help? model 5140

[ladyinsane]

i just found this cool "laptop". i starts up, givesa date jan. 04, 1980, won't accept 08 date, but i think if i find some sort of help it would be fun to play with. the best part is the little printer that connects to the back. if anyone could guide me in the direction i would be most appriicative

 

[wmmullaney]

Could you post a picture?

 

[mbbrutman]

It's an IBM Convertible, model 5140. Look here for details:

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=1182

The machine has a LCD display and two 720KB diskette drives. A compact thermal printer locks onto the back of the machine and mates to the expansion bus there too. Other options (which also lock onto the back) include a serial and parallel port 'slice', and a 'CRT' slice for using an external monitor.

There were two versions of the LCD display. One readable, and one not.

 

[strollin]

In order to set the system date you need the software from IBM called the "Application Selector" as shown in this link: http://www.seasip.info/VintagePC/AppSel/index.html Thanks to frozenfire75i for hosting the IBM PC BBS files, you can find the software here: ftp://69.146.208.176/refdisks/5140star.exe

 

[billdeg]

You don't need the application selector disk, any DOS boot disk will do (that's 720K).

The reason the clock with the question marks appears when you boot is that your battery is dead or needs to be charged up and the time/date are not saved in the battery save state memory. Just hit F1 to bypass. If you're not also seeing the "battery dead" icon on the same screen, you're in luck, you can probably recharge your unit enough to hold the date and time if you reboot. Either way, it does not matter. As long as your power supply works, the system will be fully functional you just won't be able to save the date.

Coincidentally, I just finished some work on a batch of 5140's, here is a link, including the image of another boot program that you can download and use. The image is a bootable 3101 emulation disk with directions (added by me).

http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=206

Let me know if this helps
http://www.vintagecomputer.net/ibm/5140/explore_5140.zip

Bill