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IBM 5170 tips needed

A

Amigaz

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
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426
Location
Stockholm, Sweden
Since my 5170 box finally arrived I would need some tips/hints from you guys.
I never owned such an early AT machine before so I'm not sure what how this beats work and what to do and not to do.
It seems that it's an early model, 6mhz 286..that's all I know so far.
It has dual ST-225 drives I plan to throw out and replace with a bigger and faster drive + a Sony cd-rom with it's custom 8bit interface card.
My plan is to use an adaptec 1542CF ISA SCSI adapter and a 4.3gig scsi drive, are these adaptec card compatible with this machine?
Should I upgrade the BIOS?
Will a 3.5in. 1.44mb floppy drive work with this machine?
I mainly plan to use this box for very early DOS games and for some vintage software
 
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I have a couple of those Adaptec 1542C's and as far as I recall they are fine in the AT under DOS.

Since the AT is a collectible machine, it wouldn't hurt to keep on hand as many of the original parts as possible so it can be returned to stock at any time in the future.

You can run it at 8 Mhz (or higher) if you can locate a crystal of twice that frequency.

Lastly, in my experience the Type 1 (6 Mhz) motherboards don't seem to be totally reliable, so be careful with ESD, etc.
 
Please don't throw out those ST225's! Working ST225's are worth $$ and are hard to find. I would leave them in and keep the system as it was, don't try to upgrade everything. At least test them thoroughly while they're still installed.

That's what I would do but it's your box! Have fun.

Bill
 
Thanks for the advice guys :)
I'll keep the stuff that was inside in case I want to turn it back to stock.
I think the ST-225 disk that broke loose in the shipping has thrown in the towel and the one that seem to work has some issues:



It seem to run some primitive unix OS

The machine has some unkown cards inside it and came with some sorrt of big, prehistoric wacom board + pen
The software is called "Aurora Vidi"








I tried a coupler of 16bit VGA cards instead of the monochrome adapter, I set the SW1 on the mobo to the color display setting but I get no output on my VGA monitor and two beeps from the PC speaker signaling something is wrong.
Have a missed some jumper or aren't the Tseng ET4000 and Cirrus Logic CL5424 16-bit VGA cards compatible?
I got this exact problem on my Commodore PC 50-II when I had not set the VGA jumper from 8bit VGA rom to 16but VGA ROM

bah..I feel like I noob again...please help me guys :eek:
 
Wow, that's an interesting setup someone had! Would be fun to ID those cards. Are those PAL RF connectors? What do you suppose it was used for?

Do you have an existing CGA card in place that may be conflicting with the VGA? Do you have an AT Setup Disk to configure video and other CMOS settings - that's the most likely problem.
 
paul said:
Wow, that's an interesting setup someone had! Would be fun to ID those cards. Are those PAL RF connectors? What do you suppose it was used for?

Do you have an existing CGA card in place that may be conflicting with the VGA? Do you have an AT Setup Disk to configure video and other CMOS settings - that's the most likely problem.
Click to expand...

I'm going to write down what ID I can find on those cards.
Wish I knew exactly what this system was used for, I think I'm going to ask the previous owner because I'm curious too.
I bought the system from a guy in Germany, I was expecting a keyboard with a german layout but it seems like I got a keyboard with US layout
There's no other gfx cards in this PC what I know of so it can't be a conflict.
I ran the diagnostic disk that came with the system but I cannot change to anything other than the monochrome adapter which the setup finds?
The IBM diag software is v2.0
 
paul said:
Wow, that's an interesting setup someone had! Would be fun to ID those cards. Are those PAL RF connectors? What do you suppose it was used for?

Do you have an existing CGA card in place that may be conflicting with the VGA? Do you have an AT Setup Disk to configure video and other CMOS settings - that's the most likely problem.
Click to expand...

It was one of the aurora vidi cards that was conflicting.
I removed all expansion boards, harddrives and now using a Tseng ET4000AX 1mb VGA card, Adaptec AHA 1542CF SCSI controller, 4.3gig SCSI HDD
Had to use the original IBM Floppy/MFM card, it didn't want to boot from floppy connected to the AHA 1542 card which is a mystery to me.

Did some sys info'ing
P1010054.JPG


P1010055.JPG


P1010058.JPG


Looks like I have the oldest BIOS version, is there any advantage in upgrading it?
 
Amigaz said:
Had to use the original IBM Floppy/MFM card, it didn't want to boot from floppy connected to the AHA 1542 card which is a mystery to me.
Click to expand...

Check the jumpers on the card. IIRC, you can set the floppy on that card to either primary address, secondary address or disable it altogether.
 
