EPSON® QX-10™ OPERATIONS MANUAL
FCC Compliance Statement for American Users This equipment generates and uses radio frequency energy and if not installed and used properly, that is, in strict accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, may cause interference to radio and television reception.
CONTENTS 1. Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unpacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Getting Hooked Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Booting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Warm and Cold Booting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Installing External Devices and Option Cards. . . . . . Installing External Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . External Device Ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Checking the Cable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Plugging In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Powering Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Installing Option Cards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 1 Getting Started Getting started with your QX-10™ won’t take very long at all. Even though there’s a good deal of material to go through, this chapter is simple and straightforward. In fact, you’ll probably be up and running in half an hour or less! In that short time you’ll learn everything you need to know about unpacking your QX-10, connecting its different units, powering it up, caring for diskettes, and inserting them correctly.
3. Environmental conditions. It’s important to keep your computer shielded from extremes in temperature, humidity, dust, and smoke. You’d be amazed at how smoke of any kindcigarette, cigar, pipe, or even woodstove-can affect the integrity of your diskettes. Like dust, smoke particles adhere to the magnetic surfaces of your diskettes and can damage the reading ability of the heads in the diskette drives. In addition, avoid direct sunlight, heater ducts, and other hot areas.
Getting Hooked Up Now that all the boxes are unpacked, it’s time to put the parts together into a working system. Start with the main unit. That’s the one that looks like this: Place it on the flat surface with the front facing you, as shown. Remove the disk drive protector sheets from the two disk drives (marked A and B) by pressing the button labelled PUSH located at the left side of each drive. When you push it, the button pops out, as does the edge of the protector sheet.
The power switch is on the right side of the main unit, around the corner from the power outlet. It has two positions: ON and OFF. Important: Be sure the power switch is OFF before you hook up the QX-10. Plug the rectangular end of the power cord into the QX-10 power receptacle on the back of the main unit and the other end into a 3-prong, l20-volt grounded wall outlet. RECEPTACLE Now set the monitor on top of the main unit so that the back of the monitor is also facing you.
The monitor cable is fairly short, with a cylindrical plug on either end. These are called DIN plugs. The monitor cable DIN plugs differ only in the number of pins inside: the end that connects to the back of the monitor has seven pins and the end that connects to back of the main unit has eight pins.
Insert the 7-pin plug into the outlet on the monitor and the other end into the round outlet on the back of the main unit, marked MONITOR. CABLE Now turn the main unit and monitor around so that they’re facing you. The keyboard cable is coiled and looks like a phone cord. Both ends of this cable have the same DIN connector: each has eight pins and a small flap that’s used to unplug the cable. Push either end of the cable into the round outlet on the back of the keyboard. (Be sure to get it all the way in.
PLUGGING IN KEYBOARD CABLE Some people like to use the QX-10 with the keyboard on their laps and others like to set it on a firm surface, but your options don’t end there. You can also adjust the angle of the keyboard. Changing the angle of the keyboard is simple. First, turn it over. Embedded in the upper corners on the bottom of the keyboard are two legs. You can adjust these so that the keyboard tilts. Reach under the lip near the arrow marked PULL, and lift the leg upward until it locks in place.
Turn the keyboard right side up and try it for comfort. If the angle seems too steep, you can try the midway position by pushing each leg one notch further until it locks again. Experiment to find the position that is most comfortable for you. Now everything is connected, and it’s almost time to turn on your QX-10! Power Don’t touch that power switch yet! First, take a minute to read these rules of thumb.
Once you’ve powered up the computer, the small red light near the top right corner of the front of the main unit comes on and the cooling fan starts up (you can hear it). You may also notice that a number of small red lights on your keyboard blink on and off. This indicates that your QX-10 is performing an internal selfdiagnostic test. The small red light to the right of drive A also comes on, and the message INSERT DISKETTE appears on the monitor screen.
