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Not that I need them: More IBMs coming.

A

Anonymous Freak

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Cascadia
Just committed to a batch of IBMs from someone via Craigslist.

Half of them (barely) qualify as vintage, one is barely out-of-scope, one definitely too new.

A PS/2 77 with CD-ROM (I'm hoping for an actual "Ultimedia" system, but I doubt it is.)
PS/Valuepoint 486
PC 350 desktop (Pentium 133)
PC 300PL (Pentium 3 600)

With an option to throw in a PS/2 90 with a probably bad processor complex. Not sure if I want that one or not...
 
The model 90's rock. Is he throwing it in for free? If so part it out (I could use some HD mounting hardware).
 
Yeah, the 90 would be free. I may go ahead and get it and 'spread the love' of the parts. Unfortunately, I'm running out of space as it is, so the bulk parts are likely to end up at the recycler if nobody will pay for shipping on them.

(WTF is up with my spell check? "recycler" is flagged, and it suggests "recyclers". What.?.?.? The singular of "recyclers" doesn't exist?)
 
Sounds good to me, the unit would end up at the recycler anyway I bet. Let me know what is inside when you get it.
 
Why would you want to gut a Model 90 if only the processor board was bad? Those processor boards come up on eBay on a regular basis! If shipping wasn't too bad, I would be interested in the whole unit.
 
I already have a 90. Maybe the OP didn't need a 90 and putting money into it was not what he wanted to do? Could be the unit is trashed and not worth fixing up?

And as you said, shipping of the whole unit kills most deals on PS/2 machines.
 
Unknown_K said:
I already have a 90. Maybe the OP didn't need a 90 and putting money into it was not what he wanted to do? Could be the unit is trashed and not worth fixing up?

And as you said, shipping of the whole unit kills most deals on PS/2 machines.
Click to expand...

Model 90's and 95's are the most sought after PS/2's and becoming very rare. "If the computer is good cosmetic condition"(major consideration), it would certainly be better to keep the unit as a whole. Scrapping a rare and possibly repairable machine for a couple of boards is frowned upon by most of our members.
 
Chuckster_in_Jax said:
Model 90's and 95's are the most sought after PS/2's and becoming very rare. "If the computer is good cosmetic condition"(major consideration), it would certainly be better to keep the unit as a whole. Scrapping a rare and possibly repairable machine for a couple of boards is frowned upon by most of our members.
Click to expand...

Sure, but more then likely it was getting scrapped to begin with. Yes the 90's and 95's are desirable (and luckily I have one of each), but they are also heavy and few people here want to pay shipping. I paid a decent amount for shipping on the 95 to save it, and the 90 was a local find at a recycler destined to be crushed in a matter of days. If somebody wants it whole thats fine by me, otherwise if it going to get recycled at least some people here can get the parts. From the sound of it there are issues with at that might be the planar, but who knows.
 
I have enough dead vintage systems that I - literally - couldn't give away already. I do not need yet another one, no matter how collectible it is to others.

Understanding the collectible nature, I am willing to dedicate some of my storage space - for a short period of time - plus some labor, to enable those collectors who need the parts to get them. But, if nobody is willing to pay shipping, I don't see any reason for me to keep it, just because someone else (who isn't willing to pay for it,) thinks it's important. Items only have the value when someone is willing to provide value. To me, a working 90 would be worth something. However, I am not in a position to spend much money trying to figure out what is wrong with it.

If you want to guilt someone into keeping it out of a landfill/recycler, contact the seller on Craigslist, not me.
 
When you get the PS/ValuePoint 486 let me know what the specs are and what model it is - I have a PS/ValuePoint and am curious what one you've got your hands on.
 
They have arrived.

I'll be tackling them one at a time.

First up is the PS/2 model 77. This puppy is in excellent physical condition. Only one adapter, the XGA-2 card, although one back-panel cover is missing, so I have a feeling there had been another.
This has two extra drives. One is the electronic eject 2.88 MB floppy drive! The other is an IBM-stock tray-load SCSI CD-ROM drive.
It has an Intel 486 DX4/100 that is a plain ceramic top, with an aftermarket heatsink/fan with molex power.

