IBM P70 and 5545T found today! What's the story on the 5545T? P70 guides? MCA advice?

[aaron7]

Picked these up off Facebook marketplace today for a great price. I've wanted a P70 again for a long time. Jeez, it's been 20 years since I've owned one!

Anyways, aside from the numbers, from the outside both these look identical.

Internally they have different motherboards and video cards. (P70 internals pictured first, second shot is 5545T)

One says "Personal System/55 5545T" and the other says the standard "Personal System/2 Model P70 386".

I can't find much info on the 5545T. What was it? Later release before the P75?

Powered both up. The P70 goes through POST and seeks the FDD, but the HDD is clunking and the display doesn't show any signs of life.

The 5545T seems to work perfectly aside from the read errors with the FDD as expected.

Are there any disassembly guides available online? Been so long since I've had one of these apart to remove the FDD.

I've been out of the game for so long, are there any working sites for MCA drivers? ADR files if I remember correctly, right?

And might anyone have a link to the setup floppy image to change CMOS settings?

Thanks everyone, good to be posting here again!

 

[krebizfan]

Start with http://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/p70.html and track down the tpvol1 pdf mentioned there. The link to the old IBM FTP does not work but I believe there are other copies at various PS/2 websites. It is about 3 MB though that includes many other systems. The PDF makes most of the line drawings look very faded.

The PS/55 lineup was Japanese. Surprised you found one. I think the 5545T was made after the P70 but it is effectively the counterpart to the P70 for the PS/55 lineup. Information about the whole line is scarce in English. I am sure there are web pages leading to documents but all in Japanese. If you find anything, please provide an update.

 

[aaron7]

Guessing someone swapped the keyboard for an English one. Explains this sticker!

 

[MissArgent]

Oh, the p70! Great machines, but the way the floppy drive is oriented makes them prone to issues with dust. Give the mechanics (lube/cleanliness/etc.) a one-over if you get a chance. A refdisk imag can be acquired from the p70 section of Walsh's site.

 

[aaron7]

Both drives are the Alps brand which are notorious for leaky SMD caps. I'll be replacing all of those. Both drives actually appear VERY clean inside which is rare!

I've downloaded the refdisk, just need to get a functioning floppy and I can start upgrading these beasts!

 

[luckybob]

I really like the P70, a classic machine. It is always a blessing to see one that hasn't been carved up by the keyboard shitheads that plague this world.

 

[aaron7]

Glad I'm not sure what you mean about people ruining old keyboards! Love the feel of this one. Some keys require a little harder press, but that's going away with some usage.

 

[aaron7]

Delving deeper into the P70 vs 5545T differences.

Not sure if these are model differences or just things that were changed over the years?

Motherboards are different.

Video cards are VASTLY different. P70 has the LCD connection on the video card, 5545T does not and has a daughterboard! Wonder what the hardware differences are.

Inside back cover there is more text on the 5545T vs the P70 (as it was made in/for Japan).

Interesting!

 

[luckybob]

I'd wager the difference in the video card is a requirement of the Japanese language. If indeed the 5545t is a regional version of the p70.

 

[aaron7]

I'd wager the difference in the video card is a requirement of the Japanese language. If indeed the 5545t is a regional version of the p70.

That'd make sense. The daughter board sports extra VRAM too! Interesting.

And yes, I've been comparing it against my P70. Everything inside the P70 says USA on it. Everything in the 5545t was made in Japan using IBM tooling. No idea how it got here!