Booting Booting is the term used to describe the process of loading or transferring the operating system from the diskette into memory. Warm and Cold Booting A cold boot occurs when you power up the machine, or when you push the RESET button after inserting a new system diskette in drive A. The RESET button is located just under the door to drive B on the front of the main unit.
computer needs to run Valdocs. Data diskettes are where you store the information you created using the software on your system diskette. If you create a document (a letter or even a part of a novel!) using Valdocs, you store it on a data diskette. Caring For Your Diskettes Diskettes are wondrous things. Where else can you hold the equivalent of hundreds of pages of text in an easily portable package smaller than a golden oldie? Unfortunately, diskettes are not indestructible.
Make Backup Copies Often There’s no better way to protect your data than to have a spare copy tucked away in a safe place. If it’s particularly important data, you might want to have more than one copy. Some people even keep their backups in a safe deposit box. Important: You should make two copies of your system diskette. Put the original away in a safe place, preferably not in the same room as your computer. You can use one of the two backups as a master copy-from which to make additional backup copies.
the end of each day, all you have to do is take the disk marked for that day and copy your data onto it. For specific backup instructions, refer to the user’s guide for your system. If you’re still unconvinced, just remember Murphy’s Law: If anything can go wrong, it will. There are all sorts of ways to lose important data. Lightning might hit the power line, causing a power surge that makes the computer write random information all over the diskette. Your children might decide to play disk jockey.
Beware of the Magnetic Field Remember that diskettes store their data magnetically, just like tapes. You probably won’t be running a horseshoe magnet over the surface of the diskette, but you should be aware that there are many sources of magnetism in and around your home or office. A paperclip from a magnetic paperclip holder, strategically dropped on the magnetic surface of a diskette, can do plenty of damage, as can the holder itself. Also, just about everything that uses electricity generates magnetism.
If your QX-10 is not already turned ON, turn it ON now by pressing the ON/OFF switch on the right side of the main unit. When the INSERT DISKETTE message appears on the screen, gently slide the system diskette into drive A, with the oval-shaped window first and the label facing up. Slide the diskette in as far as it goes easily. Don’t bend it or force it in any way. If it doesn’t seem to go in correctly, take it out and try again.
Chapter 2 QX-10 Components If you’ve worked with computers before, much of the information in this manual probably comes as no surprise. If, on the other hand, you are new to computers, you may wonder if you have what it takes to master the QX-10. Relax, and rest assured that you do.
A bit is a unit of computer information. Physically, it consists of a microscopic electrical switch that can be closed or open, representing the alternatives of yes or no, on or off, and so forth. The word bit is derived from the words binary digit. You would need to wrestle with complicated computer theory to fully comprehend bits, but for our purposes all we need to know is that groups of bits are called bytes.
The QX-10 uses RAM-random access memory-which can be both written into and read. Normally RAM is lost when a computer is switched OFF, but the QX-10 has 2K of CMOS RAM, which enables it to retain some data when you turn OFF the power. (More about CMOS RAM later.) Programs Almost everyone who has heard of a computer has also heard the terms program or programmer associated with computers. What is a program? A program is a set of instructions that direct a computer to perform a specific task.
form as labelled. For example, when you press COPY DISK, the system copies the information on one disk to another disk. The DRAW key lets you create pie charts, bar graphs, and so on. The Video Monitor Your QX-10 has a special high-resolution green monochrome video monitor (also called a CRT, for cathode ray tube). The video monitor has what’s called dedicated RAM memory. This means that the l28K video memory (331,072 bytes) is dedicated to work only for the monitor.
The video screen, in character mode, is 25 lines deep by 80 characters across. When in graphics mode, the screen gains very fine resolution. (Graphics displays are composed of tiny dots called pixels-for picture elements-and the QX-10 screen can display 640 pixels horizontally by 400 pixels vertical@, producing a sharp, clear graphics image.) Besides displaying both characters and graphics, the QX-10 monitor has other special features.
Serial Port One serial port is available to connect external devices to the QX-10. The port is a standard RS-232C port; however, it can be changed under software control, by selecting the serial port option from the SETUP program in either CP/M or Valdocs. Devices such as serial printers, single-line modems, additional monitors, and other computers can be connected to the available serial port.
Light Pen Interface Another convenient feature is an interface for a light pen, which is a device used for tracing a diagram or object and producing the image on the screen, or for choosing a menu option on the screen. Option Cards The QX-10 has space for five peripheral, or option cards. These are special printed circuit boards that you can install in your QX-10 to add special devices and features. For example, you might want to install a direct-connect modem card, a joystick, or a hard disk.
Chapter 3 Installing External Devices And Option Cards External devices such as printers, modems (for computer-tocomputer communication over telephone lines), and speech synthesizers are all connected to the QX-10 through ports (outlets) built into the back of the main unit. Installing External Devices Before you begin to install any external device, turn the main unit power switch, near the back on the right side, to the OFF position.
External Device Ports There are three external device ports on the back of the main unit: a light pen port, a Centronics-compatible parallel port (labelled PRINTER), and an RS-232C serial port. The RS-232C port may also be used for a printer, but because it relays data at a slower rate than the parallel connection, it is generally not the preferred choice for printing.
Plugging In Plug in the male end. Be careful! Connector prongs are easily bent. If the cable end doesn’t go in easily, it is probably upside down. Make sure you have the cable end right side up and try it again. Once the cable end is in, push it gently to make sure that it is in all the way. If you’re attaching a parallel cable, fasten the wire loops over each side of the plug to secure it. If it’s a serial cable, tighten the screws on each side of the plug.
Make sure you have: 1. The option card 2. The option card manual 3. A Phillips screwdriver. Powering Down First, turn the power switch OFF. Then unplug the power cord from the wall outlet and turn the main unit around so that the back is facing you. WARNING: Never open the QX-10 while it is plugged into a wall outlet! Removing the Option Cards Cover Unscrew the Phillips screws on each side of the option access slots. The lift-off cover is completely detachable. To remove it, tilt it up and away from you.
the front end. After the top is raised as far as it will go, you can lift it off. Set the cover aside.
QX-l0 Interior: The Option Card Well The interior of the option card well looks like this: Removing the Shipping Brace The black metal plate is a shipping brace. It is easily removed by unscrewing the small Phillips screw on the inside. Store the screw and the brace in a safe place. You may want to use the brace later if you need to ship or transport your QX-10.
Selecting the Correct Slot For most option cards, it makes no difference which slot they are installed in. Occasionally, however, a card may require a specific slot. Check the option card manual to determine if your option card requires a specific slot. Some cards come with their own outlets. In a case such as this, the side with the outlet fits into one of the pop-out access slots on the back of the main unit.
Inserting the Option Card Slide the option card down into the proper slot, fitting the front end of the card into the corresponding notched guide on the front wall. Once the connector pins are seated in the connector slot, push a little more firmly to insert it fully. If the option card didn’t go in smoothly pull it out and try sliding it in again, being sure to keep it straight in the notched guide.
main unit. Snap off the selected access slot while gripping the neighboring access slot(s) with your other hand. Now slide the remaining access slots back into place. Replacing the Cover With the cover in a vertical position, fit the two hinges into their holes on the front of the main unit, then lower the cover. It should fit snugly. Replace the screws on the lower back end to secure the cover of the main unit.
Powering Up Before you power up your QX-10, check to see that the power switch is OFF. Then plug the power cable into the wall outlet and turn the main unit around so that the front faces you. Now, unless your option card manual contains special instructions, you’re ready to power up your QX-10. Caution: Always wait at least 5 seconds after switching OFF power before switching power back ON. Failure to wait can damage your computer.