It boots up, counts to 32 MB of RAM, then just sits there. No beeps, no errors, no nothing. Just sits there with 32 MB of RAM having been counted. Dang.
 
Quick writeup of the rest:

PS/2 model 90: 486 DX2/50, 32 MB RAM (4x4MB SIMMs on each of two risers,) two SCSI hard drives, one 2.88 MB floppy, SCSI card, LAN card, display card (XGA, I believe.) Haven't yet booted, but CPU card has some scorch marks on the CPU solder pads. Not looking good for this puppy, I'll probably try swapping the CPU just to see if that'll do it.
PS/ValuePoint 433DX/Si: 486DX/33, 16 MB RAM, 212 MB IDE hard drive, single 1.44 MB floppy, onboard Tseng ET4000/W32 video, ISA 3Com LAN card. Boots to a base PC-DOS 7.1 install
PC350: Pentium of some kind, 16 MB RAM (DIMM, four empty SIMM sockets,) one hard drive, onboard S3 Trio graphics, CD-ROM drive. Haven't yet booted
PC300PL: Pentium III 450 MHz, 256+ MB RAM (Two 128 MB DIMMs plus one unknown capacity,) one hard drive, CD-RW drive. Haven't yet booted.
 
Anonymous Freak said:
...First up is the PS/2 model 77. This puppy is in excellent physical condition. Only one adapter, the XGA-2 card, although one back-panel cover is missing, so I have a feeling there had been another...
It has an Intel 486 DX4/100 that is a plain ceramic top, with an aftermarket heatsink/fan with molex power. It boots up, counts to 32 MB of RAM, then just sits there. No beeps, no errors, no nothing. Just sits there with 32 MB of RAM having been counted...
Click to expand...

So a "Bermuda" planar (XGA-2 video on adapter, planar SCSI). You might reduce the RAM by half (32Mb is the maximum for a Bermuda), reset the bus riser (it determines whether it it a 3-slot Model 76 or 5-slot 77 from loopback pins on the riser), and pull the battery/give it a new battery (on the riser). If nothing gives you a response, I do have spare Bermuda planars.

EDIT: The CPU sounds like it is 3V, in a socket that provides 5V (and it obviously seems the CPU/heatsink combo is a hack). The Lacuna planar had a header for a voltage regulator, but not the Bermuda. Is it possible to switch it out with a 5V DX/DX2 (the submodel coding will even identify which CPU came on it stock)?
 
Last edited:
IBMMuseum said:
EDIT: The CPU sounds like it is 3V, in a socket that provides 5V (and it obviously seems the CPU/heatsink combo is a hack). The Lacuna planar had a header for a voltage regulator, but not the Bermuda. Is it possible to switch it out with a 5V DX/DX2 (the submodel coding will even identify which CPU came on it stock)?
Click to expand...

That is so obvious, I can't believe I missed that. Yeah, I have spare 486s lying around. The stock was apparently an SX/25. Not putting one of THOSE in, that's for sure. I even have a 5V DX4 OverDrive somewhere. (I think it's in my in-storage PS/2 model 77 at the moment, though.)
 
PS: er, well.. PS/2: :p I recently got a PS/2 model 25 from Raven, and while it was well-packed, the shipper was not nice to it. Plugged it in, flipped the switch, nothing happened. Fiddled around, and realized that the switch didn't seem to have any "click" to it as it moved. Took the switch out, and a couple small ball bearings fell out, and I saw that there was some scorching inside there.

Any clues or diagnostic hints, IBMMuseum?

(I was *REALLY* wanting to get it up and running for my really-old-school DOS games.....)
 
Alright. On the PS/2 model 77, I swapped out the 3V DX4 for a 5V DX2/66. Same symptom.

Removed the RAM in increments. Same symptom.

