So what does the original 5150 come with (cards) and how can you tell if the PS was replaced or not? I finally found a decent looking 5150 and should have it here the middle of next week. The PS on the one I am getting is black collored and all the slots are filled with cards. There are 2 full hight floppies installed both with IBM lettering on them. Looked like a good deal, no idea if it even fires up.
Photos:
http://vintagecomputer.net/ibm/5150/5150_A/
...A set of rev 1 "A" model 5150 photos, by serial number.
Pics of 5150 16-64K machines with mostly original parts.
Here is my list of what to look for in an original IBM 5150
1) no circle "B" on the back of the chassis
2) serial number sticker placement
3) number of screws in the chassis - model A's have two (?) less than the model with circle B / 64-256K mobo
4) power supply is black and runs silently
5) the controller cards or card jack covers are painted black
6) The original cards (asychronous communications adapter, parallel adapter (monochrome display), parallel printer adapter, external storage adapter, green disk drive card, IEEE 488 card, some others)
7) 16-64K motherboard
8) Tandon 100-1a disk drives, only one drive with original drive bay cover, no drives with two original drive bay covers. / cassette cable or Getting Started cassette.
9) ROMS match
10) DOS 1.1 or 2.00, CP/M 86, UCSD Pascal (MARCH museum has this version of Pascal on display)
11) Getting Started disk or cassette
12) original version keyboard. Some of the later PC's keyboards had different part number.
There is an original 5150 at the MARCH museum in Wall NJ @infoage, one of the earliest known, and some pictures in the link above are of this machines.
MOST PEOPLE UPGRADED THEIR ORIG 5150 configuration over time, it's rare to find an IBM PC with everything original/stock. Does that matter is up to you.
