Products > Test Equipment
Agilent E8357A
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joeqsmith:

--- Quote from: tv84 on November 07, 2022, 01:16:31 pm ---It seems this quest had a bit of history in recent weeks...

For reference only.

--- End quote ---
I thought maybe we would get lucky and Keysight would provide support, or at a minimum they would provide CV with approval to support them.   CV's comment about the end of his career certainly paints a grim but all too common, picture of today's company culture in the USA.   I'm thankful we have member's not only capable but willing to help.   

Another thing that came out of that thread was CV's response about the lower frequency limit and there was no option to bring it below 300kHz.  This is why I had told you that I don't think there is anything else worth going after.  If he had said there was some experimental, unreleased option,  I think it would have been worth spending more time with. 
joeqsmith:

--- Quote from: Forzaman on November 07, 2022, 01:49:52 pm --- I will clone my HDD before ...

--- End quote ---
Smart!  This is the first thing I typically do when working on old equipment.    I am using a Transcend 2.5" PATA SSD in mine.   I have used this same drive in other XP & 2k equipment with very good results.  Last time I bought them, they came direct from the factory so they may be getting harder to come by as there is little demand. 
Forzaman:

--- Quote from: joeqsmith on November 07, 2022, 03:14:46 pm ---
--- Quote from: Forzaman on November 07, 2022, 01:49:52 pm --- I will clone my HDD before ...

--- End quote ---
Smart!  This is the first thing I typically do when working on old equipment.    I am using a Transcend 2.5" PATA SSD in mine...

--- End quote ---

I was thinking about trying a PATA SSD, but was reading on the Internet that it wouldn't make much difference on Win2k because it doesn't support the TRIM function among other things. A YouTube video showed the bootup time of a Win2k PC with a HDD, and after the drive was swapped with a SSD. The time was essentially the same, but you are saying there was a noticeable improvement in the VNA performance? Cheers.
Forzaman:

--- Quote from: joeqsmith on November 07, 2022, 03:07:18 pm ---
--- Quote from: tv84 on November 07, 2022, 01:16:31 pm ---It seems this quest had a bit of history in recent weeks...

For reference only.

--- End quote ---
I thought maybe we would get lucky and Keysight would provide support, or at a minimum they would provide CV with approval to support them...

--- End quote ---
I have purchased a lot of test equipment during my career, and still do so as a consultant, so I have a good relationship with the R&S, Keysight, Anritsu, etc. sales reps. Sometimes I can get them to pull some strings for my equipment that I use for my personal use, but not much luck with Keysight. I was looking at the N4416A test set for my E8357A to expand it to 4 ports, but it requires the N4425A Balanced Measurement Software. The guy at the Keysight Used website told me that he never heard of that software, and the unit is not supported anymore anyways. My Keysight sales rep said he would ask around, but told me that it was nowhere to be found, essentially saying it was lost. There are plenty of these test sets up for sale on eBay, but they are no use to anyone without the software. Such a waste of perfectly good hardware.
joeqsmith:

--- Quote from: Forzaman on November 07, 2022, 04:53:33 pm ---
--- Quote from: joeqsmith on November 07, 2022, 03:14:46 pm ---
--- Quote from: Forzaman on November 07, 2022, 01:49:52 pm --- I will clone my HDD before ...

--- End quote ---
Smart!  This is the first thing I typically do when working on old equipment.    I am using a Transcend 2.5" PATA SSD in mine...

--- End quote ---

I was thinking about trying a PATA SSD, but was reading on the Internet that it wouldn't make much difference on Win2k because it doesn't support the TRIM function among other things. A YouTube video showed the bootup time of a Win2k PC with a HDD, and after the drive was swapped with a SSD. The time was essentially the same, but you are saying there was a noticeable improvement in the VNA performance? Cheers.

--- End quote ---

I made no mention of any noticeable improvements in VNA performance.   That said, I think on my one LeCroy DSO, after upgrading from 2k to XP, with and without the SSD, the boot times were a wash.  The small amount I gained with the SSD, I lost with the OS.   Still the time allowed to stabilize the equipment is much longer than they take to boot, so nothing to be gained there.

The reason I chose that particular drive was it supports many of the features not supported by these old OSs internally with it's firmware.   While I was told by members on this forum about SSDs having a very short life (weeks) and lots of fine tuning of the settings required, I installed one where I imaged the drive with no changes what so ever.  Basically I was trying to force the worse possible condition according to the experts to validate their claims.  That was in 2015 and that drive is still in use today with the same setup.

PNA performance wise, I basically use it headless.   In other words, I tend to do all the heavy lifting with an external PC.   The first VNA I bought basically sent me down that path as it had no computer.  So to make it work without the aid of a grease pen, using a PC was the only way to cal it or create Touchstone files.....  The up side to that was it forced me to learn how the VNA worked and understand some of the math behind it.  It also provided me with an appreciation for the real experts in this field, of which I am not. 

Why use an SSD?  I've lost mechanical drives in test equipment before and my choice of moving to SSDs was hopes of improving long term reliability.   Verdicts still out on that one.   That said I have an old 80s DSO that uses a 68k in a VME chassis.  A relic.  It uses an MFM drive.  The Miniscribe drive was locked up, typical of that brand with their out gassing.  I bought a used Seagate ST-225 and hacked it's hardware to mimic the Miniscribe drive.   The PSOS OS they used only supported a couple of different drives.  That old scope with it's hacked up unknown history drive has been in my possession for over 20 years now and is still in operation.   So, there's that data point...   :-DD 
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