Going through my PCs....

[SpidersWeb]

So with the whole "network the vintage room" thing, I need to open up my XT's and a few AT's to slide in network cards.
In the process I'm sorting out anything they needed fixed - and taking a few (albeit not great) pictures along the way.

LOGI-88
NEC V20 @ 8Mhz
8087-2 @ 8Mhz
Goal of this machine was to have all the fancy features - without using a 16 bit card - I failed - the switch block on my 8 bit VGA/EGA/CGA card borke, so until I fix it, we've got a Realtek 512KB VGA card. The V20 made finding a card rather easy, almost all of the cards I fitted booted up fine.

Cool notes: white motherboard, case I used reminds me of moustaches and cars with popup lights, Quickshot Sound Machine (SB 2.0), Microsoft InPort (cool kids use bus mice), 20Mb NEC D5126, and now a Novell NE1000.

 

[SpidersWeb]

IPC AT
80286 - 8Mhz
640KB (alternatively I can have 512K conventional and 512K XMS if desired)
ST-238 + RLL (thanks Stone)
Galant SC-6000 sound card
Dual Teac's - 1.2 and 360.
Notes: 1.2M lifts the heads at idle which I thought was pretty neat. Motherboard uses two coin CR2032 coin batteries stacked on top of each other - much better than those pesky barrel batteries. For some reason it appears I've taken the ROM images and written them to new EPROMs - I don't remember doing that. IPC stands for "Intelligent Personal Computer", seems it was a brand here in the mid-late 80's. This is marked as the IPC TURBO AT(PRO). I also have an IPC XT case, but the previous owner thought so much of it, they replaced the motherboard.

Dusty, but I didn't feel like polishing every surface

 

[SpidersWeb]

IBM AT Fake
This was a home made special. I was unable to aquire an AT locally or afford the shipping from the US. I purchased them motherboard at quite a price - it's an 8Mhz 512K IBM original. The floppy drive I found by chance locally. The case I did find locally too - it had 5170 badges, but turned out to not be a 5170 case.

It takes an XT PSU, and has a third drive bay, and a mismatched control panel. The issue with the power supply was big, because the motherboard was also and requires it sits under the PSU. An IBM AT power supply has this notch to allow the motherboard to slide underneath but the fan and connector placements don't match the rear of the case.

The solution: remove an area from a blown XT power supply, and fit a smaller AT or ATX power supply board inside. This worked but the cooling system now had a big hole in it! To get around this I added a second fan that directly blows exhaust out of the unit - this not only ensures air is forced out but also means that I'm getting air from the top of the case AND the motherboard area which is usually insulated by a large pile of cabling.

Add ons:
- SCSI Syquest SQ555 44Mb removable cartridge running off an Adaptec SCSI controller
- ESDI Miniscribe 320Mb (I didn't have a big SCSI brick, so ESDI will do!)
- AST RAMVantage - 2MB
- Sound Card (can't remember model)
- VGA (can't remember model)
- GeniusLAN 16 bit network card

It is now used primarily as my Netware Lite server (files and printer) - but also works as a workstation if required.

 

[SpidersWeb]

IBM PC XT 256KB
This is just a typical 256KB XT with the usual upgrades. Rust on the case comes from around a decade of being in someones garage. Despite it's age, the ST412 still booted up in to the software used by a large insurance company when it was new. Still not a single new bad sector.

Upgrades:
- AST SixPakPlus with 384KB
- Novell NE1000 network adapter
- IBM MDA card replaced with a Hercules Graphics clone (I like pictures)

 

[SpidersWeb]

Concept XT
A home built machine from the early/mid 1980's. It arrived with 256KB RAM, and two Tandom TM-100 floppy drives. One of these drives has a different coloured PCB and an Aug 1982 manufacturing date - but the motherboard is mid-late 80's - a DTK Turbo 640.

Unfortunately the computer is not stable at 8Mhz, but runs fine at 4.77. I do have another DTK Turbo 640 machine, so this is more of an interesting spare that I'm using to exercise my spare ST412 occasionally. I do love the popup lid case and the fact it has history as being someone's home project rather than just another corporate PC.

Condition is fairly bad. It's not on my immediate attention list but I will get around to it. I only have photos right now because I was using it to test a 384KB RAM card.



There is a few interesting things about the motherboard though. It is designed so it can be installed in either a 5 slot 5150 case or an 8 slot 5160 style case. You can unsolder and move the keyboard connector to match the 5150 case too. Unfortunately this means the slots don't line up perfectly in an 8 slot case - so using full length cards usually results in a small bend in the card.

The other thing is the BIOS. It initialises ALL expansion ROMs before doing POST, not just the video ROM (if present), so you have to wait for your hard drive to spin up before you test memory etc. The upside here is that it does a very basic job of RAM testing - more of a RAM count than anything - so it's super quick. During this ram check it displays a centred and nicely laid out configuration readout - once passed the screen is reset, a message like "TURBO 4.77/8MHZ motherboard" etc appears and boot begins.

