HP AGILENT 54835A missing OS and software. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: StrayElectrons
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2024, 04:23:37 pm
content: Was thinking about getting this but wondered about where to get the software that runs this oscilloscope. OS is not the problem.I see quite number of these scopes of 1GHz and 500MHz models missing these software and price is all over. This 54835A costs 900 plus shipping and missing the software.This scope contains socket 7 motherboard using AMD K6-2 processor. One should know, I'm actually into vintage computing for vintage gaming, yes, I know what it is and can deal with this this old hardware.Second, is any flaws rendering I should know about?Cheers,

author: DB4UCH
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 07:12:54 pm
content: You used to be able to download the recovery images directly from Agilent / Keysight via FTP, but they took it down a few years ago. There is a mirror of this FTP server on the internet archive. (https://archive.org/download/ftp.keysight.com/) You don't need to download the whole tar; you can browse individual files directly. I attached a guide from Agilent regarding the general recovery procedures for this family of scopes.Generally, the reason for the missing software is a dead (or, of course, missing) HDD (2.5" ide) or a dead CMOS Battery / a dead Dallas Time-Bomb in older versions, keeping the system from booting. So, replacing the HDD with a CF card is the way to go in most cases (4GB is plenty).There are different motherboard variants in this scope, an older green one (using the Dallas RTC chip) and a newer brown one. Those aren't directly compatible driver wise, so not every recovery image works with every board. The scope part should be the same, though. (+ some older versions only had 16MB of RAM, later ones had 64MB)There is already a big thread about this series of scopes on this forum containing a lot of information. (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/agilent-54835a-scope-(4-channel-1ghz-4gss)-repair-uphack/)The scope part can, sadly, only be checked if the Windows environment is fully up and running, so it's a gamble if you get a fully working unit. (If it then passes self-test and the self-calibration routines, it's generally fine) Repairing can be hard as well, because those acquisition ASICs are pretty much unobtanium.Greetings,Simon

author: StrayElectrons
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2025, 05:58:37 pm
content: Thank you for details.Hard to believe these sellers are asking too much for these vintage oscilloscopes like these 54835A. Seller is asking $999 cdn for 54835A with issues.rThe problem child I'm interested in but not the price seller is asking and the seller does not have expertise to understand my point when I sent a message with offer.To preface, I know these vintage computers very well as I have them, and was old enough to have 386, 486 and Pentium, so on.This 54835A has dead computer section motherboard's CMOS setting says setting is corrupted, as I can see the error when turned on also, does detect a hard drive because this is displayed but will not boot into Windows OS. I explained that without seeing the working part of oscilloscope, I can't justify the cost.I can swing about $600 CDN but not $999 CDN without knowing more.Cheers,

author: Tony_G
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2025, 04:02:51 pm
content: Just to follow-up on DB4UCH's post - I created a single ISO with the stuff you need to get the Win98 version of the scope up and running with a new drive and updated to the latest version:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/agilent-54835a-scope-(4-channel-1ghz-4gss)-repair-uphack/msg5199198/#msg5199198Good luck with it - Let me know if you have any problems grabbing the files as some people have reported that the link is asking for an MS account.TonyG