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Orange blur on IBM 5155

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Pekopome

Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
42
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Hey guys. Just got a IBM 5155 in mint condition for 100USD (in Denmark). I powers up and try to boot from the A: floppy. Only (big) problem is the monitor - it's blank. If I turn the contrast and brightnes-dials all the way up I get a orange blur as you can se in the picture. So I guess it rules out problems with the PSU?

Do any of you have an idea of what's wrong here? Really hope to get this old baby up and running:)
 

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processor is the first thing I would check. PSU is at least good enough to power the monitor. Also, remove all cards from inside see what happens when you boot. Could be a bad card.
 
I'm with billdeg. That display pattern you're seeing with the contrast all the way up? That's the exact same display pattern you would find on a 5150 mono monitor with the contrast all the way up. I think your monitor is fine. Start at the basics - pull all the cards, see where you're at. Then insure all socketed chips are firmly seated (push down on 'em until they crunch). If that doesn't bring up some form of legible display, start swapping out socketed chips, cpu first (it's usually easiest), then start diagnosing the ram chips.
 
You said try to boot, so it doesnt boot? Or does it look like it it reading the floppy and no screen activity?

I would first attach a CGA monitor to verify the CGA card is working - if it is reading the floppy during boot.

Is that the A: drive light on?
 
Ok guys. Mystery solved. It turns out there is a compact (and very silent) hard drive installed in ISA slot #0. I guess the controller and every thing is build right into the card. There is not even a power cable connected to the card?! But I can hear that it boots up on the harddrive. Have you ever seen a 5155 system with two floppy drives and an internal flat ISA-hard drive? (Picture attached)

In ISA #1 there is a VEGA-card installed. But the internal monitor is not connected to any thing. So I guess the previous owner, used a external monitor. As you can see there is quite a bit of COAX-ports on the VEGA-card. But didn't work with my PAL Bravia TV. I guess I have to buy an original CGA IBM 5155 to get the internal monitor to work. Or can it some how be connected with the card anyway?

foto 1.jpg

foto 2.jpg
 
That Video-7 Vega card is an EGA/CGA card. I have one just like it. I believe that Modem7 hosts the manual for the card at his site.

As for how the original monitor integrated to the 5155, I don't know. I do know that if you need them, I have the 5155/5160 Tech Manual and 5155 Guide to Operations on my site, and these will at least tell you how things originally connected before the previous owner upgraded the Video card. Modem7 also has information at his site that you might find useful.

As for the hard drive, that's a HardCard of some model. They were relatively common at this time period as upgrades for IBM's 5155 and the Compaq Portables of the day. IIRC, this pulls voltage to power the controller and hard drive directly from the ISA slot, though it might also have an auxilliary molex power connector (I've only ever seen one, and don't recall specifics)
 
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Pekopome said:
Ok guys. Mystery solved. It turns out there is a compact (and very silent) hard drive installed in ISA slot #0. I guess the controller and every thing is build right into the card. There is not even a power cable connected to the card?! But I can hear that it boots up on the harddrive. Have you ever seen a 5155 system with two floppy drives and an internal flat ISA-hard drive? (Picture attached)

In ISA #1 there is a VEGA-card installed. But the internal monitor is not connected to any thing. So I guess the previous owner, used a external monitor. As you can see there is quite a bit of COAX-ports on the VEGA-card. But didn't work with my PAL Bravia TV. I guess I have to buy an original CGA IBM 5155 to get the internal monitor to work. Or can it some how be connected with the card anyway?
Click to expand...

That looks like the VEGA Deluxe card. It does not match exactly the Stason or Microhouse data sheets for the VEGA Deluxe..

You will have to make sure the switch 2 is set up for mono according to the attached Microhouse pdf.

The Stason site is pretty much the same but you might want to look at it and compare data sheets.

Note that neither data sheet exactly matches that card but they are the closest I could find.

There is an internal connector on the IBM CGA card that the 5155 monitor attaches to. Don't know if you can adapt the 5155 to that card.
 
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Here are a couple pics from my 5155. The monitor is the yellow/black wires that attach to P1 on the CGA card.
This is the side view of the card

It looks like when the hard disk was installed in your 5155 that maybe it took up the space for the CGA card and the CGA card no longer fit?
Top view for reference
 
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Great Russ. The specs was a great help. I hooked my MD Monitor for my 5170 to the VEGA card and adjusted the pins. Worked after a few configurations as you can see. But I really wanna use the build in monitor. Do any of you wanna sell me an IBM CGA card or trade it in with the VEGA card? :)

As far as I can see there is no way the VEGA-card can work with the build in monitor. It uses a composite signal from the CGA card. There should be room in the computer since the ISA hard drive is on the other side.

foto.jpg
 
I was going to reference the pictures from my web site but Stone beat me to it. I keep intending on documenting step by step how to disassemble and re-assemble a 5155, a to-do for me. But anyway...

I would test the replacement card it in a 5155 first, to see if it really works.
I have never seen a non-IBM alternative video card in a 5155 - does not mean it's not possible, but with that internal monitor I'd want to test it first before shipping to Copenhagen. You need to check the schematic of the card to see how the pins are mapped and compare with the IBM CGA "Color Graphics" card. This is the same card you find in the IBM PC/XT. Not a big deal, but why not know for sure. You want to test both the internal monitor and an external CGA monitor to see if you get color on the external monitor.

Here is a pic of the top of the original video card
http://vintagecomputer.net/ibm/5155/ibm5155_controllers-cga_AST-sixpak.jpg
 
You're welcome to stop by. I gave two 5155's away, I only have the one left for personal use. I put a 3.5 HD diskette drive in mine so I could use this as a portable disk converter.

For the 5155, the original cards that came with the minimum config (disk drive and video card):
http://vintagecomputer.net/ibm/5155/ibm5155_controllers_minimum_removed.jpg

Here is a memory card (rare) that you could have purchased as an add-on
http://vintagecomputer.net/ibm/5155/ibm_256KB_memory_card_6407740.jpg

and the printer card
http://vintagecomputer.net/ibm/5155/ibm_parallel_card_1501987.JPG

Note the two above are "short", so that you could fit them in the 5155.

Orig card config:
http://vintagecomputer.net/ibm/5155/ibm5155_controllers-top-orig.jpg
 
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