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My IBM Model 70

The couple of model 70's I have seen on ebay lately show them booting in the pics, they are going for $145 (at the time I looked) and of course can only go up as the one I am calling out is a regular auction. I ended up spending $45 plus shipping on my PSU which is tested and hopefully that does solve my issue. IF I end up needing a mainboard, I am going to look for one that has the blue lightning upgrade on it. But I actually hope that the PSU is the issue (obviously).
 
Look at sold auctions. The one I sold which booted to the a drive sold for $41. Granted it wasn't the cleanest and no hard drive but it did work. BUt the last ones I have seen have been right around $100.
 
Yeah, I think that right now, it is en-vogue to have a MCA machine and the fact they are getting less ubiquitous than they used to be... but basically the "what the market will bear" sentiment definitely applies. I am just glad that you can catch a break sometimes in the acquisitions... we are not near as crazy in prices as say if you want an Amiga 4000.
 
irishmike said:
Yeah, I think that right now, it is en-vogue to have a MCA machine and the fact they are getting less ubiquitous than they used to be... but basically the "what the market will bear" sentiment definitely applies. I am just glad that you can catch a break sometimes in the acquisitions... we are not near as crazy in prices as say if you want an Amiga 4000.
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Depends on your definition of crazy; I got my Amiga 4000T with a Video Toaster 4000, Octopus cable, flyer, drives, etc in trade for a new Wii, extra controller set, and two games. And the guy threw in an Amiga 1200 with GVP Jaws II accellerator, OS 3.5 CD, and all the books he could find for good measure!

(I'd define him as crazy. Or, judging from his house, just rich and not aware of current market value)

I was serious about the board, however. I've no reason to suspect that these don't work, I've just not taken the time to test them in my Model 70 (I've the version that had the 486 option available, although I don't have that option)
 
That was a nice deal. I don't know that I need a motherboard yet, but the PSU should arrive Thursday and I will be able to see if that is the issue for sure at that time.
 
Well the new PSU has the LED lit all the time, so I think she is in good nick. It does turn out that the mainboard is bad (that is all that is left) so I have a new one on the way from a friend of mine... he pulled it from one of his spares after confirming it still booted up. So we have a known working mainboard coming.

This leads me to my star question. We still do not know if the hard drive is good or not, nor actually if the floppy is good because we have never had it boot that far. I hope that I didn't pay what I did for a VERY GOOD condition case :-/

The question is: Is there some kind of adapter to use a SCSI hard drive instead of the ESDI IBM drives in this system (I supppose a MCA card would be possible, but I don't want to take up one of my 3 slots to do this if there is a plug-in adapter of some kind). I plan to use both my 32 bit slots to use my XGA 2 and ethernet cards. That will leave the 16 bit slot open, and as you all know, if I can find a Soundblaster for the machine, it will go in that slot.

Anyhow, that is the status of the machine at this time.
 
I might have a spare floppy and HD if you are desperate (would have to look). I wouldn't worry too much about the soundblaster just get the SCSI card and you can remove it if the need comes. All of my model 70's use the ESDI drive.
 
The sound card is going to be a hard - and expensive - find. I'd go with a SCSI card. They're easy to find, and they work. Though if you're truly worried about drives, go check out Martin Adams on ebay - he'll usually have the hard drive that you're looking for, and at reasonable prices. On the chance that he doesn't have listed what you need, message him. He's usually pretty good about helping folks out - one of the true "good guys" left in the PS/2 scene.
 
I have some 8 bit sound cards available if your interested let me know. I'll have to look at what kind they are when I get home if your interested.
 
An 8-bit ISA card won't do much for this system, what's needed is MCA. I can vouch for the fact that they're not that common and are quite expensive when they do come up, I'm looking for one as well.
 
Hi Guys: Well of all the embarrassing things. It turns out that the keyboard I was using was confusing the system and that is why it hung. I removed the keyboard just to simplify and she booted. I have a new mainboard inside her and I have a new power supply. Though the original PSU is installed right now, it still doesn't have the green LED on most of the time, though the machine seems to be running normally. I got the reference disk to boot and now I am just waiting for my IBM keyboard to arrive. Hopefully, it boots fine with the real IBM M5.

Sometimes a hunch works out!
 
As long as you got a Model M, you should be fine as it's what would've shipped with the system from the start. On a good note though, a Model M is easy to fix if something happens, easy to clean and can still be used on a modern computer.
 
My PS/2 Model 25 is picky about keyboards too, it wont freeze, but it will display a 301 with several of my PS/2 keyboards, even some later model IBM branded ones (not Model M's).
 
Well My Model 70 is officially functioning now :-D The Type M keyboard worked out and my original PS/2 Mouse even works. Now I am looking for a good 15" XGA2 (IBM Branded, of course) Monitor to complete the system. It is currently connected to an HP monitor I had lying around, which works, but it is not the right look IMO.

Just installed IBM DOS 5.02, WP6.0 DOS, Norton Commander, ProComm Plus for DOS. Waiting for the MCA SCSI card I bought from eBay last week (according to tracking will arrive tomorrow) and then I am off to filling the MCA slots. Got to make sure I have or find the proper Option Disks and then the project will be completed.

Thanks to you all for the help and I may need help finding option disk images if they are not in the archive I have found... I know the XGA2 card disk is out there and I am sure the 3com etherlink III MCA card option disk should be there too, but I don't know about the SCSI card I bought yet.

If it is IBM manufactured, that disk should be on the archive too. BTW: In case you guys wonder about the archive I am talking about, that link is http://http://www.walshcomptech.com/selectpccbbs/
 
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