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IBM PS/2 TYPE 8580 Issues

Nitadil

New Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2018
Messages
3
Location
Lithuania, Vilnius
A few months ago I've got myself this old computer. I always was fascinated by these old things, so the idea of getting one and repairing it came to me naturally.
The problem is, I am really new to this kind of stuff.

First of all, when I boot it up two things appear: Error 161 and 163.
I did my research, the problem was with the CMOS battery, so I've replaced it. Now I need to get my hands on a Reference Disk, and this is where I got stuck.
I got myself a new floppy diskette (not quite sure if it was used and would it even affect something by that?), but here's the problem -
https://museo.freaknet.org/gallery/ibm/ps2/stuff/faq.html
It says that I have to run the file, but my windows does not recognize the file. I've tried to run it in compatibility mode,but to no avail.
In this link it's an EXE file

http://www.walshcomptech.com/selectpccbbs/ - in this link it's an ISO file. I've tried to write it on a floppy, but again, when I boot up my IBM with this floppy nothing happens, says the same errors (Although when I press DEL on the keyboard it tries to boot up to MS-DOS, but it just says it, and does nothing)

I am a complete newbie here, so if anyone could help please do.
 
A ".img" file is can be just a disk image. It could be any sort of disk, not just CD/DVD. I generally use EMT4WIN but it looks like Daniel has replace this with Ardi4USB http://dvalot.free.fr/emtcopy.html
You seem to be able to fine EMT4WIN here http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1081&menustate=0
You may also find this page usefull

http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/8580/8580_Common_Devices.html

the three files at the top labeled are HMR, HMS and HMM are hardware manuals, but you will need the IBM Softcopy reader to read them

https://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ibm10731199

you most likely have a bad floppy as well. Be careful when replacing as the PS/2 model 80 from what I remember, gets its power from the data cable. Plugging a normal floppy in can pop the psu.
there are some articles on here about using a normal floppy.
 
At the top if the page with the images it says the disk images are RAW format and has a link at top right to a *zip file With RAWRIGHT.EXE in it. Unzip the disk file, at the Dos prompt run rawrite with the *.raw file to A: From the readme.txt

Disk Utilities
==============

DISKCOPY.COM DR-DOS disk copying utlitiy.
This will copy disk to disk,
disk to image file, or image
file to disk.

LOADDSKF.EXE IBM disk image utilities. LOADDSKF
SAVEDSKF.EXE will write an image file to disk.
SAVEDSKF will create an image file
from a disk.

RAWRITE.EXE GNU disk image utilities. RAWRITE
RAWREAD.EXE will write an image file to disk.
RAWREAD will create an image file
from a disk.

TELEGET.EXE TELEDISK image file to disk utility.
TGCONFIG.EXE This utility will only read .TG0 files,
create by IBM. TGCONFIG.EXE is a
configuration utility for TELEGET.EXE.
 
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If you can create a Dos boot disk at https://www.allbootdisks.com/download/dos.html click on the Automatic Boot Disk link. That will take you to Dos boot disk creator exes. Use a Dos 5.0 file. Dos 6.* have cdrom drivers installed and will possibly hang looking for cdrom like it did on my 286. Considering your system will have ST506 or SCSI hard drives it most likely will. The Dos 6.0 disk booted fine on a 486 with IDE CDRom. Download the file to your Desktop. You will see a new icon with Dos5.0.exe file name on your Desktop created. Click on the the Dos5.0.exe file icon twice to run it and a welcome prompt shows up. Next it'll ask you to put in a floppy. Put in a clean floppy in the Disk drive and select OK and you'll get a prompt warning you you will loose any data on the disk, select Yes. On first run in Win10 it'll ask if you want to install the app. because it hasn't been verified. Select run installation or whatever and the disk creation process will take place. Once finished remove and label the disk and you can use it to boot the IBM. I just created an Dos 5.0 and Dos6.0 disks on my wifes modern Win10 laptop using a usb external 1.44meg fdd and they worked just fine.

The file also runs from the command prompt by just typing the file name and pressing enter.

Correction: I see those PS/2 are *.img format. I use RawWrite for Windows http://www.chrysocome.net/rawwrite It's small and works real well on Win10 using USB external fdd.
 
