Help: IBM 5170

I believe you can download the 80286 (AT) setup program from IBM's web site. Last year I downloaded the POS setup diskette for the PS/2 60. Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Help: IBM 5170 Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 9/19/98 8:13 PM That normally means that something has changed since the CMOS RAM was configured. Which version of the system board do you have? The older one has 36 RAM chips, each one being a 128K*1 device (actually made from 2 DIPs soldered together). The later one has 18 256K*1 bit devices on it. I have schematics, etc for both boards. The partiy error sounds like a RAM chip failing. Try reseating them, and if it's the later version, try replacing the RAMs one at a time with known-good ones. 256K*1 DRAMs are pretty easy to get, and the ones on the system board are socketed. There are 2 switch-things on the system board (unless you count the little 8-pin DIP postion behind the expansion slots that can be used to fiddle with the ROM addressing). One is a slide switch next to the power connector. In one position the board is set up for an MDA display. The other way for a CGA one. I can't remember which is which, but if you get it wrong, all that happens is that it fails the POST and beeps. Flip the switch and try again. The other is a jumper (J18) to the left of the speaker connector at the front). This selects between 256K and 512K for RAM on the system board. Check this is set the same way on both your boards. Yes, SETUP is the program used to load the parameters into the CMOS RAM. Unlike most modern PCs, this is not in ROM, but has to be loaded from disk. There's a free clone (with source, I think) on Simtel somewhere. If the parameters have got scrambled, then about the only thing it can boot from is a 5.25" drive as A: -tony ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists2.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Sep19.201355.1767.64448; Sat, 19 Sep 1998 20:13:56 -0400 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists2.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW98.06) with SMTP id RAA09277; Sat, 19 Sep 1998 17:11:47 -0700 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW98.06) with ESMTP id RAA38476 for &lt;classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu&gt;du>; Sat, 19 Sep 1998 17:11:43 -0700 Received: from post.mail.demon.net (post-20.mail.demon.net [194.217.242.27]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW98.06) with ESMTP id RAA19737 for &lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;du>; Sat, 19 Sep 1998 17:11:42 -0700 Received: from [158.152.97.199] (helo=p850ug1) by post.mail.demon.net with smtp (Exim 2.03 #1) id 0zKX6I-0004Rb-00 for classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu; Sun, 20 Sep 1998 00:11:39 +0000 Received: by p850ug1 id <m0zKWvk-000IyMC@p850ug1> (Debian /\oo/\ Smail3.1.29.1 #29.33); Sun, 20 Sep 98 01:00 BST Message-Id: <m0zKWvk-000IyMC@p850ug1> Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 01:00:40 +0100 (BST) Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" &lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt; Subject: Re: Help: IBM 5170 In-Reply-To: &lt;36043755.4B34(a)bright.net&gt; from "oajones" at Sep 19, 98 06:59:33 pm Content-Type: text X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN