Hello! I've just gotten a TI-VDT model 924. It basically consists of a screen and a keyboard, with 2 parrallel ports and a keyboard port on the back. When I turn it on I get a box with (the lovely green terminal font) "Texas Instruments Model 924". Then a command line sort of flashing square. I CANT type anything in, getting a "tick" sound with every key pressed; but no confirmation of screen. Before I take this unit apart, does anyone have a manual for this sort of think or remember how they worked? Does it need to be connected to some form of remote server to use this unit? (its more of a historical curiosity than anything else). Does anyone know if there is a HD in this? (if there is, then the OS would reside on the unit, not remotely... right?) Thanks in advance, Spinal P.S. I post it in UNIX as Ive been told it ran UNIX before being changed for a Windows system (odd "upgrade")....

Almost certainly, you have a dumb terminal and the of the two parallel ports one is likely a 25 pin serial port. It has no OS. It is used to connect to the serial port of a host. This might shed some light. http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Remote-Serial-Console-HOWTO/

Hello again! Thanks! I guess Ill just keep it as an interesting piece of a time gone by. On a secondary note, on another one of these units there was a RJ45 converter on the port, and EIA markered onto that. I also found a "tray" with lots of RJ45 converters connected into similar 25-pin serial (or so I think they are from your description). The tray is a "ComputeOne Intelliport II EX" and terminates in a (i think) SCSI cable. Has anyone heard of an emulator to connect a *nix/windows to the dumb terminal via the RJ45 port? Thanks for all the support, Spinal