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ibm ps/2 Model 25 color system

leaknoil

Experienced Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2008
Messages
425
Location
Central California
A good friend of mine passed away recently and I was just thinking it would be fun to relive the hours we spent in front of his model 25 taking turns playing Ultima when we were a whole lot younger. If anyone has a system they could sell cheap or for shipping please drop me a line. It would be nice to have the right keyboard and mouse but, not that important. Has to be the color model 25 though. That's what he had. Bought the damn thing from Computer Land for a fortune when there were much better choices to buy at the time. He never listened to me.

Located on the west coast of the US.
 
Man, too bad that you weren't looking for these a little earlier. Three nice-looking color Model 25's just closed out on ebay at $21/17/26, respectively...

They do crop up from time to time on ebay with auction-style listings rather than high BIN's, but you have to be patient. In the meantime, hopefully someone will come up with one for you here. They're nice machines
 
Man, too bad that you weren't looking for these a little earlier. Three nice-looking color Model 25's just closed out on ebay at $21/17/26, respectively...

They do crop up from time to time on ebay with auction-style listings rather than high BIN's, but you have to be patient. In the meantime, hopefully someone will come up with one for you here. They're nice machines

I actually saw those but, it looked like they didn't have hard drives. The auction also made me nervous. They used the same single blurry picture for all three and same exact description. I suppose they all could have the exact same rust on the back but, it was odd. The picture wasn't even with it turned on. I suspect I wasn't alone in being nervous about the auction and it is probably why they went so cheap.
 
Nah - they went for cheap because these models aren't very popular. These same 3 systems didn't get any bids when they were listed a few weeks back - I posted about them here hoping to get some interest generated. They started at $49.95 at that point, still not overly bad compared to what most sellers try to get out of them, and if the seller stuck to the $25 flat-rate shipping, you'd end up with the item for essentially the cost of shipping.

I honestly don't think that the rust was really a factor. The units I've seen, they were usually missing something on the bottom, and underneath was just a flat, metal plate. Mine has some slight surface rust on it. I haven't delved into the old product/service manuals to see exactly what was supposed to go there (if anything), as this plate was not part of the arm that could be pulled out to raise the angle on the system.

Also, hard drive or no, don't let that deter you. From my understanding, the hard drives in the Model 25 and 30 (not 30-286) were proprietary to those models and are pretty rare these days. Expect to pay big bucks for working drives, and slightly less big bucks for untested, likely-dead drives. To my mind, there's 2 8-bit slots in the Model 25; one for a Sound Blaster CT1350B and the other for an XT-IDE with an on-board CF. Problem solved!

Of course if you wanted to be more authentic, get an old 8-bit SCSI card and toss in a SCSI drive for those nice mechanical drive sounds :)

Also.. if you get one and need parts, PM me. I've two extra planars and daughtercards and stuff. Though I guess I should test them one of these days...
 
I think I've got a couple of those drives. They've been sitting on a shelf for about 20 years 'cause I don't have a PS2 to put them in and they're not going to fit anything else. Model # WDI-325Q... is that one of them? Is there any way to test it without a PS2?
 
...From my understanding, the hard drives in the Model 25 and 30 (not 30-286) were proprietary to those models and are pretty rare these days...

The 8086 and 286-based versions of the Model 25 and 30's use the same planar HDD interface. There are 20, 30, and 45Mb versions of the drives, the smallest being most common and able to run from all the models with that interface. When IBM reached the 25SX (with no comparable Model 30 equivalent), it is a standard IDE interface.

Model 25's at the 8086 level were released as (720Kb) single diskette, dual diskette, and single diskette with HDD. Some had a small MFM controller in one slot to run the 3-1/2" drive, not using the planar interface. They could also interchangeably be grayscale or color MCGA. All Model 25's after the 8086-based units were always color screens, with a 1.44Mb diskette drive, and a hard drive.
 
"I think I've got a couple of those drives."

I have a PS/2 25 that has one bad floppy, and a second empty bay.

oxo What's your thoughts on putting my computer with the dying floppy, with your drives?



~Paul

Also, I was bidding on one of those PS/2's, but I half let it go willingly, and half unwillingly.
 
Here's another one... this one is uber-complete, and includes the highly sought-after IBM Space-Saver keyboard.

$70 current bid, ~$50 ship. Also includes external floppy, and is shown working in all aspects. Except for perhaps hard drive (he doesn't address that, but does show it running Lotus 123, etc, presumably from the HD)
 
I have some 8086 model 30s. You can take one for free if you like. If I am not mistaken they are pretty much the same as the model 30 just without the built in monitor (most LCD monitors work fine with them). Just let me know if you are interested.
 
Here's another one... this one is uber-complete, and includes the highly sought-after IBM Space-Saver keyboard.

$70 current bid, ~$50 ship. Also includes external floppy, and is shown working in all aspects. Except for perhaps hard drive (he doesn't address that, but does show it running Lotus 123, etc, presumably from the HD)

There's no hard disk in the system, if you notice on the diagnostic inventory it doesn't list one, and the tell-tale sign from the front panel, the right panel does not have the indiciator access light/hole.
I do have a color unit with the hard disk installed, I'd rather not part with it, but will for the right price. It does not have the keyboard and I feel that the auction above is a STEAL if you can get, the space saver keyboard alone is worth megabucks.
 
There's no hard disk in the system, if you notice on the diagnostic inventory it doesn't list one, and the tell-tale sign from the front panel, the right panel does not have the indiciator access light/hole.
I do have a color unit with the hard disk installed, I'd rather not part with it, but will for the right price. It does not have the keyboard and I feel that the auction above is a STEAL if you can get, the space saver keyboard alone is worth megabucks.

Correct, the 8525-004 sub-model does not have a stock hard drive (the '004' notation is for a color CRT, with a Space-Saver keyboard, so at least the auction sounds mostly all-original). The external 5-1/4" floppy drive is not original nor even IBM, but there were some after-market kits that tied into the 'B:' drive connection. It might be a higher value for that too.
 
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