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IBM 5155 Questions

W

WMH

Experienced Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2011
Messages
425
Location
Florida
Hi everyone!

After seeing Gib's IBM 5155, I became interested in the system and am looking to possibly purchase one. I love MS-DOS and would be very happy to have an earlier DOS system.

However, I looked on eBay, and the IBM 5155's there were VERY expensive (see here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-XT-Port...ptops_Nov05&hash=item460531d12c#ht_500wt_1156 and here http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-XT-5155..._Mainframes&hash=item231e8c601d#ht_500wt_1287.) These systems are advertised as rare; I never thought the 5155 to be rare, but maybe I'm wrong. Gib said he picked his up for $80, which is a good price for me.

As far as prices go, I only know the Apple II series.

What's a reasonable price for a working 5155 system with power supply and MS-DOS boot disk?

Also, I have quite a few 5.25" floppy disks that came with my Apple IIc. If I do indeed purchase a 5155, how can I format these disks for it?

Like this?
FORMAT B:
SYS B:

Thanks for your time,
WMH
 
Look on craigslist.....you'll find a better deal there.
Sometimes the sellers are willing to ship the items or you might get lucky and find
one close by. Or possibly you may know someone close to where one is located
that could pickup/ship for you. Either way, be patient it might take some time to
find the right deal.

Try a google search on :

site:craigslist.org IBM 5155
 
Like any computer, it'll vary quite a bit depending on what the seller is hoping it's work and depending on functionality/condition. You might also try other creative searches like "ibm luggable" or "ibm portable" (portable will unfortunately probably get lots of newer stuff). It depends if the seller really pays attention to the model number.
 
Alright, will do.

Thanks for the suggestions!

By the way, if you're viewing this and have a 5155 you may want to get rid of, see my thread "Looking for IBM 5155" in Vintage Computer Items Wanted.
 
Oh, I still have a couple questions.

Can any 5.25" floppy disk be formatted from MS-DOS like so?

FORMAT B:
SYS B:

And here's a question I'm throwing in: can the IBM 5155 access the Internet via an Ethernet card and the Lynx browser?

Thanks again,
WMH
 
As long as it's soft-sectored and the right density/number of sides, I've never had a problem formatting floppies from other systems on a PC, or vice-versa.
 
Alright, thanks commodorejohn.

That's what I thought, but I'd hate to waste my 5.25" disks for no reason.
 
WMH said:
Oh, I still have a couple questions.

Can any 5.25" floppy disk be formatted from MS-DOS like so?

FORMAT B:
SYS B:
Click to expand...

You don't need the second line. That is for transferring system files to make a disk bootable. As you show, the SYS command can work independently, but if you are formatting and making the disk bootable at the same time you might as well just type:
FORMAT B: /S
As with most DOS programs you can type "progname /?" to get the syntax and switches.

And here's a question I'm throwing in: can the IBM 5155 access the Internet via an Ethernet card and the Lynx browser?
Click to expand...

I haven't seen a port of Lynx which will run on an 8088. The one I'm running takes up almost 1.8MB so it won't fit on a 360 floppy. lol

You can put a network card in it and run FTP, Telnet, etc. Another way is to use PPP and connect it to the net through a modern machine running pppd. Check out Mike B's mTCP - you won't be disappointed.

Edit:
That's what I thought, but I'd hate to waste my 5.25" disks for no reason.
Click to expand...
There's no waste even possible. You can read and write the disks very many times. :)
 
Alright, thanks!

I don't know why I forgot the /S switch in FORMAT, I feel kind of dumb now. :)

I haven't noticed the PROGNAME command before (maybe I missed it,) is it a PC-DOS only command?

The fact that the machine can run Telnet makes me happy, it's my favorite protocol! :)

Is setting up a network connection in DOS hard, or can I do it through a driver in config.sys?
 
WMH said:
I haven't noticed the PROGNAME command before (maybe I missed it,) is it a PC-DOS only command?
Click to expand...

Hehe, it's my short form for "program name", meaning you type the name of the program. You then follow that by what is called a "switch". In DOS a switch is usually preceded by a "/", but also sometimes a "-" like in *nix. However MS uses the "/" so you type the name of the program, then a space, then "/?" and it will return information on the program whose name you typed.
 
Right. What would we do without switches? :)

Now I feel really dumb. :) I've just usually seen it expressed like (program) /?

Thanks again.
 
