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IBM 5160 - Stripdown Cleanup and Repair.

Hello All,

How easy is it to drill the rivets out? I have a FEW 5154s/7534s and even a coveted 5175 that need/will need the PSUs looked at... I am wondering if the PSUs were the same across the monitor models (at least between the 5153, 5154, and 5175)? Would make it much easier to order caps in bulk ;).
 
I think the 5154 PS is not the same as the 5153. It's been awhile since I opened a 5153 but I think the
PS may be on the mainboard. On the 5154 the rivets are very easy to drill out, and replaced with a few
sheet metal screws for re-assembly. I also have a 5175 but have never opened that monitor. Which reminds
me I should pull that 5175 out and power it on more often ! Probably been a year or more since I did that.

EDIT: Checked the SAMS for 5153 and found that there is a separate 1) AC Input and 2) Power boards
but they are totally different than the 5154
 
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Last time I opened a 5150 psu (early '90s and not to recap it) they were held together with so-called "security" Torx head screws.

Back then, I used to chisel the central pin out and use a regular (T8 or T10, iirc) driver. Today, Harbor Freight (or Argos) will sell you a suitable bit set for knack all.
 
roberttx said:
Last time I opened a 5150 psu (early '90s and not to recap it) they were held together with so-called "security" Torx head screws.
Click to expand...

I found the same to be true on the PSU in the 5162 and on the PSU in the 5170 I have. Both also had rivets in place of one or two screws. Interestingly enough, the screws on the 5145 monitor were also security torx.

For a company that published docs that could help you clone these things with near perfect precision, they really did not want you to open up some of their stuff...
 
lutiana said:
For a company that published docs that could help you clone these things with near perfect precision, they really did not want you to open up some of their stuff...
Click to expand...

I think they really did not want just anybody opening their stuff. The guy who spent a few hundred dollars buying TR and HMH books probably knew how to deal with security screws and rivets.
 
All done, its amazing how small modern caps are I went for a mix of Panasonic EE and FC series capacitors.

IMG_1652.jpg

IMG_1654.jpg



I tested all the caps that come out, the ones on the left (plus the RIFA's) are out of spec, 1 is short, 1 is 10% and one 50%, the ones on the right are frightfully on spec, like nearly all of them +-1% I could not believe it, most new caps are not that close.

IMG_1655.jpg
 
It seems the smoothing caps on the outputs get the most stress. I still have all the original electrolytic caps throughout on my 5150s and 5170 but the X2 and Y2 have been unreliable at 240VAC.
 
Not done bad for their age though, My original later model 5150 PSU has had nothing done except for a check and dust out when i got it, My 5160 PSU's have had the same and the X2 Rifa's replaced with better quality and new fan's in a couple, My XT 286 PSU has had nothing done but a check and dust out, My 5170 PSU fell ill several months ago and died a couple of days later, I'm pretty sure it's just cap failure but haven't gotten round to looking at it yet.
 
I think the RIFA's have done great, these things are 30+ years old its a cap that goes directly across the mains. I think the thing is its the first thing to go wrong so they get a bad rep, they also make a mess like a little kid with a bucket of lego and jam.

Modern RIFA's are much better, however a lot of people are putting new ones in and they are failing, I am pretty sure these are old stock, I will only use ones I buy direct from a distributor. The interesting thing is an old stock part gets much warmer than a new stock part even after a few minutes, so although they look the same there must be some significant changes in manufacturing.

I do quite a few repairs for people and do get people requesting original parts or at least original looking parts, so I use RIFA's (new traceable stock) and I have never had a problem, if they had gone wrong all my customers would have come back to me.

I also do like the Panasonic series of Black suppression caps, which I have used here, anything up to 0.068uF are classed X2/Y2 so you can keep the range in stock and cover both the X and Y suppression needs.

Anyway, I have found some screw that I think will work so am going to test some of the caps in the rest of the screen and if ok I will put the screen back together today and test.
 
I got around to putting the screen back together today, I went though the rest of the screen electronics and all looked great, one thing I did spot was these 2 caps on the RGB drives, they looked a bit swollen but it seems that they were perfect electronically, it was just the plastic labels had shrunk with the heat:

5154 caps.jpg

I then got around to trying it all out only to realise that although I brought it all together apparently from a display, it would seem it was simply that as the base unit had a MDA card so not compatible.

So I am on the look out for an EGA card has anyone in the UK got one they would like to sell me ?

I also have this Expansion card, does anyone have any information on it ?

stb card.jpg

stb2.jpg
 
The 5154 should also work (a bit blurry) attached to a CGA card.

Also, when powering a 5154 on not attached to a video card, you should see a white raster.


Glad to hear that the other capacitors were okay. I've often thought about changing all the capacitors
in a 5154, but may not be necessary because only the PS seems to run very hot.
 
Clint said:
So I am on the look out for an EGA card has anyone in the UK got one they would like to sell me ?
Click to expand...
Readers may like confirmation that any brand will do, rather than just IBM.

Also, the minimum amount of video RAM that is acceptable to you. Depending on what you are doing, you may require 256 KB. See [here].
 
I purchased a Quadram EGA card from eBay and fitted it this morning only to be presented with the same issue, after getting some help on here and checking the dip switches it was apparent I had a screen issue.

I took the screen back apart, it was sold to me as faulty and had the PSU failure above, so I found it hard to believe it also had a input issue, I was greeted with a disconnected input cable, my fault :)

After reconnecting I now have a fully working PC, the HDD works as does the floppy drive.

It has Lotus 123, Supercalc and Word Perfect (2 versions) installed and looks like it was last used in 1998.

IMG_1767.jpg

IMG_1768.jpg

Just got to find some more information on the STB ram card that is installed and I can wrap this repair up :)
 
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