Help! - Copam President AT BIOS

[mAJORD]

Hey All..

I've recently becom owner of a circa mid 80s Copam President AT IBM clone

It's basically a complete copy of an IBM 5170, with it's own AT compat mainboard though.

My problem is I need to get into Setup but I fear it may require a setup disc, and I have no idea where I could get one..

Does anyone know this machine and can help?

Would an IBM BIOS be compatible with this board, given it's very much like the IBM.

THanks in adv for any help.. I can post pic's if anyones interested in this seemingly rare machine

 

[creepingnet]

Sounds like an interesting box, though quite likely one of the many clone manufacturers that are kind of obscure (and possibly local). I have a thing for 80's GEM Computer Products stuff myself, and they were what we call a "white box" system builder who built systems out of premade motherboards and cases and such. The combination of parts for those types of systems can be endless.

The System board is the best way to really get to know the system. A good idea it to get a good mental picture, or even a real tangeable picture of it, and look at one of the several Total Hardware 99 sites around for the board. That's how I found out my GEM 286 uses an Octek Rev 2 Motherboard that supports 10 and 12 MHz processors.

 

[mAJORD]

Gday Mike

Thanks for the reply

From what I can gather Copam were a Taiwanese clone manufacturer, although the president Keyboard was made in Australia ( :happy10: )

Everything about the inside of it is extremely IBM like, the PSU is visually identical, the case layout, etc etc even the facia is very similar.

I am considering sourcing an IBM motherboard for it but the problem is the IBM one seems to extend a little to far on the left side past the screw holes, and may not fit in the case

The motherboard by the way reads PC-400-MAIN BD , and bios / eprom chips have copam labels, so may be a special job..

 

[Druid6900]

Attached is a copy of GSETUP.ZIP which should get you into the BIOS of most clones, provided you have a way of getting it on to a bootable floppy disk.

Hope this helps.

 

[Chuck(G)]

A 5170 BIOS may work, but it depends on the motherboard. If it's a mobo with mostly SSI commodity componentry, then it's likely a 5170 BIOS will work fine. If it's got an LSI support chipset, then the outlook isn't as bright.

I've installed the 5170 BIOS on early Everex 286 and Faraday A-Tease boards successfully.

 

[mAJORD]

Thanks very much Druid and chuck.

Druid, I'm int he throws of attempting to run that program, thankyou. HArdest hurdle at the moment is booting dos of a floppy :lol:

I can get about half way through the 3.3 dos boot off a 1.44 floppy.. going to try IBM-DOS next.

can't seem to get any of my 360kb images to work.

It's promising to know an IBM bios may work.. I don't see any lattice chips or anything like that, it appears to be completely populated by std logic chips bar the RTC, and some I/O controllers obviously. hmm


*PS After getting to the bios info display, I can see it's a COPAM PC-501 1985 , only a few results out there for the model

 

[noclip]

Hey All..

I've recently becom owner of a circa mid 80s Copam President AT IBM clone

It's basically a complete copy of an IBM 5170, with it's own AT compat mainboard though.

My problem is I need to get into Setup but I fear it may require a setup disc, and I have no idea where I could get one..

Does anyone know this machine and can help?

Would an IBM BIOS be compatible with this board, given it's very much like the IBM.

THanks in adv for any help.. I can post pic's if anyones interested in this seemingly rare machine

Seems my response too late , as i understand you want to access the bios

I had a Copam before and I could access the bios by clicking "Ctrl + Alt + S" anywhere.

Hope this help