• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

A functional XT!

DarthKur

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2007
Messages
171
Location
Western North Carolina
It's finally happened after what seemed like an eternity. I finally have, in my possession, a working IBM 5160 XT......and there was much rejoicing. :p
It's about time! I was beginning to think it would never happen. My trip to Greensborro payed off. Of coarse there's a couple downsides. One being that I think the HD has issues. That's not really bothering me too much....yet. The other is I can't get a joystick to work with it. I put a card in that I bought off Ebay a year or two ago in. What's written on it is: Joystick Interface Card - T & W Systems, Inc. I tried three different controllers with it and none of them register at all. Did these old ISA cards require some sort of driver? If so where could it be found? I thought if there were any it would be stored on the card itself being that having a HD was not common at all back then.

Here are some wonderful pics of my new acquisition:

XTgalaxians.jpg

Here we have the main reason I wanted one so bad, to play classic booter games. Displayed is Atarisoft's Galaxian.

XTJungleHunt.jpg

I finally can see Jungle Hunt like it's supposed to be displayed.

XTfinally.jpg

And here we have the extent of my programing skills. :mrgreen:

XTinside1.jpg

Inside the beast there's a CGA card, FDD controller, HD controller, RAM extension with a switch on the back of it, a Tandy made modem and my reluctant to work joystick card. (Not in that order)

XTinside2.jpg

Inside at a different angle.

XTjscard.jpg

A close up of the JS card.
 
Well done.

Just out of interest, how many watts is the power supply? I suspect my 5150 has a similar one.

>Did these old ISA cards require some sort of driver? If so where could it
>be found? I thought if there were any it would be stored on the card
>itself being that having a HD was not common at all back then.

From memory most of these third party cards needed drivers, unless PC-DOS expressly supported them. The software was loaded by autoexec.bat and/or pointed to by config.sys during boot

Tez
 
Yeah, I was going to say someone recently posted a joystick test program in basic. You could try typing that up and testing your joystick port. I don't recall if "game cards" required drivers but by the time I was goofing with computers they were all integrated and I haven't done much gaming on XTs.
 
Yeah, I was going to say someone recently posted a joystick test program in basic. You could try typing that up and testing your joystick port.

That would be me. Try this program. You move a ball around the screen with the joystick.

10 SCREEN 1:COLOR 1,1:CLS:KEY OFF
20 CIRCLE(2,2),2:pAINT(2,2),3
30 DIM B(10)
40 GET(0,0)-(4,4),B
50 PUT(0,0),B
60 X=STICK(0):Y=STICK(1)
70 PUT(X,Y),B,PSET
80 X1=X:Y1=Y
90 X=STICK(0):Y=STICK(1)
100 IF Y>195 THEN Y=195
110 PUT(X,Y),B:pUT(X1,Y1),B
120 GOTO 80

I don't recall if "game cards" required drivers but by the time I was goofing with computers they were all integrated and I haven't done much gaming on XTs.

I shouldn't think they would require a driver, but you never know...

Congratulations on getting an XT, BTW. All my attempts to get a 5150 or XT on Ebay have been foiled.
 
Well done.

Just out of interest, how many watts is the power supply? I suspect my 5150 has a similar one.

>Did these old ISA cards require some sort of driver? If so where could it
>be found? I thought if there were any it would be stored on the card
>itself being that having a HD was not common at all back then.

From memory most of these third party cards needed drivers, unless PC-DOS expressly supported them. The software was loaded by autoexec.bat and/or pointed to by config.sys during boot

Tez

The PSU is rated at 130 watts. At least that's what the sticker on it says. ;)

How and from where would the driver be loaded by the autoexec? Does that have to happen every time the computer boots up? Does the driver need to be added to a boot disc or something? I'm confused.

That would be me. Try this program. You move a ball around the screen with the joystick.