With only 256KB of RAM, no hard drive, and in 8Mhz mode - you will never see this configuration screen because it'll be gone in the time it takes to blink your eyes. Once you add 384KB and a HD controller - you actually get to see it.
NB: I'm 95% sure they're DTK Turbo 640's but I'm working off memory, I need to double check that, I also have the manual for these boards.

 

[SpidersWeb]

Netware Lite Network

Not a machine, but I'm redoing the room - and the first three machines are in place. The 5170 clone, 5160 enhanced, and 5160.



5170 server uses 512KB XMS as cache - this has actually proven quite handy. 480KB RAM free - so to use as a workstation, I made a stopnet.bat file to remove the network stuff from memory.

It provides a 280Mb shared drive and connection to an HP DeskJet Plus (1989).


5160 enhanced can remotely watch and administer the 5170 server


The 5160 viewing the shared folder, that's a lot of bytes free!


When launched I've set it up so the network auto mounts the drive share and printer. On machines without a RTC, I'm using "NET TIME" to bring the time across.


With the network running the XT's have around 565KB free - but this can be unloaded.

 

[Caluser2000]

Good stuff keep it coming.

How'd you get on getting reasonably priced BNC Ts?

 

[SpidersWeb]

The bits are in stock at Jaycar, but I ordered all my bits through aliexpress.com (China). It worked out to be very cost effective.
I did need to buy better quality terminators (x2) and a couple of extras T's - I just got them from JayCar. Would rather pay $8 a piece than wait 3 weeks by that stage

So far the Chinese RG-58 cables, and T's worked out fine, but I wouldn't recommend cheap terminators.

Edit: I've got enough to connect another 3 computers. Still deciding which, but next up to go in is the Tandy 1000 TL/2, which had one owner since new and despite a little yellowing is in gorgeous condition (even came with computer covers!).

Edit 2: Got a new ink cartridge for the DeskJet coming next week - it was made in 1989 but apparently HP still use the same black cartridge in a lot of printers so brand new ink is available. Took me by surprise.

 

[Caluser2000]

That's nice to hear that about the ink carts. I've got a couple of DeskJet 400s that use the same cart. Those early DJs are pretty robust. Had a 600c for quite some time at home and had used 500s at work in the 90s. Have an old laser printer in the shed I've been meaning to press into service. Takes the same toner drum as Apple Laserwriters.

 

[SpidersWeb]

Speaking of Apple, I have an HP Deskwriter in mint condition but nothing to plug it in to
For lasers I've got an HP LaserJet 5P and 6L. The 6L was a waste of time, but I did get the 5P printing nicely. Only thing I couldn't get 100% was the amount of toner transferred - it's just not the sharp black it would've been when new. I've also got some dot matrix units - but even with "brand new and sealed!" ribbons I can't get good output (I think that's because they were new ten years ago and the company neglected to mention this).

Hopefully you have better luck with your laser when you pull it out

So I'm hoping that DeskJet gives me picture perfect results after a clean and new cartridge. Right now it's clear and dark but has a few streaks.

 

[SpidersWeb]

Some of my software collection:


There is a full height book shelf, two half height book shelves, the top of the closet, and two large boxes worth in total.
OS Wise: DOS 5, DOS 6.x, PC DOS 2.1, Windows/286, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 floppy, Windows 98, AIX 2.1 for the RT, OS/2 2.0, OS/2 2.1, OS/2 Warp 3.0 (CD only).

Edit: hah, just realised from the photos that I have Windows 3.1 still sealed, usually I open them.
Edit: On picture 3, the IBM box at the top, that was from when I ordered my "New Old Stock" sealed IBM CGA card.

 

[Stone]

How'd you get on getting reasonably priced BNC Ts?

I've still got some of these if you're interested.

 

[SpidersWeb]

Tandy 1000 TL/2

- 640KB
- Mighty Mainframe EMS 3.2 with 2MB of memory installed (1989)
- ST351 A/X IDE hard drive
- 720K floppy
- Samsung 14" CGA display
- Original Tandy keyboard and joystick + a few manuals
- WD PLUS network card clone
- XT with 286 CPU

Interesting thing with the hard drive is that it's a 40MB drive but nobody set it up in the Tandy properly - it still thinks it's 25Mb - then the original owner has installed SuperStor/AddStor to compress the drive to 40-50Mb. This unfortunately uses 56KB of conventional - once you had the menu, mouse, DOS5, and no upper memory (need EMS 4.0 for that) - you're in the low 400's already. So I'm currently reinstalling it, used the network to backup the drive contents.