I also have a 1542C in my AT, but I haven't yet found a version of the ASPI driver that works properly. Let me know if you have any luck with that. It's not easy to track down the older versions. I think in the later ones there might be some 386 code which causes an AT to lock up.
 
Anonymous Coward said:
I also have a 1542C in my AT, but I haven't yet found a version of the ASPI driver that works properly. Let me know if you have any luck with that. It's not easy to track down the older versions. I think in the later ones there might be some 386 code which causes an AT to lock up.
Click to expand...

Haven't tested a SCSI cd-rom yet, I plan to use my Sony CDU 2x cd-rom with it's proprietary 8bit controller card but I might change my mind and use a SCSI drive instead ;) I'll ley you know how it goes if I try a SCSI drive :)

btw. you know anything which BIOS update I should pick for my first gen. 5170 mobo?
 
Ibm xt scsi

Ibm xt scsi

Amigaz said:
Haven't tested a SCSI cd-rom yet, I plan to use my Sony CDU 2x cd-rom with it's proprietary 8bit controller card but I might change my mind and use a SCSI drive instead ;) I'll ley you know how it goes if I try a SCSI drive :)

btw. you know anything which BIOS update I should pick for my first gen. 5170 mobo?
Click to expand...

My IBM XT currently has both a CD-ROM and HD connected to a single SCSI Card - if slots are a major concern its the way to go. I plan to put both inside an external case and run a cable between them, that way I can try different SCSI devices without opening the XT Case. The IBM XT is in grand condition and I plan to keep it that way.

I have a proprietory card that supports 3 different cd-roms, sony, mitsumi and panasonic I think, never tried that kind of setup.
 
gerrydoire said:
My IBM XT currently has both a CD-ROM and HD connected to a single SCSI Card - if slots are a major concern its the way to go. I plan to put both inside an external case and run a cable between them, that way I can try different SCSI devices without opening the XT Case. The IBM XT is in grand condition and I plan to keep it that way.

I have a proprietory card that supports 3 different cd-roms, sony, mitsumi and panasonic I think, never tried that kind of setup.
Click to expand...

I was a bit suspicious when I first tried a proprietory cd-rom like my 2x Creative and Sony drive but they are quite fast and reliable and it recognizes a cd in seconds....even cd-r which some of the later IDE cd-rom's have problems with
 
8-bit scsi

8-bit scsi

Amigaz said:
I was a bit suspicious when I first tried a proprietory cd-rom like my 2x Creative and Sony drive but they are quite fast and reliable and it recognizes a cd in seconds....even cd-r which some of the later IDE cd-rom's have problems with
Click to expand...

My SCSI setup doesn't work quite that fast at startup. SCSI has to scan the bus and all that Dogma... :D
 
Amigaz said:
btw. you know anything which BIOS update I should pick for my first gen. 5170 mobo?
Click to expand...
IBM

If you want to stay "IBM", you could try the final revision 5170 BIOS (dated 05/09/86).
Compared to your first revision BIOS, it will allow the use of 720K and 1.44M drives without drivers, and support the enhanced keyboard.
I've only ever tried that BIOS on a type 1 board (@ 6 MHz) for a few hours.

The BIOS is at http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/bios.htm
Details of the BIOS is at http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=12995

AMI

You could try the AMI BIOS at http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/bios.htm
It has a user defined hard drive type (type 47).

Award

You could try the Award BIOS at http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/bios.htm
 
modem7 said:
IBM

If you want to stay "IBM", you could try the final revision 5170 BIOS (dated 05/09/86).
Compared to your first revision BIOS, it will allow the use of 720K and 1.44M drives without drivers, and support the enhanced keyboard.
I've only ever tried that BIOS on a type 1 board (@ 6 MHz) for a few hours.

The BIOS is at http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/bios.htm
Details of the BIOS is at http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=12995

AMI

You could try the AMI BIOS at http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/bios.htm
It has a user defined hard drive type (type 47).

Award

You could try the Award BIOS at http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/bios.htm
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I'll think I'll go for the AMI BIOS ;)

Recently aquired an eprom burner so I'm almost set....not sure where to find the right kind of eprom chips though? :(
 
Amigaz said:
Thanks!

I'll think I'll go for the AMI BIOS ;)

Recently aquired an eprom burner so I'm almost set....not sure where to find the right kind of eprom chips though? :(
Click to expand...

try Ebay... but expect some moderate shipping prices. You will problably go for some of the 27256 or the 27C256 EPROMS.
 
per said:
try Ebay... but expect some moderate shipping prices. You will problably go for some of the 27256 or the 27C256 EPROMS.
Click to expand...

ok :)

I'm a complete noob when it comes to this....do I have to buy "empty" chips or can I erase these chips and re-program them?
 
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