10 SCREEN 1:COLOR 1,1:CLS:KEY OFF
20 CIRCLE(2,2),2:pAINT(2,2),3
30 DIM B(10)
40 GET(0,0)-(4,4),B
50 PUT(0,0),B
60 X=STICK(0):Y=STICK(1)
70 PUT(X,Y),B,PSET
80 X1=X:Y1=Y
90 X=STICK(0):Y=STICK(1)
100 IF Y>195 THEN Y=195
110 PUT(X,Y),B:pUT(X1,Y1),B
120 GOTO 80



I shouldn't think they would require a driver, but you never know...

Congratulations on getting an XT, BTW. All my attempts to get a 5150 or XT on Ebay have been foiled.

I entered in that program in Basic and ran it. All that happens if the screen turns blue with the following text:
Advanced Feature in 20
OK

I checked line 20 and it's typed in exactly as you instructed. So what does this mean?
And yes, I understand the frustrations on getting foiled on ebay, either getting outbid, or the price skyrockets beforehand, it's way out of my price range to begin with or I get something and it's busted. Persevere, you'll win out eventually.

Thank you to everyone else that offered congratulations. I pretty happy with it. Now if I can just get a joystick working I'll be ecstatic.
Trixter constructed a nice looking joystick configuration program and offered it for download in another thread. I got it and just need to transfer it to a 5 1/4 so I can try it out on the XT. The thing is I don't think that any signal is getting through the card at all. Maybe the card is defective.
 
I entered in that program in Basic and ran it. All that happens if the screen turns blue with the following text:
Advanced Feature in 20
OK

I checked line 20 and it's typed in exactly as you instructed. So what does this mean?

You're not using cassette BASIC, are you? CIRCLE, PAINT, GET, PUT, and STICK don't work in that. You have to be running BASICA or GWBASIC for them.
 
How and from where would the driver be loaded by the autoexec? Does that have to happen every time the computer boots up? Does the driver need to be added to a boot disc or something? I'm confused.

Hmm..well, from memory, if you needed to run a mouse, or a soundcard, you needed a driver .com or .sys file (or maybe both). When the machine boots it looks in the config.sys file, processes any drivers listed there, then steps through the autoexe.bat file and executes any drivers which may have been entered in the file list.

Tez
 
The PSU is rated at 130 watts. At least that's what the sticker on it says. ;)

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
 
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

I think it is 200W in AC. Mine is labbeled 400W AC, but it does only provide 130W DC.
 
200W was typically an aftermarket one. The originals seem somewhat fragile - I have 6 IBM 5150/5160's and only 2 original PSUs! 4 of those are dead, so I am converting standard AT ones to fit inside the cases :)
 
joysticks and game port controllers require no drivers.
the hardware should show up at port 201h.

It's possible perhaps that you've got another device that's tromping over the top of your game port.

You can test it by loading debug.exe off a DOS disk, and at the - prompt, type:

i 201

The screen should display a number. If it's FF, then there is no hardware decoding that port address, IOW, no gameport adapter.

If the value is something other than FF, then this is how the bits are decoded:

Code:
Bit(s)	Description	(Table P0542)
 7	status B joystick button 2 / D paddle button
 6	status B joystick button 1 / C paddle button
 5	status A joystick button 2 / B paddle button
 4	status A joystick button 1 / A paddle button
 3	B joystick Y coordinate	   / D paddle coordinate
 2	B joystick X coordinate	   / C paddle coordinate
 1	A joystick Y coordinate	   / B paddle coordinate
 0	A joystick X coordinate	   / A paddle coordinate

If you were to do something like hold the stick in a corner and press a button, and then repeat the "i 201" command, the value should change.

If the value doesn't change, then it could be the stick itself, or the controller, or some other hardware is stealing your IO cycles.

If you take the controller out and port 201 reads back FF's, then you will at least know there isn't a hardware conflict.

Thanks to ralf brown for the bit decoding.
 
joysticks and game port controllers require no drivers.
the hardware should show up at port 201h.

It's possible perhaps that you've got another device that's tromping over the top of your game port.

You can test it by loading debug.exe off a DOS disk, and at the - prompt, type:

i 201

The screen should display a number. If it's FF, then there is no hardware decoding that port address, IOW, no gameport adapter.

