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IBM 5140 disassembly

prime

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2009
Messages
153
Location
Coventry, UK
Hi all,

Well I finally got myself a 5140, but alas no PSU and the keyboard seems to have come lose :(

Anyway before powering it up I want to take it apart, fix the keyboard and make sure everything looks OK inside.

I've been following the disassembly guide on :

http://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/ohland/5140.html

However my machine also has the Parallel / Serial adapter, I've got as far as taking the cover off the back of the machine that is over the serial / parallel board, but cannot get any further. I presume that I'll have to remove the ser/par board to get to the real back of the machine, but I'm unsure of how to proceed as it seems pretty solidly fixed on there.

So does anyone know how to get this sucker off ?

Cheers.

Phill.
 
Look on one of the sides of the serial\parallel addon, there should be a small switch you pull back and it comes off, or at least my 5140 printer is that way.
 
Be careful taking apart he 5140 it is very fragile. In fact you really don't need to get to the back of the machine for any reason. The Keyboard can be lifted up for inspection. Underneath it you will find access to the memory (for adding more RAM). If you do continue to take it apart make sure to be gentle in removing the floppy drives. They have little tabs on the bottom that break off easily.
 
Look on one of the sides of the serial\parallel addon, there should be a small switch you pull back and it comes off, or at least my 5140 printer is that way.

Bingo!

Thanks for that I figured it had to be something like that, one of those situatiions of once you know you know :)

Cheers.

Phill.
 
Be careful taking apart he 5140 it is very fragile. In fact you really don't need to get to the back of the machine for any reason. The Keyboard can be lifted up for inspection. Underneath it you will find access to the memory (for adding more RAM). If you do continue to take it apart make sure to be gentle in removing the floppy drives. They have little tabs on the bottom that break off easily.

Well as the machine was unknown I wanted to at least check that the PSU section wasn't fried ! But I have not removed the section with the drives in.

Managed to get the keyboard out and unplugged just need to figure out a way of re attaching the keyboard to the top plate as two of the retaining posts have had the top part shear off, annoyingly opposite corners :(

I also have 3 keys, right ALT and two of the arrows that have broken off, though the actual keys still work.


Machine has 512K of memory (4 memory boards, so I presume 4x128K), have to look for (or make) a 256K board.

Thankfully both drives seem to work, I booted my dos5 install disk and was able to read the other, will try formatting disks to make sure.

I still need to test the battery, though if it's dead I may just leave it disconnected, as I have a universal laptop PSU to run it off.
One thing I did notice is it looks like there is apace on top of the battery compartment where something was intended to go, was this where the modem was, it strikes me that it may be possible to use the modem connector to fit a hard disk or CF card internally, obviously you'd need to write a BIOS for it tho.

Cheers.

Phill.
 
A good thing about that keyboard is it uses Alps switches, so replacing a key switch isn't as hard as a rubberdome. All that you really need to do is find an old Alps board that was trashed or something and pull a switch off. I believe the 5140 has three different types, which are simply for the feel (some are stiffer than others), however a common white Alps should work fine.

You can also get a new 5140 power cord cheap on ebay, although I have no idea how much shipping would be to your location (I doubt international shipping will be cheap).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/230457176052
 
A good thing about that keyboard is it uses Alps switches, so replacing a key switch isn't as hard as a rubberdome. All that you really need to do is find an old Alps board that was trashed or something and pull a switch off. I believe the 5140 has three different types, which are simply for the feel (some are stiffer than others), however a common white Alps should work fine.

Ahh yes they looked like a common type, though in this case it wasn't the key itself that was broken it was the keycap, successfully super-glued them back on last night :) :)

You can also get a new 5140 power cord cheap on ebay, although I have no idea how much shipping would be to your location (I doubt international shipping will be cheap).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/230457176052

Ohhh thanks for that I might actually go for that as the current PSU is a universal laptop one, and because the power connector is so deep inside the case I had to make up a little lead to adapt it. Besides having the proper PSU would be good.

Cheers.

Phill.
 
Well as the machine was unknown I wanted to at least check that the PSU section wasn't fried ! But I have not removed the section with the drives in.

Managed to get the keyboard out and unplugged just need to figure out a way of re attaching the keyboard to the top plate as two of the retaining posts have had the top part shear off, annoyingly opposite corners :(

I also have 3 keys, right ALT and two of the arrows that have broken off, though the actual keys still work.


Machine has 512K of memory (4 memory boards, so I presume 4x128K), have to look for (or make) a 256K board.

Thankfully both drives seem to work, I booted my dos5 install disk and was able to read the other, will try formatting disks to make sure.

I still need to test the battery, though if it's dead I may just leave it disconnected, as I have a universal laptop PSU to run it off.
One thing I did notice is it looks like there is apace on top of the battery compartment where something was intended to go, was this where the modem was, it strikes me that it may be possible to use the modem connector to fit a hard disk or CF card internally, obviously you'd need to write a BIOS for it tho.

Cheers.

Phill.

Phill,

The PSU is actually accessible from the back. It is a small circuit board. I have the original instructions on accessing it. I will try and scan them tonight or tomorrow and post them. The battery will either be dead or close to it. Mine has 5 minutes of juice in it in one, and the other one was completely dead.... I am not sure exactly where you are talking about above the battery. The modem jacks come out the side of the main unit (opposite from the power button). If you can post a picture of what you are talking about I'll see. It is a fun little unit but really limited - if it even had one ISA slot or a way to add a HDD through a plug-in module (ala the side car mods on the PC Jr.) it would be a much more usable unit. Have fun with it.
 
I've not been paying close attention, but if you need some scans from the Technical Reference manual I can do that for you. (I was lucky enough to get the manuals from another forum member, so I need to spread the wealth/knowledge.)
 
Thanks folks - especially Compgeke - I Just picked up a PC Convertible and could not figure out how to get the Serial Extension off.
 
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