Just purchased my first IBM 5160

[John's first 5160]

Well, this got stranger....now it booted and shows drive E instead of C like it used to.

Bad BIOS on HDD board?

 

[modem7]

Well, this got stranger....now it booted and shows drive E instead of C like it used to.

Early versions of DOS assign drive letters to all floppy drives first, then the hard drive.

Have you recently done anything related to floppy drives (e.g. changed floppy drive count switches on motherboard, added floppy related driver software, added a floppy controller that has a BIOS ROM) ?

 

[modem7]

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.

In case you are unaware, if you fit a 1.44M drive to your IBM 5160, the 1.44M drive can read 720K sized diskettes.
Maybe you have a computer that can write to 720K diskettes. (On my WIN10 computer, I use a USB attached 1.44M drive that can operate with 720K diskettes.)
See the '720K diskette in 1.44M drive' subsection of the '3.5" 1.44M diskette drives' section of [here].

(A cable such as the one shown at [here] can be used in 'reverse to that intended' to attach the 1.44M drive to the IBM floppy controller.)

 

[John's first 5160]

Early versions of DOS assign drive letters to all floppy drives first, then the hard drive.

Have you recently done anything related to floppy drives (e.g. changed floppy drive count switches on motherboard, added floppy related driver software, added a floppy controller that has a BIOS ROM) ?

Yes. I did switch the MB floppy switches as I noticed they were set for 4 floppy drives. I set it for 1 floppy. I also tried using each floppy controller board independently without success.

One board is an IBM that is jumped to a VTech board, then to the floppy drive.

As a side to this response, the PC boots very randomly, sometimes no memory count.

sometimes memory count then just flashing curser, then I believe 2 beeps if I wait a minute or so.

 

[modem7]

Yes. I did switch the MB floppy switches as I noticed they were set for 4 floppy drives. I set it for 1 floppy.

It makes sense to me that what you did was opposite - the switches were set for 1 drive and you changed them to 4 drives (A: B: C: D: in early versions of DOS).
On the switches, are you confusing ON with OFF - see [here].

 

[John's first 5160]

It makes sense to me that what you did was opposite - the switches were set for 1 drive and you changed them to 4 drives (A: B: C: D: in early versions of DOS).
On the switches, are you confusing ON with OFF - see [here].

You are correct. lmao. Crisis averted!

 

[modem7]

One board is an IBM that is jumped to a VTech board, then to the floppy drive.

Provide a good photo of both sides of the VTech card. That may help us work out the card's purpose.

I also tried using each floppy controller board independently without success.

Using only the IBM floppy controller, and cabled and jumpered per [here] :

What exactly are the symptoms?

A few seconds after the RAM test finishes, expect to see/hear:
* The LED on the floppy drive flashes on
* A noise when the floppy drive's spindle turns
* A noise when the floppy drive's heads move to track 34

As a side to this response, the PC boots very randomly, sometimes no memory count.
sometimes memory count then just flashing curser, then I believe 2 beeps if I wait a minute or so.

I cannot see '2 beeps' at [here]. Are you able to provide an audio recording?

 

[modem7]

I swapped the cards around and get mixed results.
I ordered some Deoxit. I think my connections are dirty on the boards.

When the memory count only went as high as 256K, that was because the RAM on the Quadboard could not be seen by the motherboard.

 

[Trixter]

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?

I believe the smaller card isn't a floppy controller, but is instead a Transcopy board, aka the Central Point Option Board. It was used to make backup copies of copy-protected diskettes. It sits in-between the floppy controller and the floppy drive, and is cabled to both. Since this is your first PC experience, just remove the smaller card and hold onto it until such time that you need to make backups of copy-protected diskettes.

 

[maxtherabbit]

I believe the smaller card isn't a floppy controller, but is instead a Transcopy board, aka the Central Point Option Board. It was used to make backup copies of copy-protected diskettes. It sits in-between the floppy controller and the floppy drive, and is cabled to both. Since this is your first PC experience, just remove the smaller card and hold onto it until such time that you need to make backups of copy-protected diskettes.

Yes, but remove and store it with care it's quite valuable

 

[John's first 5160]

Provide a good photo of both sides of the VTech card. That may help us work out the card's purpose.


Using only the IBM floppy controller, and cabled and jumpered per [here] :

What exactly are the symptoms?