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I successfully created the reference diskette using WinImage from the link I posted......
and the extracted image (rf7080a.img)
 
I used WinImage to write the reference disk on to the floppy. All seemed to go well, the screen became blue with the IBM logo on it, and I pressed Enter.
After that I tried to use both automatic configuration and the "manual" one, after that the error 161 and 163 disappeared, but now the error 165 has appeared ( PS/2 System options not set), so I've tried to run those configurations but nothing seems to work.
Although, a Warning panel appeared, in both cases. The first one, in the automatic config. says

"The description file for the adapter in slot 2 was not found. Insert the diskette with the correct file and press Enter(I don't have that diskette). When you are trough configuring the system, go to the Main Menu and choose 'Copy an option diskette' to install the files for the adapter"

I am pretty sure that it has nothing to do with configuring the whole system, but I can be wrong on that. So I press 'Cancel' on that thing and it continues to do it's automatic config. till it says that I have to press Enter to restart the machine. It restarts and shows the same error 165.

When I press Non automatic config., it brings me to the Main Menu where 6 options are shown:
1. Backup the Reference Diskette
2. Set config.
3. Set features
4. Copy an option diskette - This requires the removal of reference diskette and inserting a new one with other options (no idea what other options it really needs and where to find them)
5. Test the computer - So basically, a manual configuration
6. Display revision levels

I checked everything, clicked everything, in the end I am still here watching at this 165 error.
Oh and, sorry if I sound really sloppy here and unprofessional, reading you guys and understand is quite hard on my end :rolleyes:
 
WinImage worked a treat to create the floppy disks for my PS/2 Model 30 286. If your machine won't recognise it after that it would be worth cleaning the heads on the PS/2 drive.
 
"The description file for the adapter in slot 2 was not found. Insert the diskette with the correct file and press Enter(I don't have that diskette).

If you don't have that file you have two options. Find the file or remove the card. Until you do that the PS/2 can't set the resources (e.g. DMA, IO and Memory) that the card requires and so the system isn't configured and you get an error 165...
 
IBM PS/2's require an 'Adapter Description File' (*.ADF) for each card/adapter installed.

Which card is installed in Slot 2 ? You need to find the ADF file for that card, and either copy it to your
reference diskette or copy it to a separate diskette and insert that when prompted.
 
After a few days of trying I've lost my patience and left the restoration project for a month or so(who can blame me)... But, I collected my courage and began to torture myself again! I read previous comments, looked around here and there and found this: In my slot 2 there is a "Enhanced Memory Expansion Option 80386". After I realized that I did the following:
1) Added .adf files into Reference disk (not sure if that was correct)
2) I tried to again run automatic reference set up.

The thing is, I am now greeted with another problem. I never actually got to the screen where that "Description file for slot 2 etc" appears, so I don't know if I injected those adf files properly, but the thing is, no longer an error 165 appears, but a new, much more frustrating one appeared. It's a problem with SCSI adapter, fixed disk. The error goes like this:
0210101E 540L

Now I'm completely stuck, again. Again, thanks in advance and sorry for being so sluggish and etc.
 
There is some info here about those type of error messages:
http://ps-2.kev009.com/pcpartnerinfo/ctstips/49fe.htm

For example:
Here is an example by decoding the SCSI message 0210608C 601I:
0210608C 601I
| | |||| | +--> I: During the Device Assignment Sequence
| | |||| |
| | |||| +----> 601: SCSI reset occured / SCSI interface fault
| | ||||
| | |||+-------> C: Capacity of 120 MB
| | |||+-------> 8: Microchannel Slot 8
| | ||+--------> 0: SCSI LUN 0 (boot drive)
| | |+---------> 6: SCSI PUN 6 (boot drive)
| |
| |
| |
| +------------> 210: SCSI Hardfile
+--------------> 0: Always a zero

The 540 in your error appears to be:
---------540 Device RAM failure

I guess this is referring to RAM on the SCSI adapter card.
Have you tried re-seating the SCSI card ?
Do you have the ADF file for the SCSI card also on the reference diskette ?
You could try removing the SCSI card, and configure the system as floppy only as a test, to see if the
configuration completes successfully. You could then use a DOS boot diskette to boot the PS/2.
 
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