"Default" IBM 5170 BIOS settings

[RetroSpector78]

I have an IBM 5170 containing a 5.25 1.2mb floppy drive and a 3.5 inch 1.44mb floppy drive.
When I picked it up it only had the 5.25 1.2mb floppy drive attached to the controller card and was able to boot from it (ms-dos boot floppy).

When I got it home it was still able to boot (even with the battery detached for 3+ hours). So I'm guessing there is some kind of "default" setting to allow it to run with a single 5.25 1.2mb floppy.
I then used gsetup.exe to setup the 1.44mb floppy drive. However, now it always boots into BASIC. I can hear both disk drives initialising at boot (first the 1.44mb and then the 1.2mb), but none accept a boot disk and it goes into BASIC.

What are the "default" bios settings of the IBM 5170 and is there a way to force it to go into default again ?
I left it sitting overnight without battery and assumed it would be able to boot from floppy again if I only attached the 1.2mb but it didn't boot. I hear the disk initialising but it always goes into BASIC.

 

[romanon]

"Default" BIOS setting on IBM 5170 is one 5.25" HD drive and no HDD. If you want to reset bios settings, disconnect CMOS battery, maybe you need more time than 3+ hours.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Also, you have the 1.2M drive set up as the B: drive, which may not be what you intended.

 

[modem7]

Removing the IBM 5170's battery for 5 minutes (I usually use 10) is enough for the 5170 to lose its CMOS SETUP information. On boot, you should then see a '161-System Options Not Set-(Run SETUP)" error message.

Even with no battery, an IBM 5170 in a 'lost CMOS SETUP information' state, can boot from a 1.2M boot floppy. And if the BIOS is the 11/15/85 one (the only one that supports 1.44M), it can even boot from a 1.44M boot diskette. A summary of this is at the bottom of [here].

 

[RetroSpector78]

Thx a lot ... missed that table at the end when I first visited this page. Very informative.

It ended up being a faulty 1.44mb diskdrive that added to the confusion .... Funny that the most modern component (disk drive from 2004) ended up failing in this 30 year old machine.

Thanks to everyone for the help and insights.

Removing the IBM 5170's battery for 5 minutes (I usually use 10) is enough for the 5170 to lose its CMOS SETUP information. On boot, you should then see a '161-System Options Not Set-(Run SETUP)" error message.

Even with no battery, an IBM 5170 in a 'lost CMOS SETUP information' state, can boot from a 1.2M boot floppy. And if the BIOS is the 11/15/85 one (the only one that supports 1.44M), it can even boot from a 1.44M boot diskette. A summary of this is at the bottom of [here].

 

[RetroSpector78]

Thx a lot ... missed that table at the end when I first visited this page. Very informative.

It ended up being a faulty 1.44mb diskdrive that added to the confusion .... Funny that the most modern component (disk drive from 2004) ended up failing in this 30 year old machine.

Thanks to everyone for the help and insights.

Removing the IBM 5170's battery for 5 minutes (I usually use 10) is enough for the 5170 to lose its CMOS SETUP information. On boot, you should then see a '161-System Options Not Set-(Run SETUP)" error message.

Even with no battery, an IBM 5170 in a 'lost CMOS SETUP information' state, can boot from a 1.2M boot floppy. And if the BIOS is the 11/15/85 one (the only one that supports 1.44M), it can even boot from a 1.44M boot diskette. A summary of this is at the bottom of [here].

 

[RetroSpector78]

My apologies if this will appear twice, but had the impression something went wrong when I tried posting a reply the last 2 times.

thanks a lot to you and everyone else here for the info, I somehow missed the bios table at the end.

And to add to the confusion, it turns out the most modern part in my IBM 5170 (a sony 1.44mb diskdrive) turned out to be faulty, hence it was giving a very real 601-Diskette error due to the faulty drive, and not due to a faulty configuration

Removing the IBM 5170's battery for 5 minutes (I usually use 10) is enough for the 5170 to lose its CMOS SETUP information. On boot, you should then see a '161-System Options Not Set-(Run SETUP)" error message.

Even with no battery, an IBM 5170 in a 'lost CMOS SETUP information' state, can boot from a 1.2M boot floppy. And if the BIOS is the 11/15/85 one (the only one that supports 1.44M), it can even boot from a 1.44M boot diskette. A summary of this is at the bottom of [here].