Another option for buying a 5155 for a good price, would be to find one that's not working and fix it. I bought one on Ebay a while back for 50 bucks shipped. The seller said it wasn't working, so I thought worse case I could use it for parts. The problem keeping it from powering on turned out to be a shorted capacitor on the video card. It was very easy to find and fix. I ended up trading it to another member here. So look for one that doesn't work, but is in good physical shape. There are plenty of folks here who can help with the technical questions. Probably the most dificult repair would be the monitor, so steer clear of one that has a broken monitor, unless you plan to salvage the other parts.

Also, I've run Bobcat on a 5155 with a hard drive to access the internet. It was very slow and most web pages are to large for the limited memory. Also, older versions of Arachne will run, but is even slower than Bobcat. I don't think you can do much useful internet surfing on an 8088.
 
ibmapc said:
Another option for buying a 5155 for a good price, would be to find one that's not working and fix it. I bought one on Ebay a while back for 50 bucks shipped. The seller said it wasn't working, so I thought worse case I could use it for parts. The problem keeping it from powering on turned out to be a shorted capacitor on the video card. It was very easy to find and fix. I ended up trading it to another member here. So look for one that doesn't work, but is in good physical shape. There are plenty of folks here who can help with the technical questions. Probably the most dificult repair would be the monitor, so steer clear of one that has a broken monitor, unless you plan to salvage the other parts.

Also, I've run Bobcat on a 5155 with a hard drive to access the internet. It was very slow and most web pages are to large for the limited memory. Also, older versions of Arachne will run, but is even slower than Bobcat. I don't think you can do much useful internet surfing on an 8088.
Click to expand...

Good suggestion, but I'm somewhat of a fail at fixing small electronic components; for some reason, I just never can get it right.

I assumed that it would be slow browsing the web, but it's always been one of my dreams to get an IBM machine running MS-DOS and use it to do normal tasks like browsing the web and printing documents.
 
GE also did a rebranding thats black and uses the 3 1/4 floppies with options for a hdd that was used in the industrial world if u look around u prolly rescue one of those pupies and may even find a 5155 in the process.
 
Hey WMH, here's more detail about my 5155 than you probably want, but just in case...

Although I was an early Apple II user back in the 80's, I needed a PC for work, so I picked up a 5155. Turned out I really liked it. Can't remember why I let it go. I also sold my 1955 Chevy Belair convertible after college, so obviously I have no idea about classics I should hang on to.

Now that I'm retired, I've been looking for a 5155 to go with all the Apples from that era that I've already re-acquired. Found one on the Dallas Craigslist. My brother lives in the area and picked it up. It was listed for $100, but when the seller demo'd it, it wouldn't boot, so he lowered the price to $80. It cost another $80 to FedEx it to me in Oregon. I cleaned the drives and one of them works now, but I'm replacing the other with a 1.44 that will run off of a replacement controller with 2MX software.

There's a Youtube that shows a 5155 connected to the internet, sort of. Looks like a painful experience for the computer and the user. I use it for something it's really good at -- word processing.
 
Gib said:
Hey WMH, here's more detail about my 5155 than you probably want, but just in case...

Although I was an early Apple II user back in the 80's, I needed a PC for work, so I picked up a 5155. Turned out I really liked it. Can't remember why I let it go. I also sold my 1955 Chevy Belair convertible after college, so obviously I have no idea about classics I should hang on to.

Now that I'm retired, I've been looking for a 5155 to go with all the Apples from that era that I've already re-acquired. Found one on the Dallas Craigslist. My brother lives in the area and picked it up. It was listed for $100, but when the seller demo'd it, it wouldn't boot, so he lowered the price to $80. It cost another $80 to FedEx it to me in Oregon. I cleaned the drives and one of them works now, but I'm replacing the other with a 1.44 that will run off of a replacement controller with 2MX software.

There's a Youtube that shows a 5155 connected to the internet, sort of. Looks like a painful experience for the computer and the user. I use it for something it's really good at -- word processing.
Click to expand...

No, information is always great! So the seller planned to sell what he thought was a working system for $100? That's still reasonable, if I can find one.

I saw that video, too. May be a painful experience, but I would love to get the following prompt through Telnet on a system that old:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\User>

I don't know, just a strange fascination of mine. :)

Oh, and I could surf some of the few remaining BBS's out there, just for fun.
 
WMH said:
Interesting, 1ajs. Thanks.

I'll look into that.
Click to expand...

good luck

theres a 5155 for 149 atm on ebay

also the ge's pop up for 100 bucks once and a while on ebay and the one listed for 450 is worth that cause of the options it has installedhard drive scsi controllors and such and they had about 10 of them back in jan listed and have been slowly selling including the ones they listed for 1000 bucks.. so yea
 
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