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Wanted: IBM 5160 bios

J

JoJo_ReloadeD

Experienced Member
Joined
May 12, 2007
Messages
120
I'm trying to resurrect a xt-clone board that is (I think) the same as the 5160 board.

Its bios eprom has died, so I need a bios image to program a eprom to make it work. Its a 27c64, so it'll be a 8kb image.

Does anybody has this bios and willing to help ? :)

Thanks ;)
 
5160 Bios

5160 Bios

There are 5160 ROM images at http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/bios.htm

You'll see that the images are larger than 8k.

http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=9693 shows the layout of the three revisions.

If an 8KB chip is all you can use in the motherboard then I suggest that you try the last 8K of U18 of the first BIOS revision.
You won't have BASIC but you wouldn't have had it in your faulty BIOS.

For this to work, the 8K BIOS in your motherboard must be addressed at FE00:0 I'm sure that must be the case because the power-on reset vector is always at FFFF:0

On power up, the BIOS will calculate the 8 bit checksum of the BIOS, and if not 00, will report a 'F800 ROM' error. The BIOS is programmed to read the 32K from F800:0 whereas you want it just to read the 8K from FE00:0. So this is a potential problem (which with effort can be overcome if needed).

For now, adjust the last byte in the 8K BIOS so that the 8 bit checksum becomes 00. If your motherboard is such that zeros are read from 24K block at address F800:0, then the overall 8 bit checksum (32K at F800:0) will be 00 and the BIOS will be 'happy'.

You may see a 'F600 ROM' error because the BIOS will be looking at the checksum of the 8K block at F600:0. Again, if your motherboard is such that zeros are read from that block of memory, the BIOS will be 'happy'.

Give it go and see what happens. If you see a ROM error, then I can doctor the BIOS for you so that it skips the checksum checks.

It may be far easier for someone else here to provide a copy of the 8K sized BIOS from their clone XT motherboard. I might have one, but it will take a bit of searching.
 
Another possible problem in using the 5160 BIOS. The 5160 BIOS is designed for an XT running at 4.77 MHz. Parts of the 5160 BIOS may become unreliable on XT clones running at a higher speed.
Why? In the 5160 BIOS are bits of code like the following.
Code: 
OUT  CMD_PORT,AL     ; send command
NOP                  ; short delay
IN   AL,STATUS_PORT  ; fetch status

The actual delay period resulting from the NOP might be adequate on a 4.77 MHz 5160, but not on a machine running at 8 MHz.
 
JoJo_ReloadeD said:
I'm trying to resurrect a xt-clone board that is (I think) the same as the 5160 board.

Its bios eprom has died, so I need a bios image to program a eprom to make it work. Its a 27c64, so it'll be a 8kb image.

Does anybody has this bios and willing to help ? :)

Thanks ;)
Click to expand...
-------
Here's a Phoenix XT clone BIOS V2.51 dated 01/21/87, for a Micro Universe board V1.0B.

Put your name/model at 06B8H if you wish (and adjust the checksum accordingly).

Good luck,

mike
 
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Ha, that's great. I've been looking for the Phoenix 2.51 BIOS for a while. Thanks for posting. The Turbo XT 2.0 BIOS looks interesting too. I'll be sure to try both of them out. Do any of you guys have a very late copy of AWARD XT BIOS? I think the version I am looking for is 3.1.
 
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Thanks to all, seeing the bios size of the 5160 I think my board is a 5150 clone (It uses a 27c64 to store the bios, 8k image). So I flashed the 5150 bios, and this happened:

hpim3645ds6.jpg


Alive at last! But it's complaining about some missing roms, the basic ones, so I flashed it too...

hpim3647rh0.jpg


And got it working, but there's one issue. It can't boot.

I've connected it several floppy controllers and yes, the floppy led blinks, but it does not try to boot the disk, it goes directly to basic.

It only has one set of dip switch, that I've configured properly (I think), colour monitor 80x25, no coprocessor, more than 256k (I have 640k) and one floppy disk.

Here's some photos of the board, do you think it's a 5150 clone??

hpim3652mi2.jpg


hpim3650tv6.jpg


Later I'll test the phoenix bios, I'm short of 27c64's :) but I'd rather prefer using the 5150 one :cool:

P.S.

Everytime I turn it on it tells me a 131 error, that is a 'Cassette wrap test failed.', do you think this would be the reason of not booting ?
 
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That's an XT Clone board! The 5150 had 5 ISA slots, whereas the XT had 6. I think I have one of the same boards :)

The errors are probably caused by the 5150 BIOS.

It probably has a 'turbo' mode, 4.77/8MHz if it is the same as mine. Going from memory I think mine has a Phoenix BIOS, but I'll be the end of the month until I can dig it out again (it's at my parents place). I'll try to dig out some pictures later, I am pretty sure I have some.

Here are the DIP switch settings for an XT:

xtdips.gif
 
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dongfeng said:
That's an XT Clone board! The 5150 had 5 ISA slots, whereas the XT had 6. I think I have one of the same boards :)

The errors are probably caused by the 5150 BIOS.

It probably has a 'turbo' mode, 4.77/8MHz if it is the same as mine. Going from memory I think mine has a Phoenix BIOS, but I'll be the end of the month until I can dig it out again (it's at my parents place). I'll try to dig out some pictures later, I am pretty sure I have some.

