IBM PS/2 P70 Tour and Diagnosis - Part 1!
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- Опубліковано 13 чер 2018
- This is an IBM P70, IBM's "portable" version of the Model 70 Personal System/2. It's what was known in the 80's as a "luggable" computer - as IBM themselves put it, it's a "full desktop computer system... with a handle." Various companies made these in the 80's, but I wanted this particular one because a) it's an IBM, and b) it has a PLASMA display. (Toshiba and a few others also made machines with plasma displays, but this one also has kind of an interesting form factor.)
Unfortunately this one doesn't work! Those of you with experience with this machine probably already know what's wrong... but if you do have experience, please let me know what you did to fix it.
Also, double oops in the video - those are SIMMs in there, not DIMMs and certainly not SO-DIMMs... I'm stuck in the present, I guess.
IBM gas plasma promo video: • 1985 IBM computer disp...
Computer Chronicles episode with this machine: • 1989 New Laptops Seaso...
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IT'S ALIVE! The computer is working! There were THREE separate problems to solve. The first was the floppy drive, which had caps that were obviously bad just by looking at them. That's now been re-capped. The second and possibly more important was that somebody had taken that 387 co-processor chip and just shoved it in there without any regard to whether the pins were even lined up - many of them were literally bent *upward* from being forced down without being in their sockets. It was a horror show the likes of which I'd never seen. And it's not something I'd normally even think to check, but in a last ditch visual inspection of the motherboard for *anything* out of place, I noticed the 387 was slightly angled upward in one corner. When I pulled it out, I discovered a spaghetti dinner of pins going every which way. Who does that?! This is why it was such a mystery why the machine was acting how it was - I don't normally have "check all chips for shoved-into-socket-itis" on my diagnostic to-do list.
So the computer was detecting the co-processor in its hardware check, then freezing. That's why I almost never even got to the prompt to insert the reference disk, as you see happen above.
I carefully straightened each individual pin and re-mounted the chip. With that sorted, the computer was now reliably giving me the prompt to insert the reference disk, but still neither the floppy nor my floppy emulator (which I'd hacked a cable for) would boot. At that point I was just on a process of elimination and there was only really one thing I could think of that I hadn't tried, and that was using the REFSTAMP utility to stamp the ID code back into the reference disk image. This is normally only needed if you "look at" a disk image in Windows - I didn't think I had done that when I made my disk images so hadn't run REFSTAMP before. It's also a 16 bit program, so it's necessary to run it via DOSBox if you're running 64 bit Windows 10 as I am. Well, I ran that as literally the last thing I could think to try, and lo and behold the disk booted, the computer configured itself and I now have full access to the hard drive.
There are still a couple of things to do. My hinges still need replacement, and my floppy emulator still isn't working, with any disk. But those are minor considerations that I'm confident in solving - they may just take time. But there will be a part 2 of this video! This computer is back from the dead.
Would love a part 2 to this video. Glad you are sticking with it!
Glad to hear you got it up and running!!! That 387 sounds like it went through a war. Glad you were able to save the pins on it!!!
Yeah I wish I had taken a pic of it; it was bad. I was also worried if I'd be able to save it, but surprisingly it went back in after straightening each pin with a tweezer and seems to not be causing any issues.
Awesome 😎
Really intrigued by this computer and part 2 !
I worked at the nordic IBM HelpWare Hotline & OS/2 Hotline in Copenhagen, Denmark between June 1992 and January 1995. The P70 was our first "laptop" as we did 24/7 support (I mostly served finnish and swedish customers) and worked from home during the nightshifts. My "mobile" phone was a Dancall NMT with shoulder bag and all. Whoever was on shift lugged that beast around town if not working at home, and had to ask random restaurant or bar person for a power outlet to use the computer, if a customer call came in. It was fairly fast for it's time, and generated some strange looks if one took it out and worked with it in public. Now, 28 years later, I'm still in IT (I'm 51 now), and can't be but amazed at how times have changed. Good old times!
Hey Mr. Modern Classic, your videos are getting better and better. I click on them with the same enthusiasm as I do with LGR and 8 Bit Guy videos. Keep it up!
Thanks!
Awesome video! I had multiple P70 & P75's back in the day long before the vintage PC nostalgia boom happened and long after they were in use. Man, the early 2000's were a great time for vintage computer collecting! Wish I had kept even one of my old computers. But with videos like this, I can cure my need to nostalg :D
Whole family really likes your videos. Keep 'em coming!
