This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the ATT PC 6300 computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

I was a third-party computer field service technician 1987-2002. The customer I serviced used AT$T 6300''s with an SNA card on IBM mainframe system. These were used as remote job entry stations attached to Printronix P600XQ line printers at 20 sites in New York City. The first time I opened the system case I was surprised to see that 120V power for the monitor was supplied through the DB9 connector on the monochrome video card, so servicing this model could be a shocking experience for the uninitiated technician! I recall we had to install a date patch for the AT$T operating system software to make it Y2K compliant.

I used work in a Computerland service department and we sold a lot of the 6300s. They were really good computers with one very major exception. Their soldered in CMOS barrel shaped battery would die about every 1 to 2 years. Attempting to unsolder and resolder another battery was forbidden by the service agreement because it often destroyed the motherboard by causing issues with the multi-layered solder foils. So the only "official" way to service these was to replace the mother board entirely. But often times the replaced motherboard sat on a shelf for many months before shipping and the two year battery would have already been somewhat depleted when we got them. The advertising said the batteries should last 7 years but 2 was more like it. It was one of my least liked news I had to give 6300 customers as a new motherboard replacement at that time was $1700, a used one they had repaired about $900 if you could get one. So essentially a dead $3 battery just outside the 1 year warranty would cost the customer $1700 and a wait several weeks just to fix one. Most people didn''t go for it and just bought another PC from us (or in anger from someone else). It was impossible to convince my Computerland management to stock $1700 boards so weeks to repair them. Computers like these usually sold for 2-3k back then and repairs were very costly and time consuming.

My father was a product manager for the PC6300 line for AT$T. He brought home one of the early machines (still in the Olivetti grey plastic). The first machine had two 5.25" floppy drives.

My dad worked for AT&T, and had the opportunity to get us a 6300. I remember we had the choice between the dual floppy version, and one floppy/one 20MB hard drive. I almost choose the dual floppy version (the more, the better, right?) until a friend wisely educated me about hard drives. I loved that computer. We eventually had two 6300's and a 6300 Plus that I ran Unix on for awhile. My dad's position at AT&T helped spark my interest, and started me out on my IT career.

Wow, one of my fondest computer memories comes from this computer. My brother and I were playing a game of Battle Chess, the screen went to a pinpoint in the middle of the screen, and the computer erupted into a cloud of very electrical smelling smoke!!!! Good times!

This is the computer in Nathan Arizona''s office in the movie "Raising Arizona."

If interested in selling, please contact me at retroexo@gmail.com
Thanks!

I am interested in purchasing one if someone is selling.

For sale - AT$T PC6300 processor, color monitor, keyboard, dot matrix printer, original manuals and software. Software, word processing, and various games installed.

I am looking for a new home for my AT$T computer. Any interest?

wredak@gmail.com

I got one of these my first year at GA Tech. They had a computer store in the newly opened student mall and were giving students a deal on them. When I wanted to upgrade to a better graphics card, I remember having to buy a small daughtercard to put in one of the small slots in addition to a standard ISA graphics card. Ran that thing for quite a few years.

Anyone interested in an original 6300 PC? Also, ATT transparency ribbons 477 for color printer.

I had a 6300+, 20 meg hard drive and color monitor. It had a modem and this was the first time I connected to a BBS. I had a game called Space Quest, there was also a Police Quest. All commands were DOS. Heavy and hard to repair.

Hello,
I''m searching the Operating System for the AT$T PC6300 Plus. I mean, the original MS-DOS for the PC6300 PLUS, the Unix System V Release 2.0 (or Xenix) that was optional on this machine, including the OS Merge utility to let the MSDOS run within the Unix Environment. If anybody has floppy disks, or a working image on the hard disk, please let me know. Email is pevalcasATtin.it.
Regards.

There was also a 6300 Plus that had a 286. I have one here. I thought I had just a plain 6300 until I opened it up.

At$t is a brand name owned by SBC. They can fool some of the people all of the time.

I had a customer who used ATT$T PC6300 computers as RJE workstations connected to an IBM 3270/Mainframe host system into the early 2000''s. I remember we had to scramble to find a Y2K date patch for these ancient machines and their software.

A very cool system, I still have one.
It had super-CGA graphics, capable of showing high definition text in place of the standard chunky characters and of getting a very cool extra 640x400 resolution. it could be switched in by bios modes 40h or 48h, the latter showing a small font.
The color attributes were tweaked to get a mix of the CGA modes + the monochrome features (flashing od underlined text). This lead the 160x100x16 unofficial tweaked cga modes to work differently.
The hardware was very flexible, its monitor could work with the AGA graphics card (which was a sort of super cga getting resolutions close to the EGA board) or even in 512 dots mode with a z8001 coprocessor in M20 emulation.
Do not try to overclock the CPU ! The same clock source drives the monitor, and you would burn it.

My first computer. Purchased it when I became a salesman in NYC for Amada.
I used it to track customers and provide lists based upon location of customers to visit. I used a program called PFS File and for word processing PFS Professional Write.
My peers at the time could not see the value of any of this.
I recall purchasing a 20 meg hard drive for around $600. It was amazing! My fellow geek friends drive for miles to see it in action.
I wish I had saved my 6300, it''s like an old friend.

Hello,

I am, probably the first collector of Olivetti M24 on earth. I own also a couple of AT$T PC6300.

I have around 30 Olivetti M24, with a large collection of spares, power supplies.

This was a wonderful computer! It was my first one when I was 17th. Wonderful Keyboard (Olivetti has always produced wonderful keyboards).

