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Finally got an XT-286!

S

strollin

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
344
Location
N. California, USA
I've been looking for an IBM 5162 XT-286 machine to add to my collection for several years. Every once in awhile one would pop up on Ebay but I would always get outbid since I wasn't willing to mortgage my house for one. Anyway, I saw one last week that was listed at a buy-it-now price of $500. Way too much for me. It wasn't being offered for auction but had a Make Offer button. I made an offer for $100 figuring it would be rejected. Instead it was accepted within 10 minutes! Of course there was the standard Ebay seller BS such as: as-is, no returns, unable to test, etc...

While I was waiting for it to arrive I started thinking that my offer was accepted too quickly so it must have major problems and I figured I was going to have to put some work in it to get it going.

It arrived today and it was packed pretty well. It's pretty clean, has a couple of stickers that need to be removed but otherwise decent looking. It made me nervous to see that the screws for the PS had all been removed and it was just loose in there, I thought the PS must have a problem. It has 640K RAM, 20M hard drive, 1.2M and 720K floppies and a mono display adapter.

Anyway, I hooked it up and tried booting. Of course i had to run setup but once I did that, everything works! Both floppies read/write and format. The C: drive was formatted but had no files on it. I went ahead and installed DOS 3.3 on it.

I haven't done a lot of testing yet but so far I happy to finally have it in my collection.
 
pictures pictures pictures!

I recently picked up a 5170, 5151 monochrome monitor, keyboard and proprinter II, all in original boxes off craigslist.
I only really needed the monitor, but took the whole thing just to give it a good home. I'm pretty sure I can resell the thing in the boxes for better than I paid for it, but it's not going anywhere for awhile.

I am getting a little worried that i've turned a corner from collecting to hording, as I now have 12 machines, all 486 and below.
 
I had over 60 machines and I've only been collecting for about 4 years now. I just got rid of about 30, stripped them to parts and trashed the cases. Almost all of mine were Pentiums though. I wish I had more 286 and below - I have like one 286 (broken), three 8088s (two portable, two not, none very expandable). I don't have a single 8086 I don't believe, but I honestly don't know which of my 808x machines are 8088 and which are 8086 if I did have any. >.>

Point is I lack in XTs and you two are lucky - I don't have a single IBM PC->AT machine, the oldest IBM I have is a PS/2 Model 25 that I can't get working (oh yeah, that's an 8086)..
 
Congrats!

The XT-286 is a weirdy. I have one in my collection, but I'm pretty sure it was assembled from mismatched parts - nothing is right about it including the case. Your offer was reasonable ...

IBM got schizophrenic about some of their machine choices ..

  • XT 286: Let's recycle the case from an XT and put a low end 286 in there instead and make first edition PC AT owners feel bad!
  • PS/2 Model 25: Let's go backwards now and release a 10 Mhz 8086 machine with an optional 20MB hard drive when everybody else is selling 80286 based systems! Oh, and it has a PC bus instead of MCA even though it is a PS/2.
 
Nice grab! I've been looking for an XT-286 case for a long time...a friend from the Obsolete Computer Helpline sent me one that had been stuffed into an AT case years ago. I've got the original IBM manuals and disks for it, and it's all original XT-286 hardware, but in a huge AT case.

I was always confused by the PS/2 Model 25, especially the All-in-One for the educational market. You've got to love those proprietary hard drives. Of course, for an 8086 based machine, they /are/ fairly fast.
 
I have a working XT-286 motherboard I got awhile back and am looking for a nice
clean XT case to build my own. I have all the parts, just no case :)
 
These pics are from the Ebay auction. I haven't gotten around to taking any yet.

xt286_front.JPG


xt286_bck.JPG


xt286_top.JPG


xt286_top2.JPG
 
glitch said:
Nice grab! I've been looking for an XT-286 case for a long time...a friend from the Obsolete Computer Helpline sent me one that had been stuffed into an AT case years ago. I've got the original IBM manuals and disks for it, and it's all original XT-286 hardware, but in a huge AT case.

I was always confused by the PS/2 Model 25, especially the All-in-One for the educational market. You've got to love those proprietary hard drives. Of course, for an 8086 based machine, they /are/ fairly fast.
Click to expand...