A few seconds after the RAM test finishes, expect to see/hear:
* The LED on the floppy drive flashes on
* A noise when the floppy drive's spindle turns
* A noise when the floppy drive's heads move to track 34


I cannot see '2 beeps' at [here]. Are you able to provide an audio recording?

So I turned on the PC this morning.

No cursor, no memory count. HDD is spinning.

Then about 45 seconds later 1 beep and floppy was accessed.

The status light on the HDD blinks a few times after floppy drive was accessed.

I left it running for 5 more minute and nothing.

I tried uploading the audi, but site wont accept .m4a format

 

[John's first 5160]

I believe the smaller card isn't a floppy controller, but is instead a Transcopy board, aka the Central Point Option Board. It was used to make backup copies of copy-protected diskettes. It sits in-between the floppy controller and the floppy drive, and is cabled to both. Since this is your first PC experience, just remove the smaller card and hold onto it until such time that you need to make backups of copy-protected diskettes.

Yes you are correct. I found this online about it.

Link below...

Thank you!

 

[modem7]

So I turned on the PC this morning.
No cursor, no memory count. HDD is spinning.
Then about 45 seconds later 1 beep and floppy was accessed.
The status light on the HDD blinks a few times after floppy drive was accessed.
I left it running for 5 more minute and nothing.

That sounds to me like your IBM 5160 is booting; there's just a lack of video.
If that's the case:
1. If you remove the Quadboard, the 45 seconds will reduce a lot, because the POST has less RAM to test.
2. (Assumption: Unseen is a DOS prompt) Pressing the G key whilst holding down the CTRL key will result in a beep from the speaker.

I tried uploading the audi, but site wont accept .m4a format

No point now, unless you sometimes hear something that you believe is '2 beeps'.

 

[John's first 5160]

1. If you remove the Quadboard, the 45 seconds will reduce a lot, because the POST has less RAM to test.

So I removed the quad board and it boots everytime. There is alot of oxidation on the contacts on the QB.

I will clean them better with deoxit when I get it.

 

[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.

So, I received the programmer and re-flashed the XTIDE BIOS.

The PC recognizes it now as master at 300h.

Then it boots from HDD .

How do I access the XTIDE ?

Should I remove the master jumper from it?

Thanks

 

[modem7]

Then it boots from HDD .
How do I access the XTIDE ?

When you see the XUB's hotkeybar, press the 'D' key. That will make the XT-IDE's drive become the first hard drive, and the MFM drive become the second hard drive. The 5160 will then boot from XT-IDE's drive (the first hard drive), with the XT-IDE's drive presented as logical drive C:, and the MFM drive presented as logical drive D:

 

[John's first 5160]

When you see the XUB's hotkeybar, press the 'D' key. That will make the XT-IDE's drive become the first hard drive, and the MFM drive become the second hard drive. The 5160 will then boot from XT-IDE's drive (the first hard drive), with the XT-IDE's drive presented as logical drive C:, and the MFM drive presented as logical drive D:

Thank you.

Will try that later today.

Will I need a special program to copy contents of original HDD to CF?

Thanks again

 

[modem7]

Will I need a special program to copy contents of original HDD to CF?

Assumption: The purpose is to make a backup of the MFM drive.

In the DOS directory is a program named XCOPY.
So, one way would be to:

1. Boot from the MFM drive. ( The MFM drive is C: and the CF is D: )
2. Enter the command XCOPY C:\ D:\5160 /S /E
3. When XCOPY asks about file or directory, press the 'D' key.
4. {copying starts}

That will result in a directory named '5160' being created on the CF, and the directory and file contents (except for hidden files) of the MFM drive being copied into the '5160' directory.

 

[1200XL M.U.L.E.]

xcopy is your friend. Learn all of its magical powers.

 

[modem7]

The "1501512" on U18 confirms a revision of 11/08/82. I guess that the contents of your 1501512 differs slightly to my 1501512. I will do further research on that.

In the following, DEBUG is used to copy the contents of U18 into a file named MYF800.BIN
Please perform that, then supply the MYF800.BIN file to me.
The bits in red are what you enter.

C:\DOS>DEBUG
-N MYF800.BIN
-R BX
BX 0000
:0000
-R CX
CX 0000
:8000
-M F800:0 L8000 0100
-W 0100
Writing 8000 bytes
-Q