I'm not sure how many of you here are into vintage computers, but I though it would be good to post these here as I have finally got the beast working. That video is part 5 if you can't be assed with watching them all as I ramble to much.
Lucky bastard! I really want one of those.
I was very lucky in getting one. Not often that someone I know has such equipment they want to go to a good home.
Do you have a CGA for it?
If so, try this demo:
I think it will only work with an NTSC monitor?
Nice job!
I didn't realize these were getting hard to find. I still have mine with it's crazy Z80 and odd ball looking memory. Hasn't been turned on in years.
Look forward to seeing it boot DOS.
That Demo needs to be played on it when I have fully restored it.
I think Dave Jones should be sent one of these to repair because they are quite a challenge.
We have a new part, looking at the disk drives, any advice would be handy thanks, they are foxing me a bit.
If you were not aware, all of the manuals are available on-line in PDF format. Try:
http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/manuals.htm600 covers the diskette drive. Manuals will cover all of the error codes as well.
Not sure the system will boot that 3.5 drive. Low memory may cause it not to boot as well.
Do you have a CGA for it?
If so, try this demo:
Anyone know of where to find instructions for getting it to run?
Must use DOS 3.x
OP, after watching your video, the PC boots VERY fast compared to mine. I am guessing it has next to no RAM and this at least one reason it will not boot.
Do you have a CGA for it?
If so, try this demo:
Anyone know of where to find instructions for getting it to run?
Must use DOS 3.x
OP, after watching your video, the PC boots VERY fast compared to mine. I am guessing it has next to no RAM and this at least one reason it will not boot.
It currently has 32KB of RAM. The fault with it still eludes me. I did not know that about IBM's as the minumum amount of RAM is 16KB.
If you were not aware, all of the manuals are available on-line in PDF format. Try:
http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/manuals.htm
600 covers the diskette drive. Manuals will cover all of the error codes as well.
Not sure the system will boot that 3.5 drive. Low memory may cause it not to boot as well.
Excellent, thanks for the resources. Can be quite difficult to find these some times.
I tried booting 4.0 with the two memory cards removed and it hung like yours. I am not sure if this was because of the lack of RAM or another problem. Once the system was all checked out and back together, I was able to get 4 to boot. This is with 576K and switches set to 544K for that stupid BIOS roll over bug.
I have the manuals for 5 and 7 but I don't see where they cover the requirements. DOS 5 came installed with my first 486 so RAM would not have been a concern.
Keep plugging away at it. You will get it going soon enough.
I tried booting 4.0 with the two memory cards removed and it hung like yours. I am not sure if this was because of the lack of RAM or another problem. Once the system was all checked out and back together, I was able to get 4 to boot. This is with 576K and switches set to 544K for that stupid BIOS roll over bug.
I have the manuals for 5 and 7 but I don't see where they cover the requirements. DOS 5 came installed with my first 486 so RAM would not have been a concern.
Keep plugging away at it. You will get it going soon enough.
Thanks.
Like any restoration is was completely dead when I first got it. I am slowly figuring out the bugs, I do reckon the RAM issue is affecting the FDD drives though, not sure how true the RAM thing is. I am trying to run MS-DOS 3.30 on it. Can't find any documentation on the diagnostics cassette though. I do make more progress every time I debug the machine so the project is going well.
I looked in some of my old books and on the Microsoft site to see if I could find you a good number but had no luck.
This site does have a short note about it.
http://www.os2museum.com/wp/dos/dos-1-0-and-1-1/It should be noted that DOS would theoretically be able to run on the base PC model with 16KB RAM. However, this was not an option in practice: The PC’s BIOS loaded the boot sector (from a floppy) at address 7C00h, which is 31KB, meaning that it was not possible to boot DOS on a PC with less than 32KB memory.
This may also be of interest to you
http://www.os2museum.com/wp/hang-with-early-dos-boot-sector/
Fantastic videos. Thanks!
Fantastic videos. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed. An engineering form means there has to be vintage computer enthusiasts somewhere.
I think Dave Jones should be sent one of these to repair because they are quite a challenge.
