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Lutiana

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So I was looking through Craigslist for any old computer equiptment and I noticed and older add that was for a free IBM XT. I responded to it with interest and when I did not get a response I wrote it off, especially since the add on CL expired the next day and was not there anymore.

A few days later I got a response. Apparently the guy was out of town, but still had the unit and would be glad to give it to me. So we arranged for me to pick it up this afternoon.

I went down there expecting an XT, keyboard and most likely a black and white monitor. Imagine my surprise when I walked into his kitchen and he had it setup to show me, and sitting next to it was a printer. Score a nice working printer and the entire system looks like it is in perfect condition (not a scratch on it, and the keyboard is a nice pristine white color, not yellow).

He then turned it on, the memory count was in white, sweet color, perhaps CGA and also it had 640k of RAM. This was getting better, it booted up fine into a menu system and he showed me some things on it. I looked a little closer at the monitor and noticed that is was in fact an EGA monitor, working perfectly.

So we shut it down and I start taking it out to the car. After what I thought was everything loaded I went back in to thank him. At this point he points out a large box sitting next to the table and it is part of the XT deal, aswell as a second box in the garage. A cursory glance told me that there was some software and books in the box in the house, sweet!

So now I am at home, and I have gone through the boxes and have found several manuals (including the original IBM manuals) quite a few games and some OS disks. There is also a 1.44mb drive with an 8 bit ISA controller and a 84Mb WD drive (there is a 45mb drive installed in the system). I'll post a complete list later of the box contents later.

I have not cracked the system yet, but have been exploring the software. The menu system is called "Direct Access", there is a full copy of DOS 5 and Word perfect 5, as well as MS Flight Sim and Norton Utilities (not sure of the version yet). There is also something call ASTClock (but I have no idea what this does yet).

I will post more pictures and info here when I get a complete list of the stuff and get a look inside the machine.

System Specs:
IBM 5160
NEC V20 Processor
Intel 8087 Math Coprocessor
640Kb RAM (256 onboard)
EGA Graphics Card with 256kb or RAM (Hercules compatible)
AST MegaPlus II
2x 360kb TEAC FD55BV-16-U Floppy drive
44Mb MFM Hard FH Drive
2 Serial, 1 Parallel port
Panasonic KX-P1091i Dotmatrix Printer (9 pin)

Here are some pics of the setup:

IMG_0024.JPG


IMG_0026.JPG


IMG_0027.JPG
 
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ASTClock is software to retrieve the date and time from the clock on an AST MFC. The machine probably has something like an AST 6-pack that includes clock, memory expansion, serial and parallel ports.

Definitely a nice score.
 
He then turned it on, the memory count was in white, sweet color, perhaps CGA and also it had 640k of RAM. This was getting better, it booted up fine into a menu system and he showed me some things on it. I looked a little closer at the monitor and noticed that is was in fact an EGA monitor, working perfectly.

Most likely, you have an original IBM EGA card. Hopefully it has the daughterboard for the extra 64k of video memory! You're also lucky that the 5154 works, since they weren't known for their reliability.

As this is the later 256k-640k model of the XT, you aren't limited to an 83-key keyboard either, and you can use an IBM Model M.
 
Just went through the boxes and here is what was in them:

See the Box/Book pictures here.

Utilities:
  1. PC Tools V6 by Central Point Software
  2. Mavis Beacon Teaches typing by The Software Toolworks
  3. Norton Antivirus V1.5 by Symantec
  4. Norton Utilities V5.0 by Symantec
  5. Direct Access V5.0 by Delta Technology International
  6. IBM DOS v5.0 Upgrade
  7. MS DOS 5.0 Upgrade
  8. MS DOS 5.0 by MS and Firenze (FRL Dos)
  9. Wordperfect v 5.1

Games:
  1. Their Finest Hour by Lucas Film Games
  2. Red Storm Rising by MicroProse
  3. Ace of Aces by Accolade
  4. Wolf Pack by Novalogic / Broderbund
  5. Microsoft Flight Simulator
  6. 6. Myst by Red Orb (On CD for a Mac)


Manuals/Books

  1. Using Wordperfect by Deborah and Walton Beacham ISBN: 0-88022-239-5
  2. DOS for Dummies by Dan Gookin ISBN: 1-878058-25-8
  3. Peter Norton’ s Advanced DOS 5 ISBN: 0-13-529645-5
  4. I Hate DOS but this book makes it easy by Bryan PfaffenbergerISBN: 1-56529-215-4
  5. Mastering DOS (up DOS 3.3) by Judd Robinson ISBN: 0-89588-400-3
  6. Various IBM and optional hardware manuals

Hardware:
  1. A Full Height ST506 (85Mb) Drive. State Unknown (probably bad).
  2. 8 Bit ISA floppy controller. Support 2 drives of 360k, 720k, 1.2Mb or 1.44Mb
  3. A 3.5" floppy drive in a 5.25" mount with a pin to flat connector adapter. I assume this drive it 1.44mb but I will need to test this.

The manuals for the following in the machine:
  1. AST MegaPlus II
  2. VEGA Video 7 EGA card with 256kb of memory, fully compatable with Hercules graphics
  3. 8088 Math Coprocessor
 
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As this is the later 256k-640k model of the XT

I am not sure about this. I think there is an AST card in there that adds the extra 256kb of RAM. I may even have another 2mb of EMS ram in this thing based on my browsing of the manuals the system came with.

EDIT: Confirmed that the board is the 64-256k version and it is an AST Megaplus II card in there that adds the extra 256kb of RAM.
 
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EDIT: Confirmed that the board is the 64-256k version and it is an AST Megaplus II card in there that adds the extra 256kb of RAM.

So it is the earlier XT, then. Those half-height floppies are deceptive. And you do have the real IBM EGA card, I take it?

Nice load of software, too. I have Wolfpack, but never played it very much. On my 5150, it's pretty slow in CGA. I couldn't imagine trying it on an 8088 with EGA.
 
It's not.

Umm, yeah it is. I pulled it out and looked at it, it is not a full length card, and norton utilities SI (system information) utility confirms that there is 256kb of memory on the card.

Look here

Also look here

There is a post on this card here too.

Here is a pic of the manual:

IMG_0053.JPG
 
Umm, yeah it is. I pulled it out and looked at it, it is not a full length card, and norton utilities SI (system information) utility confirms that there is 256kb of memory on the card.

My bad. I meant to say that it's not an IBM EGA card.
 
ASTClock is software to retrieve the date and time from the clock on an AST MFC. The machine probably has something like an AST 6-pack that includes clock, memory expansion, serial and parallel ports.

Definitely a nice score.


Has anyone come up with a ASTCLOCK replacement program?

Something that lets you go past April 1999?
 
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