Poorly PS/2

[FlyingScotsmanJay]

I am writing on here because I have recently acquired an IBM PS/2 Portable Model 70. I can power on the machine but nothing happens. I hear the hard disk spinning up but there is no activity from the floppy drive or the screen. Connecting to an external monitor produces the same results. I opened the machine up and tried re-seating what cables I could as well as the RAM.

I noticed the CPU has been upgraded to a Cyrix 486 with another Cyrix chip next to it. At this point I expect a the Planar board is a wee bit broken but I was wondering if you could shed any (amber) light on the situation.

Sorry if this has been posted before.

Thanks in advance

Jay

 

[modem7]

Last edited by FlyingScotsmanJay; Today at 04:53 PM. Reason: typing error. Scared of grammar Nazis

The "t" in "typing" should have been capitalised, and there should have been a full stop after "Nazis".

 

[modem7]

Welcome to these forums.
I'm sure that someone with Model 70 experience will answer you shortly.

 

[DOS lives on!!]

Welcome!

If the machine has any MCA cards installed, remove them and see if anything comes up on the screen when it's turned back on.

full stop after "Nazis".

The period should be inside of the quotation marks, not outside.

 

[modem7]

The period should be inside of the quotation marks, not outside.

Ah, but as an Australian, I follow UK convention (unless an Aussie convention takes precedence).
See http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/quotation_(speech)_marks_punctuation_in_or_out.htm

I'm sure that someone with Model 70 experience will answer you shortly.

Now, here is where I made a mistake. "70" should have been "P70".

 

[DOS lives on!!]

Like they say, the English language is the hardest to learn...

 

[RJBJR]

I am writing on here because I have recently acquired an IBM PS/2 Portable Model 70. I can power on the machine but nothing happens. I hear the hard disk spinning up but there is no activity from the floppy drive or the screen. Connecting to an external monitor produces the same results. I opened the machine up and tried re-seating what cables I could as well as the RAM.

I noticed the CPU has been upgraded to a Cyrix 486 with another Cyrix chip next to it. At this point I expect a the Planar board is a wee bit broken but I was wondering if you could shed any (amber) light on the situation.

Sorry if this has been posted before.

Thanks in advance

Jay

Hello Jay, Welcome to the forum!

One thing to try is re-seat the video card, not the cables but the card itself. The video card is located at the top of the case and plugs into the motherboard with an edge connector. There are 3 screws holding the card to the case, plus there are two screws holding the shield to the external video port. After you remove those 5 screws you can wedge a flat bladed screw driver (or your weapon of choice) between the motherboard and card on the left side just after the edge connector. You should be able to move the card about 1/8"or so to just kind of move it out from fully seated, then re-seat and check for your video. To fully remove the card from the slot requires removing the motherboard first and you can do that too if you want, but take some pictures as you go to help in re-assembly.

Some good general info with diagrams can be found at http://ohlandl.ipv7.net/8573/8573-P70.html

Here is another good place to snoop around http://incolor.inetnebr.com/jshorney/p70.htm

One more good source http://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/p70.html

Here is a link to a VCF thread discussing a problem similar to yours http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?33946-Broken-IBM-P70

Those P70's and P75's are finicky beasts.