Why, so he could spend 30 minutes on talking how he has no time to actually fix it?
love your yt channel, another garbage electronics enthusiast like me
subbed
I looked in some of my old books and on the Microsoft site to see if I could find you a good number but had no luck.
This site does have a short note about it.
http://www.os2museum.com/wp/dos/dos-1-0-and-1-1/
It should be noted that DOS would theoretically be able to run on the base PC model with 16KB RAM. However, this was not an option in practice: The PC’s BIOS loaded the boot sector (from a floppy) at address 7C00h, which is 31KB, meaning that it was not possible to boot DOS on a PC with less than 32KB memory.
This may also be of interest to you
http://www.os2museum.com/wp/hang-with-early-dos-boot-sector/
Nice, good find. I have just ordered some more RAM, sadly the stuff is getting really hard to find. I just bought out someones full stock of the stuff. I am suspecting a RAM addressing issue though.
this just screams 'Alley Cat'. Get it working then run the program.
I'm sure you will get it sorted out. If you could find an old AST Six Pack or Intel expansion board for it, you would be in. We had those 6-packs in every PC at work back then with our 5M FH 5" drives.
Wow, I can tell you stories about the 5150 and it's predecessors. I worked in software development for IBM in 1980 on a temporary assignment for two years. I met Don Estridge, he gave us all plaques for our contribution to that box, mine was very, very minor, having to do with the delivery system which configured the applications. The plaque read something about "since you put everything into it", can't remember the rest, in the closet somewhere, saw it not that long ago. Too bad about Don dying in that plane accident in Texas. I still remember that day.
The team I was on, application software architecture, contributed to the decision to not pursue the OS internally within IBM. At that time we were working on manufacturing applications for the predecessor called the DataMaster. IBM didn't want to release a box without application software so there was a second team that was porting the DataMaster apps (based on MAPICS) to what was then called "the little guy". Don't remember if they ever ported them as I went back to the field sales in '82 as an SE?
Customers were buying one box at a time and running benchmarks on the interpreter BASIC. The results depended on the internal sorting of the instructions the interpreter looked up. Who would think that would make a difference today. I remember when the PC took off. I sold hundreds of thousands of those boxes thru the early years until landing in large systems.
I wonder what happened to all those PCs and the infamous Pc Jr?
Oh yes games for it will be acquired once it is fully operational. May even do videos on some for you all to enjoy
I'm sure you will get it sorted out. If you could find an old AST Six Pack or Intel expansion board for it, you would be in. We had those 6-packs in every PC at work back then with our 5M FH 5" drives.
Nice, shame you never really find this sort of equipment hiding in cupboards anymore. Use to find a lot of 90s stuff in school and this was the early 2000s. Found 2 nice 1992 laptops though.
Wow, I can tell you stories about the 5150 and it's predecessors. I worked in software development for IBM in 1980 on a temporary assignment for two years. I met Don Estridge, he gave us all plaques for our contribution to that box, mine was very, very minor, having to do with the delivery system which configured the applications. The plaque read something about "since you put everything into it", can't remember the rest, in the closet somewhere, saw it not that long ago. Too bad about Don dying in that plane accident in Texas. I still remember that day.
The team I was on, application software architecture, contributed to the decision to not pursue the OS internally within IBM. At that time we were working on manufacturing applications for the predecessor called the DataMaster. IBM didn't want to release a box without application software so there was a second team that was porting the DataMaster apps (based on MAPICS) to what was then called "the little guy". Don't remember if they ever ported them as I went back to the field sales in '82 as an SE?
Customers were buying one box at a time and running benchmarks on the interpreter BASIC. The results depended on the internal sorting of the instructions the interpreter looked up. Who would think that would make a difference today. I remember when the PC took off. I sold hundreds of thousands of those boxes thru the early years until landing in large systems.
I wonder what happened to all those PCs and the infamous Pc Jr?
I love getting info from you guys who got to work on this stuff while it was being developed. They tend to ether have been chucked out or hiding in cupboards waiting for us collectors to find them. You can find private computer collections all over the web.