Obsolete Computer Helpline, I haven't heard frmo them in a while now. I wonder how Tom is doing?

Strollin, looks like you got a pretty nice score, that's a nice clean one inside and out. My 286 that I have is a weird hybrid something, with an added box on it for what I think are for terminals. Neat, but I haven't had a chance to reallly experiment with it.

Score for you!
 
XT-286 PCs show up several times a year - its just a matter of patience.
I bought one off eBay last year from a US seller - can't remember price but it was fairly cheap.
Airfreight to Australia was a much bigger cost :(
My XT-286 arrived in good shape and seems to be fairly original - single 1.2Mb FDD and 20Mb HDD.
Obtaining a GTO took more patience - they do seem to be rare.
You may be interested in some info re XT-286 keyboard:
I believe one correct part# is 1390120 - but there may also be others.
Look for silver IBM logo with black text plus removable cable with AT*connector
Additional comment; 1390120 differ from 1390131 IBM keyboards in that they do*NOT have the three LEDs in upper-right position for Num Lock, Caps Lock, Scroll Lock.
Cheers.
 
richo132 said:
... You may be interested in some info re XT-286 keyboard:
I believe one correct part# is 1390120 - but there may also be others.
Look for silver IBM logo with black text plus removable cable with AT*connector
Additional comment; 1390120 differ from 1390131 IBM keyboards in that they do*NOT have the three LEDs in upper-right position for Num Lock, Caps Lock, Scroll Lock.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info but I actually have a keyboard from an XT-286, got it with the machine I bought in 1986. Somewhere along the way I sold or gave the machine away (I regret having done that) but I kept the keyboard. That keyboard has been in use daily since then and is my favorite keyboard.
 
Doesnt the XT286 have a battery pack in the slot on the back ?

If so watch out for those because they can leak directly onto the MB.
 
strollin said:
I checked the battery and it looks OK, no leakage but I'm not sure it will hold a charge. I plan to get a new battery.
Click to expand...

It should be a standard 4.5V alkaline pack, which isn't rechargeable. If it's dead, a better alternative to the proprietary and often expensive 4.5V packs is to purchase a 3-cell AAA holder and splice its leads to the original battery pack's leads. It's a lot easier to find AAA batteries than the specialized 4.5V packs. I did this for both my IBM AT and the XT-286.
 
strollin said:
I checked the battery and it looks OK, no leakage but I'm not sure it will hold a charge. I plan to get a new battery.
Click to expand...

On my IBM AT I used one of those four cell AA holders with long leads, and some velcro to
attach it to the outside rear of the case. This way if the batteries ever leak they won't
get acid on the motherboard.
 
richo132 said:
XT-286 PCs show up several times a year - its just a matter of patience.
I bought one off eBay last year from a US seller - can't remember price but it was fairly cheap.
Airfreight to Australia was a much bigger cost :(
My XT-286 arrived in good shape and seems to be fairly original - single 1.2Mb FDD and 20Mb HDD.
Obtaining a GTO took more patience - they do seem to be rare.
You may be interested in some info re XT-286 keyboard:
I believe one correct part# is 1390120 - but there may also be others.
Look for silver IBM logo with black text plus removable cable with AT*connector
Additional comment; 1390120 differ from 1390131 IBM keyboards in that they do*NOT have the three LEDs in upper-right position for Num Lock, Caps Lock, Scroll Lock.
Cheers.
Click to expand...

I have a Model M that has all of those characteristics. I assume that that's too new to be an XT-286 keyboard, though?
 
That takes me back...

That takes me back...

Heh. I remember, back when I was a kid, having a persistent (though always friendly) ongoing argument with my cousin's best friend ever since he had told me that his mom had an XT286. I kept telling him there was no such beast. If it's got an 80286 processor, then it's an AT, pure and simple. Or so I was convinced. He disagreed.

It wasn't until recently, when some Googling revealed to me that an 80286 CPU alone does not an AT make, and that there were indeed XT286 machines (albeit never from IBM, I think?). I stand corrected.

Oh well, I can't always be right. :cool:
 
One question that comes to my mind is, was the IBM XT-286 the world's first "Baby AT" system, or did aftermarket manufacturers already come up with a 286 motherboard designed to fit into an XT-type case?
 
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