Unplugged the SCSI cable from the motherboard. Bingo! Now it does a floppy seek when it's done counting the RAM, but I get an "I9990021" error. Crap.

I may next try with NO CPU in the socket, as apparently, according to Ardent Tool, this puppy has a 486SX onboard. (Their board layout shows a space marked "Solder pads for 486SX?" where my system has a soldered chip with a gold heatsink pasted to it in that location.)
 
I think the machine is looking for the special partition with hardware information and is crashing when it finds gibberish. With the HD not connected it looks for it on the floppy drive which is empty and then you get the I999 crap (no hardware information). Is the backup battery around 6v or dead?

The older PS/2 machines didn't have enough room in the battery backup RAM to put all the hardware configuration info so they just put enough to know where to find the rest on a special partition on the HD or on a floppy. Without that configuration only the floppy seems to work (allowing you to set the machine up).
 
Unknown_K said:
I think the machine is looking for the special partition with hardware information and is crashing when it finds gibberish. With the HD not connected it looks for it on the floppy drive which is empty and then you get the I999 crap (no hardware information). Is the backup battery around 6v or dead?

The older PS/2 machines didn't have enough room in the battery backup RAM to put all the hardware configuration info so they just put enough to know where to find the rest on a special partition on the HD or on a floppy. Without that configuration only the floppy seems to work (allowing you to set the machine up).
Click to expand...

In this case the CMOS configuration battery is a conventional 2032 3V style (located on the adapter riser). All the configuration is held in battery-backed areas, usually a separate 2Kb chip (EISA does a very similar scheme), and in some instances it needs to be scrubbed by pulling the battery for a long enough period. The "IML" (Initial Machine Load) is also called a "Convenience Partition" (only present on later model microchannel PS/2s), and only replaces the need to have a configuration "Reference Diskette" handy.
 
Anonymous Freak said:
...Unplugged the SCSI cable from the motherboard. Bingo! Now it does a floppy seek when it's done counting the RAM, but I get an "I9990021" error. Crap.

I may next try with NO CPU in the socket, as apparently, according to Ardent Tool, this puppy has a 486SX onboard. (Their board layout shows a space marked "Solder pads for 486SX?" where my system has a soldered chip with a gold heatsink pasted to it in that location.)
Click to expand...

It will have a base 486SX-33 CPU on your planar (Louis evidently diagramed a later planar that was going to have a socketed CPU). That won't change the diagnostic that you have done so far. I've seen one other Bermuda planar that had the SCSI interface go out.

I'd pull the drive, and try reading it in another system. Especially if it can easily rebuilt or you aren't worried about the data, wipe it with an Adaptec BIOS formatting tool, then restore the IML partition when reinstalled on the 77. If the SCSI interface has gone out on the planar, then I think we will be talking about a replacement.
 
Anonymous Freak said:
Quick writeup of the rest:

PS/2 model 90: 486 DX2/50, 32 MB RAM (4x4MB SIMMs on each of two risers,) two SCSI hard drives, one 2.88 MB floppy, SCSI card, LAN card, display card (XGA, I believe.) Haven't yet booted, but CPU card has some scorch marks on the CPU solder pads. Not looking good for this puppy, I'll probably try swapping the CPU just to see if that'll do it.
Click to expand...

If you decide not to part out the 90 and just get rid of it as a whole unit, let me know... I'm not too far from you so shipping shouldn't be horrible.

Question (maybe IBMMuseum can answer it)... Are Model 95 complexes interchangeable with 90's? If so, which ones? I have 2 I found in a box, which I had leftover from my 95 days (long gone now), and I was wondering if they could work as donors for the 90... One of them is a Type 3 (I believe) DX/50 (it has that daughterboard thing, so it might be too big).

I also have an older one that was originally an SX/25, upgraded to DX/2 50 (this is the one that a few weeks ago I though was a 487SX/2, but based on the part number ended up being a 486DX/2 in the 487SX socket).
 
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