If the value is something other than FF, then this is how the bits are decoded:

Code:
Bit(s)	Description	(Table P0542)
 7	status B joystick button 2 / D paddle button
 6	status B joystick button 1 / C paddle button
 5	status A joystick button 2 / B paddle button
 4	status A joystick button 1 / A paddle button
 3	B joystick Y coordinate	   / D paddle coordinate
 2	B joystick X coordinate	   / C paddle coordinate
 1	A joystick Y coordinate	   / B paddle coordinate
 0	A joystick X coordinate	   / A paddle coordinate

If you were to do something like hold the stick in a corner and press a button, and then repeat the "i 201" command, the value should change.

If the value doesn't change, then it could be the stick itself, or the controller, or some other hardware is stealing your IO cycles.

If you take the controller out and port 201 reads back FF's, then you will at least know there isn't a hardware conflict.

Thanks to ralf brown for the bit decoding.

I really want to try that but I keep getting one obstacle after the other. I have copy disks of DOS 2.1 and 3.10 and neither have the debug program. I actually have an original copy of DOS 3.3, with the supplemental disk that includes debug, but when I try to load 3.3 I get the message: Bad or missing command interpreter. I was able to preform a DIR command on the HD but little else. It had the debug program but won't run it nor anything else. This confirms that the HD is shot. :( I have the HD in the other non-working XT but I'm afraid to install it for fear of breaking everything else some how.
Do you have a downloadable copy of debug that I can "hopefully" transfer to a 5 1/4 floppy? I certainly wish this PC I'm on now had a 5 1/4 FDD. It would make things so much easier.
 
You're not using cassette BASIC, are you? CIRCLE, PAINT, GET, PUT, and STICK don't work in that. You have to be running BASICA or GWBASIC for them.

OK. I tried it with BASICA and the program seemed to run but all I got was a white dot in the upper left corner and no matter what I did with the joystick it wouldn't move.

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

This is an XT not the 5150 I was trying to get before. The 5150 that I do have doesn't work just like my original 5160.
 
OK. I tried it with BASICA and the program seemed to run but all I got was a white dot in the upper left corner and no matter what I did with the joystick it wouldn't move.

Ok, then the joystick port definitely isn't working. The BASIC program I listed draws a ball in the upper left corner of the screen (as you saw), "picks" it up with the GET statement in line 40, and then uses PUT to erase the ball and redraw it according to the position of the joystick. But since it's not getting any input from the joystick, the original ball never gets erased, thus producing the results you got.
 
The 5150 power supply was 63 watts. That is why many of them didn't last to long once users started adding hard drives. I have two working 5150s with the original 63 watt power supplies and one that has a replacement 200 watt power supply.
 
The 5150 power supply was 63 watts. That is why many of them didn't last to long once users started adding hard drives. I have two working 5150s with the original 63 watt power supplies and one that has a replacement 200 watt power supply.

I guess the dual-fan PSU in my secondary XT is a 200W-or-more then.


I also guess I'm lucky to have my primary XT in sutch a good condition with all original IBM hardware.

The next step for me will be to remove the ATI GS and put back in the near-mint condition MDA card that originally was installed, and one of my CGA cards.

Then I'll move the soundblaster over to the secondary XT, and I'll take out the networks card (whitch I still haven't gotten to work).

The last step would be to get that EGA monitor at my school so I can actually use my CGA cards, else, I got to put in a genetic VGA card in my secondary XT.


After this, I'll end up with only IBM cards in my primary near-mint XT, and two free expansion slots (now, where do I get an IBM Music Feautre card and an IBM Joystick card?). In my secondary XT, there will be a bunch of genetic and IBM stuff, I haven't really decided what, yet.
 
This is quite strange. For some odd reason beyond my ken the HD seems to be working now. :shock: Why would this happen? Could it be that it hasn't run for so long it was sort of "gummed up",not allowing it to reach its full rotational velocity? Now after some time getting powered up it's now clearing that away and therefore running correctly?
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:
 
Back
Top