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5150 chip

C

canuck46

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
86
Location
Chilliwack,BC,Canada eh
Would anyone have a U29 chip for a 5150 motherboard....I have no idea what it does but I hada change mine...So I took the chip out of my "Parts Machine"...solved the problem but now Parts machine has error.....Parts machine is complete but has issues(???) I thought someone might have a motherboard laying around taking up space...????? or just a U29 Chip ?????
Thanx....Dave:confused:
 
According to a web site (and according to Scott Mueller's 'Upgrading & Repairing PCs' - 5th Ed.), the PC had three BIOS releases over the years. According to the web site, the last version fixed significant issues: "The earlier versions could not handle more than 544 KBytes RAM and had a bug that made them fail to recognize expansion board's ROMs in the upper memory area (causing lots of trouble especially with EGA- and VGA-cards)".

And so I'm sure you have a preference for the last version.
 
atari2600a said:
Wouldn't burning the BIOS to an EPROM work?
Click to expand...
Yes. And so hopefully someone out there has access to a working U29, an EPROM burner, and a spare suitable EPROM.
If such a person is simply lacking the U29, maybe canuck46 can post his working U29 to the person (or run something to extract the contents of U29 to a file).
 
Don't ask for a specific chip. As for the BIOS of the machine, and specify the version of BIOS you want. Anybody with an EPROM burner can do this for you.
 
I've never tried it, but a 5160 BIOS should work just fine in a 5150. You might lose the use of the cassette port, but the rest will be the same.

A 5160 is just an 8 slot 5150 without the cassette port ..
 
atari2600a said:
Damn, if only I had the control board to my EPROM burner...
Click to expand...

Are you sure it needs one? Most external EPROM burners I'm familiar with are simple serial devices and will burn the PROM based on commands sent over the serial port.
 
Yes! Now I know what I'll buy with a bit of money I need to spend. I have an untested EPROM burner, but it is for IEEE interface. I lack both software and an eraser. I should see if I can get a modern burner/eraser combo.
 
You should also get some EPROM's of course! :p

I really wish I had a working EPROM Burner, so that I could play some great prototype games that havent been released on their originally intended system instead other than on an emulator. Plus, of course, to help people out in situations like this...
 
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A good friend of mine, and my mom's coworker will be leaving his job of 45+ years. He has given me a lot of cool electronic and computer stuff that got me to where I am today. He is clearing out his work lab, and home basement, maybe I can see if he has an EPROM burner, and if so, send it my way! I know he would.... he has like, 5 of EVERYTHING! :eek:
 
mbbrutman said:
I've never tried it, but a 5160 BIOS should work just fine in a 5150. You might lose the use of the cassette port, but the rest will be the same.
Click to expand...
The 5150 has two switch blocks - the 5160 has only one.
There's a possible problem there, however, that might (depending on the closeness of the circuitry) just mean that only one block is active (using settings per 5160).
 
Terry Yager said:
If you're swapping chips from another board, I'd suggest replacing both ROMs as a set, just in case there is a slight difference.
Click to expand...
I've seen two pictures of 5150 motherboards, and they both show only one BIOS chip (U29). Socket U28 is empty.
 
Good point - I forgot about the switch blocks. Kids, don't try that at home.

As for U29 vs. U28 .. Some machines have 32K of BIOS, some have 64K, and some have more. That's why I said to get the complete BIOS for your machine. The number of chips is an exercise left to the interested student.
 
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