I used a clone network card, which I thought was an NE1000 clone, until I couldn't find it with an NE1000 driver. Then I noticed one of them had a sticker "NETWORK CARD - WD" - Western Digital perhaps? Did some research, and with a bit of guess work set up the jumpers, and sure enough the WD PLUS network driver found the card and it worked perfectly.

 

[SpidersWeb]

More Tandy

Ok so the Tandy 1000 TL/2 seems to default to 615 4 17. If Tandy's version of MS DOS detects a configuraiton block, it seems to update it. I think the original owner upgraded to DOS 5 then went 'oh crap' afterwards. He'd used the compression software to make it big enough for his stuff again (30Mb-ish). Anyway you can rewrite that configuration block using HSECT (on the Tandy MS DOS boot disk) which also seems to perform a low level format. I ignored this sticker:

and proceeded (don't worry, I checked the interwebs) using the translation settings of 820 6 17 (native is 2 heads and variable sectors per track I think). It seems (at least in translation / XT mode) the ST351A/X didn't mind getting an LLF. I was also worried that without a partition, I'd boot off floppy and still only see 614 cylinders - but no - it picked up the configuration block and I had 819 cylinders to use. I then partitioned, and formatted it, and copied over MS DOS 3.3.22 from Tandy. My thoughts from that must be that their version of MS DOS specifically looks for this 'master block',

It's now booting with a ~32MB and 9Mb partition. Just installing software now (network made this a breeze). This machine is brilliant, and fantastic with games - 320x200x16 and 3 voice digitised sound (with a big internal speaker and volume control). The 720K floppy is however, a pain in the ass, I wish it was a normal 1.44. Another small negative, the 640KB includes video memory, so I only actually have around 580KB - I'll need to install a few more chips on my motherboard to get 640KB conventional.

 

[SpidersWeb]

No photos yet.
But collection news this week

5150 moved and setup at end of desk line between XT and Tandy. No network, it's a plain 256KB twin Tandon setup.
IBM PS/2 Model 50Z is getting a spot under a Model 30-286 (will use a KVM), no photos yet, but the new PSU is in and it's booting again.
This weekend the Model 30-286 will hopefully get a battery solution. Also hoping DJ Qualls (remember Roadtrip?) will sign my Atari t-shirt.

Next on the network will be a 386 or 486. I've got 3 towers to choose from - 486DX2/66 VLB with AWE32 etc but I haven't setup the LCD readout properly yet (small detail that drives me nuts), 486DX-40 ISA with LCD readout setup (40 and Lo), and I have another tower which is honestly "as new" - it's floppy drive even has the little protector card inside, all manuals were found inside the case as well, but motherboard is fried - tempted to put my 386DX-40 VLB (I was suprised by the VLB - but it uses an Opti 486 era chipset) board in it. Only have space for one machine in that row, so need to pick.

 

[SpidersWeb]

The fake Atari shirt I had made up to get autographed tomorrow.

 

[SpidersWeb]

IBM PS/2 Model 30-286
Before I picked this up, it had been out in the rain on the grass for two weeks. To my surprise it fired up after a few attempts.
The hard drive was missing, the floppy drive wouldn't read, it had spiderwebs in it (not just this one) and it turned out the CMOS battery wouldn't retain data (it did for a few seconds initially).

Thankfully I had a spare Model 30-286 with a dead planar but all the other bits, and today I did the DS1287 battery modification. I used an external AAA x 2 setup, it's not as clean as the coin battery solution but when I went to Jaycar they'd just moved and I couldn't find those. To get to the pins I followed tezza's guide plus information from linked resources and what I remembered off here. A finely serrated knife ended up being the best option and got the job done. I did a trial run with a grinding stone before hand on a spare, but that didn't go well.

The parts machine also came with all the manuals for IBM's "Ready to Run / 2" solution - which was still on the hard drive - so I'm leaving it fairly "as is" as being a good example of an IBM small business solution. I need to fix up the PC DOS install, and might add Windows 3.0 though.


NB: that's *after* I'd cleared it from dust, to get it properly clean I'd need to remove all the components and wash with iso - didn't feel it was necessary - just got out what I could in sub-15 mins.

My fake Atari t-shirt went well - turns out he still has two of the originals himself.

 

[SpidersWeb]

Went to install my PS/2's with a KVM.
Who at IBM thought "fill in one of the holes, that'll get'm" was a good idea on the VGA port. Seriously, it's so damn annoying. The rest of the machines are a masterpiece in design, but the VGA port, BAD IBM.

 

[Caluser2000]

That's easily sorted with a small drill. Did this on my PS/1. It wasn't only IBM though. My Compaq Prolinea 4/66 is the same. Forgot about it and pushed the crt connector in quite hard pushing the monitor pin into it's housing. Haven't noted any effect on the crt at all.

 

[offensive_Jerk]

How did that PS/2 wind up in the rain for two weeks?