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IBM 5150 drive questions

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kingchops

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I've been doing a bit of reading about attaching a 3.5", 1.44 floppy to an IBM 5150, using the 5150's standard floppy controller. From what I've read it is possible but it will only work at 720K. Is this right?

Also, what about doing the opposite, my 5150 has the dual Tandon 5.25", 360k drives, can these be attached to a modern pc?

On another note, I've also looked into attaching an RLL hd to the 5150 but I read somewhere that the 63 watt power supply is not enough to power a hd, can anyone confirm?
 
Your floppy controller is low density, so it will only work with low density drives. There's ways to do different things, read this page for a lot of useful info about your PC.

You can use the 360k drives on modern pc, but don't expect a good behavior, modern pcs usually lacks a good floppy interface.

What is your 5150 ROM BIOS rev?
 
kingchops said:
I've been doing a bit of reading about attaching a 3.5", 1.44 floppy to an IBM 5150, using the 5150's standard floppy controller. From what I've read it is possible but it will only work at 720K. Is this right?
Click to expand...
What is possible varies from machine to machine, and BIOS to BIOS.

For example, on an IBM 5160 (all BIOS versions, from memory), connecting a 1.44M drive up to the IBM 5.25" card, results in the ability to both read and write 720K diskettes.

However, connecting a 1.44M drive up to a first model 5170 results in the ability read a 720K diskette, but not write. The use of DRIVER.SYS, etc. does not change that.

For an IBM 5150, someone would need to try it. I presume that you have the third (and final) BIOS revision in your 5150.

kingchops said:
Also, what about doing the opposite, my 5150 has the dual Tandon 5.25", 360k drives, can these be attached to a modern pc?
Click to expand...
The problem is modern operating systems. For example, my modern desktop (a few years old) surprisingly has BIOS support for 360K drives. I can boot from a 360K sized DOS boot floppy, and via DOS, read/write files on that floppy. However, if I then boot my computer into Windows XP, XP doesn't play ball.

kingchops said:
On another note, I've also looked into attaching an RLL hd to the 5150 but I read somewhere that the 63 watt power supply is not enough to power a hd, can anyone confirm?
Click to expand...
In my opinion, it is a try-it-and-see thing, but I think that most people find that a more powerful power supply is required.
 
63 watts is a bit underrated. If you look at your hard drive, it should have ratings on it somewhere, or you can look it up online. The 63-watt power supply boils down to about 7A at 5V, and 2A at 12V. Using less at 5V doesn't mean you can use more at 12V.
Here's a handy little table that tells you about what the mobo and some cards draw.
http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/5150/5150_power.htm
So you see, I won't say it's impossible, but it depends on your RLL drive's specs, and you'll certainly give the PSU a workout.
patscc
 
modem7 said:
For an IBM 5150, someone would need to try it. I presume that you have the third (and final) BIOS revision in your 5150.
Click to expand...
In my 5150 (third BIOS revision), I connected a 1.44M drive up to the standard IBM supplied 5.25" floppy controller.
I used a standard floppy cable (see [here]) in reverse to how the cable is normally used.

I was able to boot from a 720K boot diskette, of IBM DOS 3.3

Whether I booted from the 720K diskette or from C:, I had no trouble reading/writing over the entire surface of the 720K diskette.
 
lucasdaytona said:
Aust Domains is Australia's Favourite 'one-stop' internet domain name registrar.
Click to expand...
I think that's a typo. People get Austria and Australia confused all the time (even US presidents).

lucasdaytona said:
It's good to know that Zorro retired from saving villages, and now is working with vintage computers.;)
Click to expand...
Now that he's helping people in binary distress, perhaps he should rename himself to Zero.
 
After a very long research in earlier posts, I discovered who is Zero. But don't worry unknown hero, your secret is safe with me!
 
lucasdaytona said:
Your floppy controller is low density, so it will only work with low density drives. There's ways to do different things, read this page for a lot of useful info about your PC.

You can use the 360k drives on modern pc, but don't expect a good behavior, modern pcs usually lacks a good floppy interface.

What is your 5150 ROM BIOS rev?
Click to expand...

Not sure about the BIOS rev, I'll check when I have the cover off and post. I know it's dated 1983 and has the "B" on the back.
 
modem7 said:
What is possible varies from machine to machine, and BIOS to BIOS.

For example, on an IBM 5160 (all BIOS versions, from memory), connecting a 1.44M drive up to the IBM 5.25" card, results in the ability to both read and write 720K diskettes.

However, connecting a 1.44M drive up to a first model 5170 results in the ability read a 720K diskette, but not write. The use of DRIVER.SYS, etc. does not change that.

For an IBM 5150, someone would need to try it. I presume that you have the third (and final) BIOS revision in your 5150.


The problem is modern operating systems. For example, my modern desktop (a few years old) surprisingly has BIOS support for 360K drives. I can boot from a 360K sized DOS boot floppy, and via DOS, read/write files on that floppy. However, if I then boot my computer into Windows XP, XP doesn't play ball.


In my opinion, it is a try-it-and-see thing, but I think that most people find that a more powerful power supply is required.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that pretty much confirms what I've read. I'm surprised the power supply can power the pc and monitor ok but struggles with the HD.
 
Last edited:
patscc said:
63 watts is a bit underrated. If you look at your hard drive, it should have ratings on it somewhere, or you can look it up online. The 63-watt power supply boils down to about 7A at 5V, and 2A at 12V. Using less at 5V doesn't mean you can use more at 12V.
Here's a handy little table that tells you about what the mobo and some cards draw.
http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/5150/5150_power.htm
So you see, I won't say it's impossible, but it depends on your RLL drive's specs, and you'll certainly give the PSU a workout.
patscc
Click to expand...

Thanks, I don't have a HD for it yet but I was toying with the idea of adding one. Would be good but I don't really want to replace the power supply as I'm in Australia and finding a 240v model is a pain. Plus I think it's kind of good to try and keep it original.
 
modem7 said:
In my 5150 (third BIOS revision), I connected a 1.44M drive up to the standard IBM supplied 5.25" floppy controller.
I used a standard floppy cable (see [here]) in reverse to how the cable is normally used.

I was able to boot from a 720K boot diskette, of IBM DOS 3.3

Whether I booted from the 720K diskette or from C:, I had no trouble reading/writing over the entire surface of the 720K diskette.
Click to expand...

That's good to know about the cable because I ordered a cable from flebay with the card connectors at the floppy end but was wondering whether it would work by using it in reverse. Good to hear it can be done.
 
kingchops said:
Thanks, I don't have a HD for it yet but I was toying with the idea of adding one. Would be good but I don't really want to replace the power supply as I'm in Australia and finding a 240v model is a pain. Plus I think it's kind of good to try and keep it original.
Click to expand...
A compromise would be the use of an XT-IDE card or XT-CF card (requirement: third revision of 5150 BIOS)
 
kingchops said:
Yeah, that pretty much confirms what I've read. I'm surprised the power supply can power the pc and monitor ok but struggles with the HD.
Click to expand...

I'm not 100% sure about the 5150 power supply, but usually the power for the monitor it's only an extension of a wire, sometimes there's a fuse, but it isn't the power supply that "provides" the power, it only provides the power outlet.

kingchops said:
Thanks, I don't have a HD for it yet but I was toying with the idea of adding one. Would be good but I don't really want to replace the power supply as I'm in Australia and finding a 240v model is a pain. Plus I think it's kind of good to try and keep it original.
Click to expand...

Ask for European power supply, it's usually 240V, and there's a lot of members here from europe. And the XT-IDE is a really good choice.
 
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