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Just purchased my first IBM 5160

John's first 5160

Experienced Member
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Nov 1, 2021
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51
Hello all,

This is my first post and my first purchase of a vintage PC. I got it on eBay for $225.00. Its untested. Its arriving this week. Here are some pics of it from the auction. Does anyone know what the extra piece at the top in the back is? It has a couple of ports on it.

Please forgive me if my posts are mostly questions. As I am new to this I will need some help along the way .

Thanks for spending the time to read this.

Best,

John
 

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Hello all, This is my first post ...
Welcome to these forums.

... and my first purchase of a vintage PC.
There is lots (repeat: lots) of IBM 5160 information in the 5160 section of minuszerodegrees.net

Does anyone know what the extra piece at the top in the back is? It has a couple of ports on it.
It is a bracket provided with a third party multi-function card. Cables will run from it to the multi-function card.
 
In any case, you'll need a keyboard and a CGA monitor to go with this, if you don't already have them.

Yes. The keyboard is coming Wednesday. The 5160 is coming tomorrow.

I dont have a monitor yet. I was hoping the composite out could be used.
 
Ok it has arrived. Was well packaged. But dead as a door nail. The link the modem7 provided was invaluable.

I took all the boards out and the HDD and floppy out. still no power up. I disconnected P8 from the MB and the fan on PSU would run, but no beeps.

I followed the troubleshooting on minuszerodegrees....

Traced the problem to C58 tantalum capacitor.

Will order a few just incase.

I hope I can salvage that Quadboard. Looks terrible. Lol.
20211102_151009.jpg 20211102_151800.jpg 20211102_142206.jpg ​​​​​​​
 
I have added the failure to the list at [here].


Thanks. What are the color codes for?

Presumably, you are writing of leakage from the card's battery.

Yes and the the lacquer is peeling up.

The rest looks like it would clean up fine.

Where would I find a replacement battery?

I will continue to post my progress as time goes on.

Thanks again.
 
Thanks. What are the color codes for?
Used by me to quickly distinguish between 5150, 5160, 5162, and 5170.

Where would I find a replacement battery?
What is fitted? There will be markings on the battery.

Possibly of 2.4V, or 3.6V.

Those cards were supplied with a Ni-Cd (NiCad) type of battery. For this application, a replacement of NiMH (nickel metal hydride) type can be used.
 
What is fitted? There will be markings on the battery.

Possibly of 2.4V, or 3.6V.

Those cards were supplied with a Ni-Cd (NiCad) type of battery. For this application, a replacement of NiMH (nickel metal hydride) type can be used.

Just gave one of those away a couple of months ago. On mine, the battery sprung a leak less than a year in. It's a 3.6V NiCd--replaced mine early on with 3xAA cells with a blocking diode. Worked fine for as long as I used it after that. I'm not sure if I kept a copy of the software or sent it off with board.
 
My quadboard was unrecoverable due to leakage. With luck I found an unpopulated one and swapped all the ram to it, but I have taken the battery off. Dont really need a clock and dont want any further corrosion.
 
So, I cleaned up the MB and CGA card. Hooked up the PSU and Viola! It works.

So at least the ram is ok at this point.

I decided to test without the tantalum cap replaced. As per minuszerodegrees.net, its not needed for operation. http://minuszerodegrees.net/5150_5160/MDC/no_beeps_1_1_3.htm

I didn't put in any other cards, hence the 301 and 601 error, keyboard and floppy controller.

Keyboard should arrive tomorrow.
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Hey guys. Just received the keyboard. It works!

I get error 1701 when hooking up the harddrive. If I hit F1, it goes to IBM basic. Bad HDD board?

Is that read from the HDD? Or in ROM?
 

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