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XT monitor?

Is that the monochrome graphics card? If so, I'm betting that it is a Hercules clone. I have one that is quite similar in the spares box. Then again, I also have a CGA card that looks similar - complete with the parallel port. Look at your DIP switches and see what display they are set to. It should tell you what the card is (assuming they are set correctly...).
 
Typical aftermarket monochrome/printer card in the picture (probably based on a "Twinhead" or some other chipset). The 16-bit VGA card that you gave a link to won't probably have an 8-bit version itself, but might work in an 8-bit slot. I seem to remember a similiar adapter around here, so I will look.
 
The video card he posted the first link to is the VGA card, seems to have 1 Meg. of Video RAM, which means it is likely not to work in the 8-bit slot (in my experience).

I have one of these at home somewhere (posting from work right now. When I get home, I can look for it and try fitting it in an 8 bit slot and seeing if it works.
 
Thanks, I'll look at the DIPs.

Also, 7 and 8 are set to 01, so that means I have 2 disk drives, but I really have 1 disk drive and one hard drive. Should I fix it to say one disk drive?
 
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DIPs 2 and 8 are on, the rest are off. I'll try the VGA with them set correctly now.

edit: Nevermind... I just noticed, in the corner of my VGA card it says, "FOR USE IN PC/AT 16 BIT SLOT ONLY" real small.
 
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Since your VGA card apparently isn't going to work, send me a PM with your snail mail address and I'll send you one of my old VGA cards that I know will work in an 8-bit slot.

Several years ago, I bought a lot of about 20 or 25 ISA slot VGA cards on Ebay, I paid something between $5 and $10 (plus shipping, of course) for the lot. Most of them are from the 1988-1992 era. Not all of them work in an 8-bit slot, but more than half do. I'll use some of them surely, but not all of them.

Even with the card, you're still going to need an XT compatible keyboard to do anything.

BTW, was it an IBM computer? (The IBM PC series didn't come with an 8 mhz. chip, they were all 4.77 mhz., that's why I had asked about the brand. Somebody could have put an 8mhz. chip in it, but it would still be running at 4.77 mhz).
 
Any chance of some photos? A genuine IBM should have the metal badge on the front, another on the back, and a big sticker near the PSU with the model number and other such info on it.

A photo of the case and mainboard should identify it :)
 
I've had numerous IBM PC's and PC-XT's and none of them have ever had the badges and stickers removed. The badge and sticker on the back of the IBM's are really well attached and would require a real effort to get off, at least on all the examples I've got.

Somebody could have put an IBM marked floppy into a clone.

The reason I bring this up is because I have several IBM PC clones in cases that look exactly, EXACTLY like the IBM case. The only slight difference in their appearance is the number and length of the slot openings on the front left side of the case. The slot openings in the clones are very similar, but you almost have to compare them side by side to see the difference.

Usually the clones ran faster (8 or 10 mhz.) than the 4.77 mhz. of the IBM.
 
...As far as I can tell it's an IBM with all the stickers removed (looks just like an XT case, but no logo, only an indentation where it should be)

With a formed squared indentation on an XT-style case it is a clone (IBM XT badges were stuck on with no identation in the case). The AT does have an indentation, but that is to spin the badge the correct way if there is a floorstand used. There was also the bezel around the case lock and HDD LED of the AT that had the right orientation to be swapped out when using the floorstand too.
 
All my IBM 5150's and 5160's have square indentations on the case where the front badge is attached, which makes the height of the badge the same as the rest of the face of the case.

Some of the clone cases have no badge on them, but a rectangular identation where a badge could be attached. Others have a rectangular badge in an indentation.
 
OK, so it's a 5150, but it will give you a general idea of how an XT looks :)

5150_case3.JPG


5150_case4.JPG
 
It looks just like that, only the IBM sticker isn't there and the indentation where it should be is rectangular, about 3 times as wide but about the same height.

Well, and other minor details like the spacing of the ISA slots and the keyboard port is at the bottom instead of the middle :p
 
The keyboard port is at the bottom, I think you are looking at a blanking plug on the rear :)

My picture is of a 5150, an XT has different slot spacing and no cassette port.

Yours sounds like a clone. It would be interesting to see what motherboard is fitted!

I have a clone motherboard in my parts stash, it has a Turbo mode to 8MHz!
 
This sounds very much to me like an XT clone system. You say the keyboard jack is on the bottom, you mean on the front under the Bezel? That sounds an awful lot like an XT clone chassis I had once, except this one had a flip top that had 2 push buttons on each side that popped the top open like a car hood. It might have a Turbo Switch in that same location too.
 
I got the VGA card. It works fine, but the XT gives me an error when I turn it on, "System Error #Ready!20", like it's trying to say ready and error at the same time :confused:. When it does boot, it checks the RAM, then asks for a disk in drive A:, even though I have a hard drive :(

Btw, I still don't have a keyboard attached, so that might be the first error.
 
Yes, you'll have to get an XT compatible keyboard before you can go any further.

Hard drives in these old systems did not usually take well to long term non-use and storage. It could be dead, and it could just need a low-level format, fdisk and dos format.

You're also going to need a DOS boot disk, probably on a 5-1/4 inch, 360 K floppy.
 
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