Just purchased my first IBM 5160

[John's first 5160]

UPDATE.....

so when I first received and powered on the XT, I only heard the PSU fan, not the HDD. I thought it was quiet since I saw the status light.

Then today I was swapping boards around and when I turned the unit on, the HDD made an awful noise, then spun up and booted.

Not sure how noisy these are supposed to be.

It booted and I was able to get one of the programs up and running.

Now If I can only figure out how to reconfigure my XT-IDE CF card, (since I F'ed up the settings it wont boot from that anymore) I would like to copy the contents.

Can I access that after the HDD boots?

Thanks

 

[oldpcguy]

UPDATE.....

so when I first received and powered on the XT, I only heard the PSU fan, not the HDD. I thought it was quiet since I saw the status light.

Then today I was swapping boards around and when I turned the unit on, the HDD made an awful noise, then spun up and booted.

Not sure how noisy these are supposed to be.

It booted and I was able to get one of the programs up and running.

Now If I can only figure out how to reconfigure my XT-IDE CF card, (since I F'ed up the settings it wont boot from that anymore) I would like to copy the contents.

Can I access that after the HDD boots?

Thanks

What is the specific XT-IDE adapter you're using?

 

[John's first 5160]

What is the specific XT-IDE adapter you're using?

Thanks for the reply.

Its a Blue Lava brand ..... XT-CF - Bootable 8-bit ISA CompactFlash - XT-IDE With Slot 8 Support.

It did boot fine, but I messed with EEprom flash and its all messed up now.

 

[modem7]

so when I first received and powered on the XT, I only heard the PSU fan, not the HDD. I thought it was quiet since I saw the status light.
Then today I was swapping boards around and when I turned the unit on, the HDD made an awful noise, then spun up and booted.

So up until now, perhaps the drive was suffering from solidified grease in the spindle, or head stiction.

I wonder what the cause of the "awful noise" was.

Not sure how noisy these are supposed to be.

If you are only used to IDE and later, then in comparison, MFM HDD drives run loudly.

It booted and I was able to get one of the programs up and running.

Excellent.

 

[modem7]

Now If I can only figure out how to reconfigure my XT-IDE CF card, (since I F'ed up the settings it wont boot from that anymore) I would like to copy the contents.

Can I access that after the HDD boots?

Yes, if your "XT-IDE CF" is correctly configured.
One drive will appears as C: and the other as D:
With your "XT-IDE CF" out of action, the MFM HDD will be C:
When you get your "XT-IDE CF" booting, the attached CF card may appear as C: with the MFM HDD appearing as D:

What is the specific XT-IDE adapter you're using?

Its a Blue Lava brand ..... XT-CF - Bootable 8-bit ISA CompactFlash - XT-IDE With Slot 8 Support.

Confirm for us that it is the one pictured at [here].

Read my last post, I ran the RAYXTMFM from a CF adapter card. But in my wisdom I screwed up the master address, now it wont boot at all.

Now If I can only figure out how to reconfigure my XT-IDE CF card, (since I F'ed up the settings it wont boot from that anymore) ...

It did boot fine, but I messed with EEprom flash and its all messed up now.

So you ran XTIDECFG.COM, made some configuration changes, then wrote the configuration to the EEPROM ?

 

[modem7]

Further to last. And clarify your "it wont boot from that anymore" for us.

Is it:
* At power on, the XTIDE Universal BIOS (a.k.a. XUB) is not displaying anything on-screen.
* At power on, the XUB is displaying, but it is not showing the model number of the attached CF card.
* At power on, the XUB is displaying, showing the attached CF card, but not booting from the attached CF card.

If one of the latter two, a photo of what the XUB is displaying could help us.

 

[John's first 5160]

So you ran XTIDECFG.COM, made some configuration changes, then wrote the configuration to the EEPROM ?

Yes. And screwed it up.

 

[John's first 5160]

Confirm for us that it is the one pictured at [here].

This one.....

 

[John's first 5160]

Further to last. And clarify your "it wont boot from that anymore" for us.

Is it:
* At power on, the XTIDE Universal BIOS (a.k.a. XUB) is not displaying anything on-screen.
* At power on, the XUB is displaying, but it is not showing the model number of the attached CF card.
* At power on, the XUB is displaying, showing the attached CF card, but not booting from the attached CF card.

If one of the latter two, a photo of what the XUB is displaying could help us.