Here are the DIP switch settings for an XT:

xtdips.gif
Click to expand...

It has 8 isa slots, so it isn't a exact clone of a 5150 or 5160... it doesn't have turbo mode, only operates at 4,77, and its bios is the same size as the 5150, and yep, I've configured the dip switch following that info :)
 
Since it has 8 normally-spaced slots and, more to the point, no cassette hardware, it's obviously an XT clone, so just exactly why do you insist on putting in a 5150 BIOS which is almost certain to be incompatible in some way?

Just curious: how many of you have ever seen a 5150 *clone*, i.e. complete with cassette hardware, non-standard slot spacing and BASIC?

m
 
Thanks to all, seeing the bios size of the 5160 I think my board is a 5150 clone (It uses a 27c64 to store the bios, 8k image).
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. The Phoenix XT BIOS that was posted is 8K in size.

So I flashed the 5150 bios, and this happened:
Click to expand...
The 5150 BIOS is expecting hardware found on the 5150 motherboard, such as a cassette port and a second set of switches. Your board has neither. That is why you are seeing the 'Cassette wrap test failed.' error.

Everytime I turn it on it tells me a 131 error, that is a 'Cassette wrap test failed.', do you think this would be the reason of not booting ?
Click to expand...
No, that won't be why it is not booting.

If your board was a 5150 clone, I'm sure the engineers would have made it 100% compatible with the 5150 at the hardware level (as was the norm in those days). And so the lack of cassette port and lack of the second switch bank indicate to me that you have a clone 5160 board.

I suggest that use the posted Phoenix XT BIOS.
 
Plasma said:
Here is the BIOS I am using in my XT: http://www.phatcode.net/downloads.php?id=101

It's a modification I made of the "generic" turbo XT BIOS floating around, with some more features and a nicer bootup screen.
Click to expand...

Would this BIOS work in an IBM 5160?

I read the instructions in the readme and I must admit I am clueless as to how one:
1. Backups the old BIOS (always a good thing to do)
2. Flashes the new BIOS onto the chip and
3. Which bios File to actually use.

Is there a place for step by step instructions on this?

Thanks in advance for the help.
 
lutiana said:
2. Flashes the new BIOS onto the chip
Click to expand...
JoJo's use of "flashed" has mislead you.

For these old machines, the change of BIOS is done by removing the old BIOS chips (U18 and U19) and in their place putting in BIOS chips that contain the new BIOS code.
Where do you get new BIOS chips? eBay is a possibility, but quite a few forum members would create their own chips by using a device known as an 'EPROM burner' (or EPROM programmer).
 
modem7 said:
JoJo's use of "flashed" has mislead you.

For these old machines, the change of BIOS is done by removing the old BIOS chips (U18 and U19) and in their place putting in BIOS chips that contain the new BIOS code.
Where do you get new BIOS chips? eBay is a possibility, but quite a few forum members would create their own chips by using a device known as an 'EPROM burner' (or EPROM programmer).
Click to expand...

Ahh, had a feeling this was the case.

I don't know anyone with an EPROM burner, and based on what I remember that means I would need to get a blank chip to begin with, since there is only 1 E in that acronym.

The logical question becomes is it worth it? I guess as I get more into this I will find out.
 
lutiana said:
Would this do it?
Click to expand...
Yes.
In the 'Device types supported' area of the description, you can see that the unit supports the 27256 (or 27C256) EPROMs required for the IBM 5160 motherboard. I have an earlier version of that burner.

For the IBM 5160 motherboard, the two blank 27256 EPROMs (or 27C256) you acquire will need to be rated at 200ns or faster. Most 27256 or 27C256 EPROMs rated at 200nS access time will have a "-20" at the end of the part number (e.g. M27C256B-20)

If you buy the EPROMs new or new-old-stock (NOS), they'll be in an erased state, however for future work, you may also want to consider the purchase of an EPROM eraser. I bought one of the EPROM erasers at eBay item 130269202777, mainly because of the low cost. Don't expect the timer to work perfectly. Because the unit contains a tube with filament (like a light bulb), there is a reasonably high risk of damage to the tube during transit. Mine survived the Hong Kong to Australia trip.

An alternative:

I'm sure that someone here in these forums (US based) will burn you a set of 27256 EPROMs for a low price.
Let us know if you want to try that.
 
I've got the chips and a burner. I'll just try burning 'em and (if successful), drop 'em in with the keyboard when I send it along. Just need someone to point me to the correct file(s) to put on 'em.

--T
 
modem7 said:
...however for future work, you may also want to consider the purchase of an EPROM eraser.
Click to expand...

Am I to understand that this EPROM programmer does not erase?

modem7 said:
Because the unit contains a tube with filament (like a light bulb)
Click to expand...

Am I correct in assuming that the eraser is using light to erase them?

Terry Yager said:
Just need someone to point me to the correct file(s) to put on 'em.
Click to expand...

I appreciate this, and will take you up on the offer. I am not sure if I want to try the modified bios in this post or the official IBM one, any suggestions?

modem7 said:
There are 5160 ROM images at http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/bios.htm
Click to expand...
and

Plasma said:
Here is the BIOS I am using in my XT: http://www.phatcode.net/downloads.php?id=101
Click to expand...

Ultimately I am eager to be able to do this myself, it would be fun to try to get right, and the programmer is not that pricey at all.
 
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