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A functional XT!

tezza said:
Really! Mine says 200 watts! Obviously it's not your original 5150 PSU. Looks just like yours. I wonder if it was an XT one that was slid in there at some stage.

Tez
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Tezza,

I couldn't confirm it, but IIRC you will need to buy the appropriate supply for your computer. One of the motherboard power connectors on the XT supply has an extra jack. I mean, the motherboard has an extra pin on it. At least that's what I remember.

Trying to look that up I found out that my dream of having a VGA and 5151 monitor on my 5150 will badly overload the power supply. I will try to put a couple of floppies in my 3270 PC (which came minus all of the impossible to find 3270 cards) and use that as my writing/editing machine. It should have power to spare.

If I ever have a power supply go bad, I am going to try to get it fixed at Re PC or by a ham radio enthusiast who repairs old radios.

Sean
 
DarthKur said:
Whatever the reason the DEBUG program is working now and what I get in return is the "FF" that was mentioned. So I removed the game card and run the test again but this time it responded with "4F". So what does this mean now? :confused:
Click to expand...

Sounds like you got an I/O conflict there.

Try to remove all cards except the FDC, HDC, and the display adapter. Do the test, and see if it still reports "4F".

Insert the joystick card, and do the test.

remove the joystick card, and insert the other cards one at a time, and test after each card has been inserted (one test for each card).

When you get "4F" or something else, the card you just put in is conflicting. If that card got jumpert to set different I/O addresses, do so, and make sure it doesn't conflict with anything else.
 
patscc said:
If it's the standard Seagate 255 drive, stiction, perhaps ?
patscc
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I'm not certain what the make of the drive is but it's not a Seagate 255. One of those is in my other XT and this drive has a completely different appearance.
I was unfamiliar with stiction. I just read the Wikipedia entry for it. If that had been the case would that not have prevented the drive from moving at all? Out of curiosity, were the old Seagate 255 models more prone to that, since you mentioned them specifically?
 
Floppies_only said:
I couldn't confirm it, but IIRC you will need to buy the appropriate supply for your computer. One of the motherboard power connectors on the XT supply has an extra jack. I mean, the motherboard has an extra pin on it. At least that's what I remember.
Click to expand...
You're thinking of an AT power supply. In the move to the AT, IBM used a previously unused pin to provide extra +5V power.
 
mikey99 said:
From the picture you posted, that looks like the original
Seagate ST-412 10MB drive. I have one of those in my XT.

Here's a good link with info about some of these older drives:

http://www.redhill.net.au/d/d-a.html
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Seagate ST-412 10MB drive, that's got to be it. It looks exactly like that. Thanks for the link. When I first turned it on today it started giving errors again but after a handful of hitting "retry" it works again.

per said:
Sounds like you got an I/O conflict there.

Try to remove all cards except the FDC, HDC, and the display adapter. Do the test, and see if it still reports "4F".

Insert the joystick card, and do the test.

remove the joystick card, and insert the other cards one at a time, and test after each card has been inserted (one test for each card).

When you get "4F" or something else, the card you just put in is conflicting. If that card got jumpert to set different I/O addresses, do so, and make sure it doesn't conflict with anything else.
Click to expand...

I took out the modem and got "6F". I left it on for a while hoping it would "warm up" and not have any more errors. Was about to shut it off but typed in the i 201 again just for the hell of it and got a different reading. :eek: Now it's "EF". Why would it change? Is the program in error?

I'd like to be able to back up the debug program to a floppy but sadly I don't how. :( I've tried writing backup c:\debug a:\ and variants of that to no avail. What am I doing wrong? :confused:

The RAM expansion card is plugged directly into the socket the main processor does. I think the processor is on that card now underneath the ribbon cable that runs from the card to the mother board. I've never heard of a ram card like that. There's a switch on the back of it but when I flipped it then turned the power on it would not boot.

Here's some pictures:
ramcard1.jpg


ramcard2.jpg


ramcard3.jpg
 
modem7 said:
You're thinking of an AT power supply. In the move to the AT, IBM used a previously unused pin to provide extra +5V power.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.... Ok, so what would happen if you reversed this and used a standard AT power supply to power up a 5150 or 5160? At first glance the 5150 I have doesn't seem to use this pin either. Fireworks?

I did go ahead and plug a generic 80286 into a spare 5160 psu I have and it seemed to work just fine. Granted I only had a video card and a keyboard installed in at the time.

