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Three vintage PCs: needs some advice on condition and peripherals

I

ilyaz

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Jun 11, 2012
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Location
MD near DC, USA
I have this mini-collection of 3 PCs that I want to test and then, possibly, find a new owner for them. I will greatly appreciate your advice on (i) what exact peripherals I need to test these machines and (ii) what condition they seem to be in right now. So, here we go...

1 or 3. Everex 386/25. What I turn it on, it makes some noise but it seems to be only coming from the power supply. Does this mean that the MB is likely dead? If not, and if I somehow manage to boot it up, what type of (i) keyboard and (ii) monitor I would need for this machine? Are there adapters that would allow me to connect newer monitors/keyboards to it?
 

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2 of 3. IBM 5150. Seems to be the most alive of the three of them based on how it boots. Again, same question regarding compatible peripherals
 

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3 of 3: IBM 7012. DOA, i.e. nothing happens at all when I turn it on. I presume the power supply might be dead, or the MB or both. Again, the peripherals question (assuming I can get it to boot after replacing parts)

Thanks!
 

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#1: Connect a VGA monitor (even modern LED with DSUB).
#2: You probably need an IBM 5151 or clone. Or plug in a 8BIT VGA.
#3: RS/6000 desktop: not worth the trouble probably.
 
Everex has probably a VGA card of some type. The keyboard is an AT model; a PS/2 keyboard would work with a PS/2 to AT adapter which typically costs about $5. I would suspect a failing power supply more than a failed motherboard though make sure that the cables haven't broken or popped out of sockets. RAM that popped out of the socket can mimic the problem.

5150 most likely needs an MDA or equivalent monitor. You will need a PC/XT keyboard. Sorry, I don't know of an easy adapter that will work for it.

RS/6000 needs a specialized keyboard. If it works, you can hook up a serial port terminal to it. The motherboard should have a SCSI-2 controller on it and the external port uses IBM's unusual pinout. SCSI adapter cables to plug normal external devices into the RS/6000 tend to be very expensive. Honestly, your best bet with this is to offer the system to someone who has a complete similar RS6000 so they can have a nearly complete set of spare parts or just offer the RAM for sale.
 
On the 386/25 check to see if the PSU fan is turning freely (maybe source of noise) Use VGA monitor and AT style keyboard as already mentioned to check for boot up. Does it have hdd? That could also be a source of trouble if your CMOS has lost memory. Use a floppy DOS 3.3 or so to boot at first. I have a 386/20 from this era. It looks like you have a full height hdd in there. Be surprising if it still boots.
 
Well, there's the Everex machine I was looking for. Those models were somewhat high-end compared to the other generic 386's of the time and that front display is proprietary to the system and I believe was programmable, kind of like the one on the PS/2 model 95. The three ports on the VGA card are a dead giveaway it has an ATI VGA wonder installed, plus a serial/parallel I/O card and possibly a second 25 pin serial port. If you were not so far away I'd definately snap that up. It uses a standard AT DIN keyboard though it will also accept PS/2 keyboards with an adapter (they're pretty much free these days).

The second machine is a classic IBM 5150 PC. Has what appears to have a parallel/mono TTL display adapter (hercules? Either way you'll n eed something that supports TTL monochrome like the IBM 5151) and a 25 pin serial port. The installed miniscribe is definately not an original, nor would I trust it. 5150's overall have some sort of value but it wildly fluxuates. 5150's look like they take standard DIN keyboards but they need to specifically support the 5150. Usually if you plug any other keyboard in you'll get a keyboard error.

The RS/6000 however is another story. You machine is a pretty basic one (one memory card and just a SCSI MCA card) but it's one of the first models IBM released. It will take a standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse but first it would need an MCA video card. I'm sure it will support a standard serial terminal on port 1 but you will need to craft some sort of adapter in order to do so. The ports remind me of the PCjr. For most people it's pretty useless but the early AIX people love them especially since you still have the key which is required to reinstall an OS on the system.
I wouldn't junk it immediately but at least offer it somewhere to see if the old Unix guys are still alive. I have not seen one in the wild for over three years now.
 
Last edited:
Update to #1

Update to #1

Removed the cover and made a couple of discoveries. First, while it has RAM and card, the CPU is missing. No HDD either. The power supply seems to be bad too: even thought its fan runs, I did not get any DC voltage on any of the outputs.

Not sure what condition the floppies are in, but they don't have any obvious signs of damage.

So it seems that I should take out the mobo, the floppies and the cards and scrap the rest. If anyone is interested in any of these parts let me know.
 

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Update to #3

Update to #3

The power supply is dead: no output measured. Also found an unusual ribbon cable inside that was not connected to anything on either end. I might try to find a replacement power supply and go from this direction. Or do the opposite and take it apart.
 

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Check the board in the Everex case for a soldered CPU under the drive bays. Just doesn't make sense to have such a fully laid out system but remove the CPU from the socket.

The ribbon cable looks like a 50 pin SCSI cable with built in terminator and an odd adapter for a centronics style connector.
 
Yep. It's been gutted. Pity as that means the front panel wouldn't work (and as you can see there's a loose ribbon cable). Some nut must of pulled the 486 thinking it had more gold than anything else in the machine.
 
Thanks you all for all the info.

I took apart the ex-Everex. Scrapped the power supply but kept the other parts for now: mobo, floppies, the front control panel and the cards.

Question: would there be any potential interest in the steel case? I was planning to scrap it but was just curious if it would be likely for someone e.g. building a system from scratch being interested in the case.

Thx
 
I would personally try to sell or even give away the case if you could. It is rather unusual

Some nut must of pulled the 486 thinking it had more gold than anything else in the machine.
Click to expand...
Gold scrappers are top notch idiots.
 
Small update #2 about #3: the RS/6000 has the following on the front label:

IBM
POWERstation
320H

I hope the components inside actually match the model, unlike in Everett...
 
so that makes the RS/6000 officially a 3012-320H, meaning here's photos of a complete and working unit for reference.

That I can immediately find, here's the specs (which were translated).
- Cpu IBM POWER at 25 MHz
- Cache Kbyte of L1 and 32 KByte of L2
- 16mb of ECC SIMM memory, expandable to 128mb
- Microchannel Bus (MCA)
- Internal space for two SCSI hard disks
- Supports Silicon Graphics' IRISvision Option (ooh, that's kind of handy)
- 3Com ethernet interfaces supported
- AIX 3.2 supported
Click to expand...
 
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