I''m searching the following things to extend my collection:
1) Original Color Monitor with its cable
2) 301, 302 keyboard (even broken)
3) Original Mouse to be connected on keyboard
4) A motherboard for the PC 6300 Plus with 80286 daughterboard.
5) A PC6300 plus front plastic bezel

If any of you has such things, thanks to contact me.
sa.cas@virgilio.it

If you need something in exchange, let me know.

Whoever needs information on the pc, repair tips, etc, please contact me.

Long life to Olivetti M24, AT$T PC6300, Xerox 6060 and Logabax Persona 1600. These were all Olivetti M24 rebranded.

Ciao!

Nice system, knowing it was made in America

The 6300 was my first computer. I bought it while in college. It had duel 5.25 inch floppies and I added a 1200 baud modem. I also hacked it a bit to add a 30 Meg hard drive. I loved this machine.

Just wanted to add that the AT$T 6300 was a fantastic computer. I purchase mine from a newspaper sales ad. It cames complete with CGA color monitor and parallel Cannon Printer dot matrix.
I use this PC when I was going to collegue for computer systems. It cames loaded with games but made the mistake of taking to school. I learn how to format and put the OS back after another student put a virus on the system. I wish I still had that PC as it cames with 10megs and 5.25 floppy.
Only thing I have now is a book that shows you how to use it and brand new keyboard that will try to convert to PS/2 pin configuration or USB.

great vintage machine!!!

When I first started learning computers, this was the first computer that I used to start. I hope that someone is selling this computer. I am a vintage guy and I vintage computers.

The AT@T 6300 was my first computer, it had a 5.25" floppy and a 10meg hard drive, black and white monitor, I later added a 1200 baud modem so I could connect with Prodigy, I still have it, I just couldn''t let it go.

I bought this machine (just the computer,nothing else) a few months ago from ebay. I have a few questions about the little thing,and would like to get in touch with anyone who knows a decent amount about them. If you would,please email me at Lomby8086@hotmail.com Thanks!

My Commodore 64 was getting long in the tooth when I bought my AT$T 6300 in April 1984. I justified it as a present for having just put myself through 8 years of night college to earn my BSME. It had 640K of RAM, a dual-sided flopppy drive, and a CGA graphics card. I remember paying about $3500 for the computer, 12" monochrome monitor, daisy wheel printer, optical mouse, and an external 300 baud modem. For the next 2 years I would carry the whole system to my cubicle every morning, use it for work, then take it home every night to run my BBS and "game". Eventually the company owners realized that PC''s were actually useful and bought several 6300''s for the engineering staff. I later upgraded the 8086 processor to a V30 and added a whopping-huge 20 MB hard drive. Around 1990 I replaced my 6300 with a 386-based.

I bought one of these used in 1992 to run a BBS. It had a 10MB hard drive that sometimes needed a tap before it would spin up when the system was turned on. Shortly after I bought another that looked like a later model. It didn''t have the translucent red cover on the front like the one pictured on this page$ the first one did. The first one I gave to a friend who ran a BBS on it for a few months before the motherboard literally cracked. I ran my BBS on the second one for a while and then sold to a friend of my brother''s who wanted to use it essentially as a terminal to dial up BBSs. It had an interesting quirk: the system clock would gain about 40 minutes during the course of a single day. It came with a small clock card in one of the expansion slots. I had setup a timed event in the BBS software to run a small program at "midnight" that reset the system time to the time on the clock card. Since after the first time it ran the time was now 11:20 or so, it would run again at "midnight" though even over that short a time it had gained enough to run at least a third time before the real time passed midnight. Good times.

We bought ours in 1984 (640K RAM) and as big a hard drive as we could get (don't remember how much). I do know it was more powerful and had better memory than the 512K RAM IBM PC we had at work for the entire branch and I occasionally whined that I could do more at home than at work (even then!). Our youngest son (in junior high at the time) played the early King's Quest games (Sierra) when they were still just text...he later got the MS in Computer Science and now is technical director of a game company! One of the really nice things about this machine was how many times we were able to upgrade it before we had to replace it in the mid-late 1990s. Although it cost what felt like a fortune, we got a phenomenal amount of use out of it. I was really sorry when we had to upgrade to a new machine. Loved that keyboard...and completed an MBA on that machine!

I got one of the first models and opted for the CGA monitor. It had a 5.25" single floppy. I upgraded the memory to the max (640K?), added a 20 MB HDD and a math co-processor. The keyboard was the best I have ever used. One oddity was the board with the RAM memory hung upsidedown under the bottom cover. A few times I had to open it up and reseat the RAM chips as the heating/cooling cycles coupled with gravity apparently allowed the chips to work themselves loose. Also, I believe AT&T sold a later model, a 630x (4?). Good memories...

I got mine in 87' and used it for MIDI sequencing for music. I was running voyetra sequencer plus gold software and MS DOS 5, and it blew away any xt of the time. it came with a 40mb HD and 2Mb Ram WOW! the best thing i loved about this PC was it NEVER crashed, i trusted it so much i used it for live music perfomances. it lasted until the day i gave it away 13 Years later!

This is the first computer I ever had, my dad bought one when I was 6 or 7. My mom named it Violet. We used it for years and years, long after it was totally obsolete. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Violet, I played all the old Sierra games on her. She was a good little computer.

These things would run Windows 3.0 in Stanard Mode, too ;) Great system, used it for school after my Commodore Colt died, before we got our IBM 486SX PS/1, all 25MHz of it... lol

When I got mine I added a super-huge 40 meg hard drive. My friend, an IBM CE, was amazed because it was so wasteful. "What could you possibly need that much space for?" I used it for selling total station surveying equipment and lugged the whole thing all over the country. It was a great machine and rendered graphics so much faster than the IBM.