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IBM AT 5170 setup disc HELP

also, would it be possible to get an external 3.5" floppy drive for an AT with bios 62X0820 and be able to boot to a disc? if so, could you list some model numbers of any drives so i can check them out?
 
afaiello said:
also, would it be possible to get an external 3.5" floppy drive for an AT with bios 62X0820 and be able to boot to a disc? if so, could you list some model numbers of any drives so i can check them out?
Click to expand...
If you have the original IBM hard/floppy controller supplied in the IBM AT, then there is nowhere for a 'standard' external drive to plug into.
External 1.44 MB drives for the parallel port (e.g. Backpack 014350) can be found.
In both cases, a driver is required to be loaded, thus defeating their use as boot devices.

It seems to me that you are simply better off to locate a known working 1.44 MB drive (i.e. from a modern machine) and connect it via a standard 34 pin ribbon cable to the floppy connector on the IBM hard/floppy controller.
 
frozenfire75i said:
my PS/2 has the ext DD drive!
Click to expand...
If your PS/2 can boot from that external DD drive, it suggests 2 possibilities:

1. The motherboard BIOS has been programmed to consider the external DD drive as a potential boot device.

2. Your external DD drive is plugged into a card that contains a BIOS extension which takes over some of the functionality of the motherboard BIOS. Such cards can allow the computer to boot from devices that the motherboard BIOS doesn't support.
 
Partial CMOS setup via BASIC

Partial CMOS setup via BASIC

Because your computer boots into BASIC, we have the ability to set up the CMOS configuration via BASIC.

It would be a reasonably lengthy program to type in to set up everything. The program would have to ask the user about their hardware.

But in the short term (until you get a setup disk working), you may be happy just to get the machine booting from the hard drive.
If so, the following is what you would type into BASIC.

NOTE: Code only intended for IBM AT with IBM BIOS, and with type 20 drive.

Code: 
10 for x = 14 to 45
20 out 112,x
30 out 113,0
40 next x
50 out 112,18
60 out 113,240
70 out 112,25
80 out 113,20
90 out 112,46
100 out 113,1
110 out 112,47
120 out 113,4
run

Don't forget to enter the "run" bit.

After entering "run", reboot using CTRL-ALT-DEL
After reboot you'll still see a 162 error message (and maybe others), but when you the press F1 when prompted, your AT should boot from the hard drive.
 
Your disk has been shipped USPS P-Mail.

Modem, No my PS/2 Model 30 will not boot from the EXT Drive, It dose have an ISA card that takes up a slot and a spot on the cable, that the drive connects too!



modem7 said:
If your PS/2 can boot from that external DD drive, it suggests 2 possibilities:

1. The motherboard BIOS has been programmed to consider the external DD drive as a potential boot device.

2. Your external DD drive is plugged into a card that contains a BIOS extension which takes over some of the functionality of the motherboard BIOS. Such cards can allow the computer to boot from devices that the motherboard BIOS doesn't support.
Click to expand...
 
I've read this entire thread and I hope you guys aren't too burnt out to help me. :confused:
I may be facing the same problem with an IBM-PC AT 5170 that I just rescued.
It's a totally intact machine and has a Seagate SG4096 80Mb. hard drive and the BIOS is revision three (62X0820).
Also has one 5 1/4" floppy drive and a tape drive.
Memory ticks off at over 2.6 Mb at startup.

It supports VGA and it boots to the IBM Basic screen, even though the hard drive seems to be making normal sounds at startup.

How can I get this AT to boot temporarily from the hard drive using a BASIC program like Modem7 mentioned above?
I have an unopened set of DOS 6.22 disks, if that helps?

I would love to get this AT working again!
Thanks.
 
Okay. As you wil have read, you have some options:

1. USE AN IBM DIAGNOSTIC DISK

Use a copy of the 5.25" IBM diagnostic diskette for the AT. If you can't make one yourself, you'll need to get someone here to send you a copy.

2. USE A 360K GSETUP BOOT DISK

Make a bootable 360K disk then add GSETUP.EXE to it.

3. USE A 1.44M GSETUP BOOT DISK

Because your IBM AT has the third BIOS, you can go down the route of temporarily connecting a 1.44MB diskette drive as A:, and using a 1.44M sized GSETUP boot diskette (created on a modern computer as described in an earlier post).