Chapter 4 Troubleshooting Your QX-10 has been especially well-constructed, internally and externally, to be problem-free and damage-resistant. Occasionally though, even with the QX-10, things can go wrong. In many cases the problem is due to human factors-maybe you’re still mastering a new software package or option. Or, perhaps there is a bug in the software. In this chapter we’ll go through the most common problems you might encounter, describing them in the order of likelihood.
Does the second one work correctly? If so, the first one was probably bad; save it and take it back to the supplier for a refund. But if the second (and all the rest) give the same undesirable results, go troubleshooting somewhere else-the odds are that you'll never buy a box of diskettes with more than one lemon in it. Booting Problems? Drive A looks exactly like drive B; the only difference is that A is on the left side and B is on the right. However, you can boot up only from drive A.
Here are a few ways to find out whether you’ve got a real bug or not: First, if you have tried this routine many times before, and always successfully, then most likely it’s not a bug. Look for another cause for the trouble. A good approach is to start over from the very beginning. Remove the diskette. Turn off the machine and then re-boot your software diskette. Now try your routine again, after checking the manual and following the suggested steps.
DIP Switch Problems? There is a bank of eight DIP switches on the back of the main unit, between the monitor outlet and the speaker volume knob. Some software (such as Valdocs) might not work at all if the DIP switches are set incorrectly, or the software might give you a message on the monitor as to which switch(es) should be changed. Your software manual will specify the positions of the switches.
Options? If you have just installed an option card and you’re not getting the kind of results you expected, double-check the following: Is the option card inserted correctly? Did you follow the procedure in the option card manual? If you answer yes to both these questions, you may be able to save a trip back to your dealer by first calling and describing the situation to the sales representative. Static? Static electricity might affect your QX-10, causing both diskettes and CMOS memory to lose data.
1. When everything is A-OK, your screen reads: INSERT DISKETTE 2. When there is an abnormality somewhere, and it’s time to call your Epson service center, you11 hear a buzzer and see the message: DIAGNOSTIC CODE 0001 with a 3-character suffix or you’ll hear the buzzer and see the message: DIAGNOSTIC CODE 0002 3. When something is wrong with the central processing unit (CPU), you might or might not see the DIAGNOSTIC CODE 0001 message, and you might or might not hear the buzzer.
Index Air circulation required for QX-10, 1 Application program, 19 Backup copies, 12-13 importance of making, 12 of system diskette, 12 system for making, 12-13 using to check disk, 35 Battery, 39 nickel-cadium, 22 Binary digit, see bit Bit, definition, 18 Booting, cold, 10 definition, 10 on power up, 10 problems when, 36 using drive A for, 10 warm, 10 when changing programs, 10 Bugs, 36-37 checking for, 37 definition, 36 Button marked PUSH, 10, 15 Buzzer, 40 Byte, definition, 18 numerical value of, 18 C
Human Applications Standard Computer Interface, see HASCI Humidity, excessive, avoiding, 2 If connector cable doesn’t go in easily, 27 If diskette doesn’t seem to go into drive correctly, 15 If option card doesn’t go in smoothly, 32 INSERT DISKETTE message, 9, 15, 40 Interface, light pen, 23 Internal self-diagnostic test, QX-10, 9 IN-USE light on disk drives, 10, 15 Joystick, installing, 23 Keyboard, 19-20 changing the angle of, 7-8 dedicated keys on, 19-20 HASCI, 19 opening, 40 red light on, 9 Keyboard cab
Printer, connecting to QX-10, 22, 26 problems with, 38 Problem, booting, 36 Problem, central processing unit, 40 Problem, DIP switch, 38 Problem, diskette, 35-36 checking against backup, 35 checking for, 35-36 copying, 35 faulty, 35 formatting, 35 with brand new, 35 Problem, hardware, 39-40 Problem, low battery, 39 Problem, option card, 39 Problem, printer, 38 Problem, static electricity, 39 Problem with connections, 37 Problem with new procedure, 35 Program, application, 19 bugs in, 36-37 definition, 19 QX