I will take a picture tomorrow and send it.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[John's first 5160]

Further to last. And clarify your "it wont boot from that anymore" for us.

sorry. It would not boot from the XT IDE CF card anymore.

 

[John's first 5160]

If one of the latter two, a photo of what the XUB is displaying could help us.

this is what I get.....

 

[dhau]

Hi mate, you configured XUB for generic multi-io card. You can fix it. This looks like blue lava xt-cf deluxe. I have it, and I kept the files that came on 64MB CF card that came with it.

If you can copy the files to a bootable floppy, you can boot from it, just press A when XUB comes up.

If you can't copy files to a bootable floppy, but have an EEPROM programmer, like MiniPro, you can burn the file to a 28c64 chip directly.

Use IDE_XTP.BIN only if you use NEC V20 CPU. Use IDE_XT.BIN if it's normal 8088.

 

[John's first 5160]

Hi mate, you configured XUB for generic multi-io card. You can fix it. This looks like blue lava xt-cf deluxe. I have it, and I kept the files that came on 64MB CF card that came with it.

If you can copy the files to a bootable floppy, you can boot from it, just press A when XUB comes up.

If you can't copy files to a bootable floppy, but have an EEPROM programmer, like MiniPro, you can burn the file to a 28c64 chip directly.

Use IDE_XTP.BIN only if you use NEC V20 CPU. Use IDE_XT.BIN if it's normal 8088.

Hello, thanks for the reply.

So I would need another PC and put the .bin file you sent on a floppy, then boot from that and it would allow me to flash the correct bios to the eprom I screwed up?

I dont have another PC to do that with.

Would this work...and support the chip in the xtide I have?

 

[dhau]

Would this work...and support the chip in the xtide I have?

Most likely it will, it's always a bit of a gamble with Chinese products. Many companies copy each other and sometimes company that created original product will put checks in software to brick what they perceive as pirate clones.

The one you linked looks like a generic clone of MiniPro TL866, so should work for flashing pretty much all eprom/eeprom/gal chips and to test sram and 74xxx series chips. I would suggest you stick with whatever software comes with it on a mini-CD, and only use that. Don't download from internet, it may brick your device.

I do have a copy of MiniPro software v6.85 that works fine for me and it also worked well for my buddy who bricked his burner. You can reach out if whatever you get isn't working.

 

[John's first 5160]

Most likely it will, it's always a bit of a gamble with Chinese products. Many companies copy each other and sometimes company that created original product will put checks in software to brick what they perceive as pirate clones.

The one you linked looks like a generic clone of MiniPro TL866, so should work for flashing pretty much all eprom/eeprom/gal chips and to test sram and 74xxx series chips. I would suggest you stick with whatever software comes with it on a mini-CD, and only use that. Don't download from internet, it may brick your device.

I do have a copy of MiniPro software v6.85 that works fine for me and it also worked well for my buddy who bricked his burner. You can reach out if whatever you get isn't working.

Thanks.

I ordered it.

 

[John's first 5160]

So While waiting for the eeprom burner (thanks dhau) I cleaned the Quadram board and installed a new battery.

It boots with the original HDD, and shows 640k total ram on startup.

So once I get the eeprom burner I will copy the contents of the original HDD to the CF card.

Progress is being made.

Next I will see if floppy drive works.

Thanks to all for your help.

 

[John's first 5160]

Just a question....

Why does this XT have 2 floppy cards. Long one looks like IBM, then its jumped to a smaller one, then that goes to floppy drive?

 

[dhau]

There is no good reason for two floppy disk controllers. If they both work, they would conflict on ports and IRQ and such. Try using IBM, since it's more authentic for an original XT. If that doesn't work, use the clone controller. No reason to keep both in.

I had something similar with 5150 I purchased. It has two Quadram Quadboards from 1982, no idea why.

 

[John's first 5160]

There is no good reason for two floppy disk controllers. If they both work, they would conflict on ports and IRQ and such. Try using IBM, since it's more authentic for an original XT. If that doesn't work, use the clone controller. No reason to keep both in.

I had something similar with 5150 I purchased. It has two Quadram Quadboards from 1982, no idea why.

So, I removed the smaller floppy card, and used only the IBM. I get error 1701 and 601.

I use just the small card and get the same.

Oh and BTW memory count only went to 256k.

I installed both back and now memory count goes to 640k.

But still get error 1701 now.

 

[John's first 5160]

I swapped the cards around and get mixed results.

I ordered some Deoxit. I think my connections are dirty on the boards.

Will keep you posted