Curious, what, if anything, would be missing or not functional with this type of setup? I'd always kind of thought that these psu's were somewhat interchangeable.
 
TomFCS said:
Hmmm.... Ok, so what would happen if you reversed this and used a standard AT power supply to power up a 5150 or 5160? At first glance the 5150 I have doesn't seem to use this pin either. Fireworks?
Click to expand...
IBM PC and IBM XT motherboards (and probably most clone PC and XT motherboards) have nothing connected to the subject pin, and so if the PSU supplies a voltage to the pin, nothing happens.
 
TomFCS said:
I'd always kind of thought that these psu's were somewhat interchangeable.
Click to expand...
In the 80s, I had technical people at work bringing me AT clone computers to fix that had the symptom of, 'unreliable at holding CMOS/BIOS setup'.
Investigation always revealed the same background. The computer had been an XT clone and someone had replaced the motherboard/keyboard with AT types but failed to upgrade the PSU. The PSUs had +5V on the extra pin/wire (suggesting an AT PSU) and were adequately power rated but investigation revealed that the PSUs weren't suitable for ATs. What we heard was that in the AT, the various voltages from the PSU are designed to rise and fall at a slower rate that that in PC and XT power supplies. I'm sure that is related to the CMOS/RTC chip.
 
DarthKur said:
I'd like to be able to back up the debug program to a floppy but sadly I don't how. :( I've tried writing backup c:\debug a:\ and variants of that to no avail. What am I doing wrong? :confused:
Click to expand...
Try
Code: 
SYS A:
COPY DEBUG.* A:
DarthKur said:
The RAM expansion card is plugged directly into the socket the main processor does. I think the processor is on that card now underneath the ribbon cable that runs from the card to the mother board. I've never heard of a ram card like that. There's a switch on the back of it but when I flipped it then turned the power on it would not boot.
Click to expand...

That must be a 286 turbo board. if you are going to remove that card, make sure to move the 8088 from the card to it's socket on the system board (where the cable from the card connects. Be carefull not bending any pins or insert it the wrong way).
 
per said:
Try
Code: 
SYS A:
COPY DEBUG.* A:
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for that. It worked perfectly.

per said:
That must be a 286 turbo board. if you are going to remove that card, make sure to move the 8088 from the card to it's socket on the system board (where the cable from the card connects. Be careful not bending any pins or insert it the wrong way).
Click to expand...

I have another RAM card (pictured below), called a RAMSACK III that I got at the local flea market a few months ago. It should be a good replacement for the turbo board, assuming it works.
Can I safely assume that by using the picture in the 5150/5160 f.a.q. thread http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=3567 ,as long as the writing on the processor is oriented the same way it is in that picture when I reinsert my 8088 processor everything shall be alright?

ramsack.jpg


ramsack-2.jpg
 
DarthKur said:
I have another RAM card (pictured below), called a RAMSACK III that I got at the local flea market a few months ago. It should be a good replacement for the turbo board, assuming it works.
Can I safely assume that by using the picture in the 5150/5160 f.a.q. thread http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=3567 ,as long as the writing on the processor is oriented the same way it is in that picture when I reinsert my 8088 processor everything shall be alright?
Click to expand...

Yes.

The general rule for inserting ICs are: there is a notch on the socket, and there is also a notch (or other indicator) on the IC. When you insert the IC, both notches (socket and IC) should point in the same direction.
 
I just got to thinking.....that ramsack card is going to need a driver isn't it? I tried finding information online about it but turned up almost nothing. Any idea where it might be found if even possible?
 
Chuck(G) said:
Isn't that Ramsack III board a 16-bit board? How is that going to work in a 5160?
Click to expand...

I'm not certain at all. How can you tell if it's 16 or 8? I couldn't find any worthwhile info on it at all.


EDIT: As it turns out it won't even be necessary to bother installing the ram board. I assumed that most of the "extra" ram was on that Turbo card. In fact it's all on the MB so I have 640K which is more than enough for any games that would be available for the platform. :D

Oh and I think I figured out the 8 or 16 question. The second set of leads is indicative of it being 16bit, correct?
 
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Druid6900 said:
If the "memory board" is plugged into the CPU socket on the motherboard, then it is probably a 286 upgrade board with its own memory.
Click to expand...

per said:
That must be a 286 turbo board.
Click to expand...


You both were, indeed, correct. After pulling it I could see the info written on the bottom of the card. It's an Orchid "Tiny Turbo 286" Rev. B-1. Made in 1986.

turbo286.jpg
 
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