4. USE A BASIC PROGRAM

I need more info. The single 5.25" drive is undoubtedly a 1.2M drive. But what exactly is the figure that the RAM counts up to.
 
modem7 said:
Okay. As you wil have read, you have some options:

1. USE AN IBM DIAGNOSTIC DISK

Use a copy of the 5.25" IBM diagnostic diskette for the AT. If you can't make one yourself, you'll need to get someone here to send you a copy.

2. USE A 360K GSETUP BOOT DISK

Make a bootable 360K disk then add GSETUP.EXE to it.

3. USE A 1.44M GSETUP BOOT DISK

Because your IBM AT has the third BIOS, you can go down the route of temporarily connecting a 1.44MB diskette drive as A:, and using a 1.44M sized GSETUP boot diskette (created on a modern computer as described in an earlier post).

4. USE A BASIC PROGRAM

I need more info. The single 5.25" drive is undoubtedly a 1.2M drive. But what exactly is the figure that the RAM counts up to.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll try option 3 later, but I'd like to try the BASIC program first, if it's similar to the one you posted earlier.
The RAM counts up to 2688Kb.

Also, do I need to know what type of Hard drive I have? (Seagate SG4096)
 
Last edited:
johnorun said:
Thanks. I'll try option 3 later, but I'd like to try the BASIC program first, if it's similar to the one you posted earlier.
The RAM counts up to 2688Kb.
Click to expand...
So you very likely have 640K base memory plus 2M (2048K) of extended memory.

johnorun said:
Also, do I need to know what type of Hard drive I have? (Seagate SG4096)
Click to expand...
That will be ST-4096, not SG4096.

The ST-4096 has a geometry of 1024 cylinders, 9 heads, and a WPC of 65535. If you look at the geometries that the third BIOS supports, at http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=12995, the geometry of the ST-4096 is not present. Whilst it is possible that someone has modified your IBM BIOS, at this stage we'll assume not. The closest match is the type 19 and so that's the best type to try first as it is the most likely one that was used.

I'll determine the BASIC program, but it could take a few hours as I have a few tasks running presently.
 
johnorun said:
Thanks. I'll try option 3 later, but I'd like to try the BASIC program first, if it's similar to the one you posted earlier.
The RAM counts up to 2688Kb.

Also, do I need to know what type of Hard drive I have? (Seagate SG4096)
Click to expand...

Don't you have another computer that you could use to create a boot disk? Something that either has a 5 1/4 drive or at least a connector (and BIOS) for the one in the AT?

Time to make this topic a Wiki/sticky...
 
MikeS said:
Don't you have another computer that you could use to create a boot disk? Something that either has a 5 1/4 drive or at least a connector (and BIOS) for the one in the AT?
Click to expand...

Yes, I have a 3 1/2 drive on my Main PC and plenty of floppies.

I also have a spare 3 1/2" drive that I can add to the AT to facilitate the setup.

@ modem7--- You're right, I do have 2Mb of extended RAM, on an INTEL "Above Board Plus" card, in addition to 512K on the M-board.
 
Hey--I made the boot disk and hooked up a 3 1/2 floppy drive to the AT.

The floppy drive worked! and I inserted the boot disk and followed the instructions you listed above.
So far so good....

Now I'm at the step where I need to enter the Hard Drive parameters.
I'll try "type 19" and see what happens.
Do I need to enter the # of cylinders, heads and WPC that you posted above for the ST 4096?
Will I wreck the HD if type 19 isn't correct?:shocking:

I'll check here tomorrow (Saturday in the US) and post the results...g'nite.:sleepy:
 
Latest update:

Well, I stayed up to finish this project until 1:30am and you can chalk up a victory for your helpfulness!
I used "type 19" as the Hard Drive type and it WORKED!:)

All the Hard Drive files from the first owner are still intact and the disk has a "PC-DOS Shell" program, that is like an early form of windows, that lists all the programs and file details.:eek:

So cool that the files and drive are intact after 20 years!
Vintage IBM machines were sure built to last!

THANKS to all that posted!

I'm really happy...but I still need to buy a 6v. Lithium CMOS battery to retain the BIOS settings! (Know anyplace I can get one cheap?):rolleyes:
 
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