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IBM PS/2 Model 70

C

Chromedome45

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2009
Messages
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Location
Central Florida
If anyone has a spare one laying around I would be willing to trade for it.;) Such as PC/XT or Epson Equity I+ with original software and all manuls. Or toshiba 1100+ Portable with Manuals. :D See Sig!
 
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Hi,

Saw your note, wondering if you are interested in a Model 30? I have a IBM 8513 monitior that goes with it. I am the original owner, bought the system in mid 80s and had it in a box unitl recently. Let me know, just signed up to answer your post. My email is rsacha2@aol.com. Thanks Robert
 
I got a model 70, but I haven't offered it because of the following reasons:

  1. The deal with the people I got it from was that I should transfer some files off the hard drive and send them. However, it is protected by a POST password and nobody where I got it from can remember it (allthough some of them reffere to a man who migth remember it). I don't know the state of the floppy-drive, so I won't try to reset the CMOS.
  2. I live in Norway, and that's kinda far away from the US (read: high shipping price). Shipping monitors are risky though, and I haven't tried sending anything larger than an ISA-card before.
  3. I am unsure if I want to keep the system or not. It's the only 386 I have as of now, and it's small in terms of many OEM computers from that time.

So I can't help you this time, sorry.
 
Per, I was under the impression most PS/2s have a jumper (or solder pads) that, when shorted, removes the POST password. Perhaps investigate that?
 
I'm not familiar with PS/2 series computers but as kishy said lots of obsolete computers have a reset jumper to reset the BIOS settings which usually wipes out the BIOS settings (duh) and the BIOS password. Other more obsolete systems you could often get around it by disconnecting the battery and letting the BIOS lose it's settings. Some vendors were smarter and save the info in an EEPROM though or add the dreaded keyboard password which was also EEPROM based. Still, might be worth a shot or try nothing for the password (enter) or "password", etc. Worst case scenario you could possibly hook the drive up to another system and copy the files off that way.
 
kishy said:
Per, I was under the impression most PS/2s have a jumper (or solder pads) that, when shorted, removes the POST password. Perhaps investigate that?
Click to expand...

If you read my post, I wrote that I won't try to reset the CMOS because I need a setup diskette in order to restore it. I don't know if the floppy drive works or not (I've heard the FDD's used in the PS/2's tend to get problems over time).
 
per said:
If you read my post, I wrote that I won't try to reset the CMOS because I need a setup diskette in order to restore it. I don't know if the floppy drive works or not (I've heard the FDD's used in the PS/2's tend to get problems over time).
Click to expand...

lol, valid point.. and this is why kishy and I would be sitting in front of the unit with a blank expression now.

Back on topic, Chrome, out of curiosity why this model/system?
 
I like the way it looks inside and out and I have A Model P70 and love it. Just wanted another PS/2 system I might even consider a Model 50 or 50z too. These were the Tall case versions for vertical mounting of cards. :p And Per I don't expect you to part with your only 386. My P70 is my only 386 too.
 
per -

What I meant to suggest was it resets ONLY the password. That's what I got from wherever I read that originally, I don't know if it's true or not. I'm happy to test on either my 8556 or 8530 (that is, 30 286, not 8086) if they would help.

Edit: PS/2 30 286 HMR, section 1.1.2 Power On Password. According to that the jumper resets only the password, nothing else. Starter diskette only needed if you're adding a password to a machine that doesn't have one. May vary for the Model 70, not sure.

As for the styling, I'll agree. They're pretty elegant without being stupid looking like late 90s systems tended to be.
 
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kishy said:
per -

What I meant to suggest was it resets ONLY the password. That's what I got from wherever I read that originally, I don't know if it's true or not. I'm happy to test on either my 8556 or 8530 (that is, 30 286, not 8086) if they would help.

As for the styling, I'll agree. They're pretty elegant without being stupid looking like late 90s systems tended to be.
Click to expand...

That jumper, well, it's in fact not a jumper in the model 70, but a wire that doesn't lead anywhere. When that wire is manually connected ground, the battery will be cut off, and the CMOS chip storing ALL settings will be reset. Model 70 doesn't use any Dallas RTC chips to store the settings, however, you still need a matching system-disk to restore them.
 
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My model 70 is of the kind "8570-161", introduced 11/06/91 at the price of $4745, taken off the market 23/02/93. I obivously uses MCA32 bus, and has 3 slots (one especially designed for graphics adapters). It got 3 drivebays (two for floppy and one for HDD) where there are present one floppy drive (HD) and one hard drive (160MB) in my unit. It got a 386DX CPU marked as 20MHz (driven by a 40MHz crystal, problably divided down to suitable levels), and there is an empty socket for a 387. My unit got 4MB installed in two memory slots, and there is one memory slot left unused. VGA is buildt into the motherboard, along with a parallel port and a serial port and of course mouse/keyboard ports. The motherboard is the small version (Tezza got a similar system with the large version), where half of it has been replaced with intergrated cirquits, and with one 128KB ROM (27C1000) as BIOS (instead of two 27C512). There are no cards installed, but the rear-cover for the video slot is missing (but that's the only minus as of now).

BTW, that's the most elegant power-supply I ever has seen (it even cools the CPU)!

*Edit*
According to Tezzas PS/2 restoration project, I see that I have to have a referance disk to setup the CMOS to boot it if it's cleared. Tezza also had problems with the floppy drive, but he had a spare one he got working just enough to configure the system. I don't got a spare one, so I literally don't want to risk making it more unusable that it is now.
 
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I'm well aware of the floppy problem. My Model P70 had a bad floppy too. Lukily I had a 2.88 Disk drive laying around from and old PS/2 9557 that had a bad power supply so I saved the floppy and the SCSI Harddrive. :eek:
The 2.88 acts exactly like a 1.44 drive in this system.
 
Chromedome45 said:
I'm well aware of the floppy problem. My Model P70 had a bad floppy too. Lukily I had a 2.88 Disk drive laying around from and old PS/2 9557 that had a bad power supply so I saved the floppy and the SCSI Harddrive. :eek:
The 2.88 acts exactly like a 1.44 drive in this system.
Click to expand...

But, if you write disks in a 2.88 drive, then wouldn't you have problems reading it in a 1.44 drive on a normal computer? Unluckily for me, I don't have a spare of anything PS/2 related.
 
No problems whatsoever. My Core 2 duo main system reads it just fine. My concern is if I get a model 70 the drives appear to have some kind of edge connector. Are they just plugged into the back of the drive like some kind of adpapter? And aren't they also 40 pins instead of 34 pins. Maybe Tez could explain it. :?:
 
Chromedome45 said:
No problems whatsoever. My Core 2 duo main system reads it just fine. My concern is if I get a model 70 the drives appear to have some kind of edge connector. Are they just plugged into the back of the drive like some kind of adpapter? And aren't they also 40 pins instead of 34 pins. Maybe Tez could explain it. :?:
Click to expand...

I'm not expert on these devices but my PS/2 drives come in two types. One was with a edge connector, the other was a 2x row of pins....I can't remember just how many now but it might have been 40. It wasn't the same as a standard 3.5 inch drive anyway.

Tez
 
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