IBM eduquest 55 - info?

[luckybob]

I recently came into possession of what I assume is an Eduquest fifty five. (image attached)

I read it as fifty five, though I will admit it might be a thirty five. I just can't tell. The price was unbeatable in either case so once it gets here tomorrow, I will know for sure. I have my doubts as according to the tracking number it is currently just outside of Omaha, NE and no matter how many times I press F5 it hasn't moved.

Yes, like a kid on Christmas eve, I'm "excited". To say the least.

So, doing some preemptive research, I have come up a bit dry. I'm fairly certain it has sound. I'm not overly interested in token ring, but it would give me an excuse to break out the MCU. I was told it booted, and it had 15mb of ram, and has the symptoms of a dead battery. (shocking) the 15mb of ram, I hope is a typo, 16 makes much more sense, and if he is correct, it would be a concern to me. I don't doubt the guy I'm getting it from. I honestly just jumped headfirst into this.

so, ultimately i'm asking the following;

1. any pitfalls that I should avoid? I'm going to treat this thing like a Model 25 for now.
2. any particular images anyone want? - I will post proper images here once I get it, don't worry.
3. Rom dumps? Hard drive files? etc?
4. upgrade options? - I have a POD-83 I assume will work.

[glitch]

These were the newer machines found in our computer labs in gradeschool -- the older ones were Model 25s. All of ours had Model M spacesaver keyboards in the computer labs, sometimes full-size Model Ms if they were on their own in a classroom or the library. There must've been an Ethernet option for them as everything in the county was Ethernet. I believe the EduQuests used 10base2, I seem to recall the labs being daisy-chained for an entire table.

They ran some IBM network system, forget what it was called, but the splash screen was a white text on blue background ASCII IBM (e.g. IBM spelled out in huge block letters). They booted DOS from the local disk and loaded the network system, mounted some drives, and put you in a menu system where you could choose various educational things (typing tutor, etc.) or boot into Windows 3.1.

[luckybob]

Yea, I got a full sized keyboard with it also. As hard as it is to get IBM PS/2 machines with sound I might actually use it for games. ^.^

[luckybob]

Got the machine early today.



It is a 55. It boots into windows 95, but the sound drivers are missing. The config was solved with a new 2032 battery. It looks like it HAD a network card, but its gone. the 15mb this was an error, the guy didn't add the 640k in. 66mhz with NO heatsink, 16mb ram and a 1gb hard disk.

So, it looks like it uses standard simms. I'm going to be testing the limits this board will take. I even have some 128mb dimms to try. (a highly unlikely possibility it will work, but I might as well try)

The L2 cache chips are missing, and it looks like it will accept standard 32 pin srams.

TO DO:

upgrade to scsi
max dram/sram/vram
clean and retrobrite?

[Chuckster_in_Jax]

http://ps-2.kev009.com/wct/ps2/eduquest.htm

http://www.walshcomptech.com/ps2/eqm50.htm

[luckybob]

I did find both of those sites quite easily. I do have them bookmarked from other projects.

I did take it apart last night and gave it a good cleaning. It is actually a REALLY nice chassis. They even have doors to make it easy to access the 5.25" bay. I kinda miss the tilt of the model 25, but honestly the larger screen makes up for it.

I noticed the sound card is SUPER close to the top of the simms in this machine. So it will make it slightly annoying to find high capacity simms, and keep them short.

[luckybob]

it was a 55! and it works!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlXGfqc4X38

How difficult is getting a ethernet card for that special back-assward slot?

[mlaferriere]

Hey, how much fun did you have with it? Does it need reference disks to change anything like the PS/2 line? There is one for sale on eBay now. If I had heard of the Eduquest before I obviously totally forgot. And as usual Google brings me to VCFed whenever I query something odd. I have bought off this vendor before and they seem to be great. I purchased a PC Jr and it arrived well packed with foam, tight bubble wrap etc all wedged nicely in the box. There was a large gash through the box and into the PC Jr. This damage didnt show on the sellers pictures and it did match the damage to the box the vendor offered to make it right and since its (hopefully) just cosmetic to the case maybe I can fix it or whatever.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VTG-IB...wAAOSwUgdbi9Uw

[luckybob]

Well it looks nice at the end of my desk. As an unmedicated adult with ADD, I've switched projects like once a month.

It works, I installed 256k of L2 cache. I had bought 1mb, but I didn't look at the motherboard and it only accepts 28-pin dips.
I found a token ring card
I was going to build a token ring to ethernet bridge, I had gotten the hardware assembled, but I was having issues finding software, but then I switched jobs and next thing I know, I'm getting into old tube radios.

I still have my ears open for a ethernet card, but I'm not exactly holding my breath here. Yes, I completely understand I can just drop a regular ISA card into one of the other slots, but that whole "non-medicated" thing kicks in and refuses to let me go the easy route when I have a special slot I can fill.

My garage is filled with half-assed projects.

[jafir]

That slot would probably have a token ring card instead of Ethernet.

My sister had one of these that work let her take home to work remotely back in the late 1990s. It had a cool model M keyboard that had a track ball right over the arrow keys. I used that keyboard for years. I don’t remember exactly what I did with it. I think I eventually gave it back to her. I’ve only seen one like it on eBay and they want over $300 for it. I emailed Unicomp and they said they couldn’t make that one. But hey do have another style with the trackball hanging off the top.