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enter bios settings IBM PS/1 2121 386 sx machine

Roland Huisman

Roland Huisman

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2011
Messages
1,466
Location
The Netherlands
Hello Everyone,

I have a IBM PS/1 2121 386 SX machine but unfortunately
the cmos battery is dead. Very strange after only 20 years ;)

The system gives 161 and 163 error code. After pressing
F1 the system boots from the 80 meg harddisk.

The system thinks the FDD is an 360 model. So 1.44 disks
can not be formatted.

I need to setup the cmos settings but I can not find the IBM tool for it.
I hope the system can read a disk with the tool.

Can anyone help me to get the IBM software?

Regards, Roland
 
Last edited:
On the post screen it should say what key you need to press in order to enter the BIOS. It is usually the "DEL", "CTRL-ALT-ESC" key, of an Fx key. But the BIOS settings won't stay if the battery is dead. You need to replace the battery. Not all of them are removable. If yours is not, you might need to mod it to make it work.
 
@ Orion24

The battery (CR2032) is replaced already. The system gives no bios instructions.
Only to press F1 to boot the system. The time and date retains but gives still errors.
Early IBM machines need a setup disk to set the bios settings. I think this one needs one also.

@ modem7

Yes indeed, I've also found this link. But the links to the software are dead. :-(

I really hope someone can help me to get these tools.

Regards, Roland
 
@ Caluser2000

WoW! you helped me a lot here! Using the searchtool swlib.exe you mentioned I
found the tool for the 2121 machine. A configur.exe file less then 7KB did the trick.

The system is now working normal again. I think I will look a little further
on that website. There is a lot more original software for this machine.

Thanks a lot!

Regards, Roland
 
Hi. I see this post is many years old but I have been searching trying to find an answer to this problem. I also have an old PS/1 with a dead CMOS battery. I replaced the battery but I can’t get the floppy drive to work. I downloaded the configur.exe file to a floppy. Could you tell me exactly what you did to get yours working again?

Thanks!
Norm
 
Hi, I know the question is more than a year old but maybe you have gave up and have not resolved your problem yet.

Y have both models 2011 (286) and 2121 (386). the second one have a standard IDE HDD, so you could remove it and put into a IDE2USB adapter and add configur.exe and customiz.exe files directly to the HDD and run them from there.
here you can download them: https://ps1stuff.wordpress.com/download/downloads-for-type-2121/

Another method I used some years ago on the 2011 model (that have an XT-IDE non standard interface) was to setup an old laptop PC with a serial port end connect it to the PS/1 25pin port via a LAPLINK cable (I built my own based on this pinout). Then you have to install Laplink or FileMaven (I used laplink) on the host PC (laptop) and initiate a remote install that put required files through serial port to the PS/1 PC.

I also used a CF to IDE adapter along with a 1GB compactflash (498MB formatted, the max recognized by the bios) and works quite well, zero latency and fastest disk access, plus no noisy sound!
 
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