Haunter_1
Member
Hello Vcfed members,
I'm not very good at introductions and admit that at times I tend to write in the style of an operations manual, but I suppose that is the manner of a working manufacturing equipment designer.
I suppose I'll start with a brief backstory that led me here.
I came across this forum, among other sites, after helping my dad move out of his house while he planned his retirement a few months ago. When clearing out the attic I came across a big blue rectangular bag which weighed a ton. It was covered in dust but there was a tag on it which said "IBM". I knew instantly what it was, but was in disbelief for I thought it had been recycled 25 years ago. It was his IBM 5155 PC Portable which was the first computer I ever used.
He had written it off as a lost cause after purchasing a Gateway 2000 (and investing in iomega) in 1995, but put it in the attic I assume due to how much money he had spent keeping it going. He said it was considered a boat anchor when he put it up there and didn't believe it would do anything at all after spending 25 years in an attic which would could melt steel in the summer. Anyway, not saying much, I quietly packed it up, along with some other things I found including all of the original IBM manuals and disks and an Amdek 310a monitor, and took it home with me.
When I got it home I unpacked it, set it on my desk, plugged it in, and flipped the switch. Power supply Vmmm.... nothing. Switch it on again Vmmm.... nothing, But after a few tries the it made the familiar sounds I heard when I was a kid and was displaying a blank amber screen. No post, no beeps; just an amber screen. I began doing some online digging and landed on minuszerodegrees.net, and a youtube video by RetroSpector78 which eventually led me down the right path and in no time It would display POST and make it's way into Basic.
I was pleased to find that my dad had really gone to town on the upgrades, and kept the machine clean and in excellent condition. In addition to the CGA card and Floppy controller it had pretty much every other card available at the time installed except for slot 8 (I didn't know why until later). It does have an 8087, and the Qume drive worked perfectly and I was able to boot into Dos 2 from the original disks. The hard drive was stuck however but came to life after some lubrication and it was able to boot into the dos 4.01 which was on there! Unfortunately... my excitement overwhelmed my common sense and I accidentally booted the machine with the drive laying on top of the 5155s floppy disk glovebox which I had thought was made out of plastic... unfortunately it wasn't and created a short between solder points on the bottom of the board. It's fixable, but maybe at a later date.
Instead, I installed a really nice Alps 360k drive in the bottom slot, and discovered the world of XT-ide. For better or for worse after the Hard disk thing, It's finally turning into a usable machine. I didn't know half what I now know about computers before starting this whole thing, and I don't plan to stop anytime soon. My dad still doesn't know I have this thing or that it now runs, but I do plan to impress him at his retirement party in August with it.
I plan to keep it and use it for everything it can do because it's fun, it works, I learn things, and I like to. Not to mention that when writing posts this long a Model F keyboard is clearly the way to go.
Anyway, I look forward to communicating with all of you in the future and hope that I may at some time be able to contribute more knowledge than I receive.
Cheers,
Haunter_1
I'm not very good at introductions and admit that at times I tend to write in the style of an operations manual, but I suppose that is the manner of a working manufacturing equipment designer.
I suppose I'll start with a brief backstory that led me here.
I came across this forum, among other sites, after helping my dad move out of his house while he planned his retirement a few months ago. When clearing out the attic I came across a big blue rectangular bag which weighed a ton. It was covered in dust but there was a tag on it which said "IBM". I knew instantly what it was, but was in disbelief for I thought it had been recycled 25 years ago. It was his IBM 5155 PC Portable which was the first computer I ever used.
He had written it off as a lost cause after purchasing a Gateway 2000 (and investing in iomega) in 1995, but put it in the attic I assume due to how much money he had spent keeping it going. He said it was considered a boat anchor when he put it up there and didn't believe it would do anything at all after spending 25 years in an attic which would could melt steel in the summer. Anyway, not saying much, I quietly packed it up, along with some other things I found including all of the original IBM manuals and disks and an Amdek 310a monitor, and took it home with me.
When I got it home I unpacked it, set it on my desk, plugged it in, and flipped the switch. Power supply Vmmm.... nothing. Switch it on again Vmmm.... nothing, But after a few tries the it made the familiar sounds I heard when I was a kid and was displaying a blank amber screen. No post, no beeps; just an amber screen. I began doing some online digging and landed on minuszerodegrees.net, and a youtube video by RetroSpector78 which eventually led me down the right path and in no time It would display POST and make it's way into Basic.
I was pleased to find that my dad had really gone to town on the upgrades, and kept the machine clean and in excellent condition. In addition to the CGA card and Floppy controller it had pretty much every other card available at the time installed except for slot 8 (I didn't know why until later). It does have an 8087, and the Qume drive worked perfectly and I was able to boot into Dos 2 from the original disks. The hard drive was stuck however but came to life after some lubrication and it was able to boot into the dos 4.01 which was on there! Unfortunately... my excitement overwhelmed my common sense and I accidentally booted the machine with the drive laying on top of the 5155s floppy disk glovebox which I had thought was made out of plastic... unfortunately it wasn't and created a short between solder points on the bottom of the board. It's fixable, but maybe at a later date.
Instead, I installed a really nice Alps 360k drive in the bottom slot, and discovered the world of XT-ide. For better or for worse after the Hard disk thing, It's finally turning into a usable machine. I didn't know half what I now know about computers before starting this whole thing, and I don't plan to stop anytime soon. My dad still doesn't know I have this thing or that it now runs, but I do plan to impress him at his retirement party in August with it.
I plan to keep it and use it for everything it can do because it's fun, it works, I learn things, and I like to. Not to mention that when writing posts this long a Model F keyboard is clearly the way to go.
Anyway, I look forward to communicating with all of you in the future and hope that I may at some time be able to contribute more knowledge than I receive.
Cheers,
Haunter_1
