Ok, so I picked up a used, but in really good shape, IBM PC/XT of fleaBay this week. I got it last night and unpacked it. For it's age, it is really really nice shape, a couple of case scratches, but nothing major. Nice IBM Personal Display with it, and the orginal manuals, sales info, etc. All and all I wwas pretty happy with it.
Came into work with me today, first because I wanted to work on it during lunch, and second, because we still have PC's here running Mono displays, DOS, and such on our CNC network.
Anyways, I got it set up in my office and tried to boot it up, and I got the GRRRRRind reset of the floppy, and two beeps, but no display. Hmmmm. Ok, shut it down popped the case, and it is a B revision board (marked 256-640k #########B) and the motherboard, video card, Floppy, HD all look almost new. A little dust, but pretty clean. I reseated all the cards, tried to boot again, same thing. (I was expecting that I would at least see the IBM logo on boot, even if the HD was wiped, I should have gone into BASIC from ROM, write?) Took the Display off and went downstairs and pulled it into a CNC and got nadda on the display. So methinks the display was damaged in shipping.
And that is where I am at for the moment. I am thinking of grabbing a Trident 8900D or TVGA 9000 video card and popping it in, since both (according to the docs I have read) are 1) auto sensing, and 2) have jumpers to allow them to be used in a 8-bit slot. Will have to see, but I kind of get a kick out the idea of the old PC/XT with a 15 inch flat panel...
Cheers!
PS: STILL looking for LEWP 1.5a if anyone has it...
Came into work with me today, first because I wanted to work on it during lunch, and second, because we still have PC's here running Mono displays, DOS, and such on our CNC network.
Anyways, I got it set up in my office and tried to boot it up, and I got the GRRRRRind reset of the floppy, and two beeps, but no display. Hmmmm. Ok, shut it down popped the case, and it is a B revision board (marked 256-640k #########B) and the motherboard, video card, Floppy, HD all look almost new. A little dust, but pretty clean. I reseated all the cards, tried to boot again, same thing. (I was expecting that I would at least see the IBM logo on boot, even if the HD was wiped, I should have gone into BASIC from ROM, write?) Took the Display off and went downstairs and pulled it into a CNC and got nadda on the display. So methinks the display was damaged in shipping.
And that is where I am at for the moment. I am thinking of grabbing a Trident 8900D or TVGA 9000 video card and popping it in, since both (according to the docs I have read) are 1) auto sensing, and 2) have jumpers to allow them to be used in a 8-bit slot. Will have to see, but I kind of get a kick out the idea of the old PC/XT with a 15 inch flat panel...
Cheers!
PS: STILL looking for LEWP 1.5a if anyone has it...