank problem estimate goes down significantly to 40,824.

Interestingly, there seem to have been no Lisas produced from March 15 - June 5th, 1984 (the longest empty span we've seen so far); especially curious since the Lisa 2 line had just been announced alongside the Macintosh a few months earlier in January. Perhaps Apple had "overproduced" Lisas to such a degree that they decided to temporarily halt production, an early indication that the whole Lisa line was in significant trouble?

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle Sigma7 is right again. Moving the LisaDAC from expansion slot 1 to 3 resolves the Error 47 issue. The new PSU is now working as normal in the Macintosh XL. Thank you, James.

I do not know why the original PSU was fine with the LisaDAC being in slot 1, but the new PSU requires it to be in slot 3. Such is the mystery of vintage computing.

Now that this issue has been resolved, I will continue testing this new PSU and report back with any additional issues that may arise. So far, it appears to be a solid alternative to the original.

I can confirm with certainty that the LisaDAC is causing the issue. Removing it resolves Error 47 with the new PSU entirely.

The LisaDAC isn't particularly power hungry, so that's pretty mysterious to me, especially since you reduced the overall load otherwise. Did you try moving it to another slot?

Looking at the SETVCTRS routing in the ROM listing, it looks like all of the unusual/unexpected "exceptions" result in error 47, which means all of them except:

• $08 Bus Error
• $0C Address Error
• $10 Illegal Instruction
• $28 A-Trap
• $2C F-Trap
• $7C NMI

Others would include
Divide by Zero
CHK instruction
FTraps (other than the F-Trap emulator)
Other unanticipated interrupts
... and more!

So error 47 means something went wrong in an obscure way, such as fetching an instruction resulted in something garbled that didn't execute correctly.

The LisaDAC does use an interrupt, but I think that isn't enabled until the software loads the LisaDAC; ie. well into booting MW+/II.

... added code/reliance added to the XL ROM (assuming all other things equal)
whether the 'original 16MHz XLerator with SCSI, PFG, X/ProFile, etc' are adding any additional checks/flags

None of these bits of hardware add or alter code to be executed per se.

The 16 MHz XLerator does affect the timing of ROM code, which causes error 42 (with non 3A ROMs) due to it not being able to read the serial number. The 12.5/18 MHz XLerator design doesn't affect the timing as much.