I don't know how many times i've watched your videos on the P70, probably like 10 times now. I love them. I want a P70 myself, but man this video really scared me away from getting one.
Just FYI, I will be Ebaying the one you see in the video pretty soon... if you want one that (mostly) works.
the P70 I have had some bad solder joints in the PSU, which was fairly easy to fix. friend that gave it to me did the adaption of the floppy drive in place of the original, and fixed the eject button as well. the result is the eject button stands a bit more at attention but nothing bad at all. if you ever get your PSU open, you should definitely touch up all the solder joints even if they don't look like they need it-- it seems to be a common problem. there's some trimmer pots inside too to fiddle with if voltages are lower than they should be here and there... I was able to trim mine a bit to a good compromise, but check and re-check all voltages when you mess with them as it does affect a couple here and there and they need to be fairly balanced.
You're going to want to make sure if you do have that modem installed to have the config files from mcamafia on the floppy as well, for it, even if you don't intend to use it.
Memory boards for these, if you can find them, would be wise to find a 32-bit MCA variant so the 16-bit slot can be utilized by a network card or the like, if you don't intend on getting a Xircom Pocket Ethernet III and sticking that out the back every time you want to use it on the internet for whatever reason. This is still a valid option.
at your earliest convenience, if your ESDI drive still functions, make a backup of it somehow. they're coming on 30 years of age and it could or may not die at any second, but don't put it off.
You're also going to want to replace the system fan at some point . Replacing it with one that has a thermistor is generally a good idea, if you can find one, even used.
Any CPU upgrades you do will require a heatsink in the jam-packed case. and, a compatible 387 to go along with it. if you want the fastest 387 you can get, Cyrix FasMath chips are where to be. they also made a line of 486 upgrades for the 386 socket with FPU coprocessors to go in the 387 socket for those.
if you install a RAM card, do NOT install Windows 95. it will be SLOOOOOOW because of the bandwidth constraint of the MCA bus, regardless of the 32-bit nature of the slot the card is in. the system will run at the speed of the slowest RAM and for anything other than DOS/Win3.1 it is a DOG. OS/2 might work just fine.
if and when you get your floppy problem solved, you should consider grabbing and trying Planet X3 for DOS when it releases soon. Also, the floppy port on the back is, if I remember correctly, HDI-30, but I don't think it's wired up the same for reasons. otherwise it's the same port one would find on olden Macs and Powerbooks for the HDI-30 SCSI interface for those that had it.
Will keep all that in mind, thanks. I am not totally sure how I would go about backing up this hard drive, though. Obviously I can't just stick it in a modern desktop. And I don't think there's an SD solution for ESDI either, is there? About all I can think to do is use one of the backup systems available at that time, ie. tape. (Or maybe that crazy VHS backup system that LGR tested a while back.) Is that what you think too?
Yes, I had a ps/2 laptop when I was younger that for whatever reason needed a cmos battery changed. After speaking to a gentleman who worked on computers for a living that sold me the replacement battery, he told me to go into the cmos and write the disk image before disconnecting the cmos battery. SO glad I followed his advice because when I turned it back on, I got a weird insert disk screen I'd never seen before. And much like you, couldn't get around it without inserting the disk with the image I had just wrote. If I were you, I think I would disassemble the floppy drive, qtip the heads with rubbing alcohol and clean and lube the slide rails. If it does't work after that, maybe try a different source for that CMOS program floppy. by the way, from the video, the floppy drive does sound healthy from the POST. Good luck, and thanks for the great videos!!
Thanks! Yeah, I think sometimes I just get a little cocky with x86-based computers - there's usually nothing I can't fix within minutes, so I don't take a lot of precautions anymore. Obviously I was not up on all the vagaries of the PS/2, though.
The caps on this drive are definitely bad, but now that I have it out of the system I'll clean and lube it up too. I've read that the Alps drives (which mine is) can get really gummed up with dirt and stop sliding so easily. May as well take some preventative maintenance as long as I'm changing the caps. Just hope it works once I'm done with everything!
What a lovely machine, best wishes.
Losing battery backed settings is a pain everywhere. I see mechanics now plugging a small device into the OBD2 port on vehicles before changing out the main lead acid battery, just to avoid the car's computer losing settings during the changeover.The device they plug in has a small battery to provide power to the car's electronics while the main battery is removed and replaced -- without this, many cars have to go to the dealership to have settings put back in place, for a big fee. It's just not enough for hobbyists and technicians to replace backup batteries anymore -- we need to start adding in bypass power to the boards before doing the battery replacements themselves, to avoid these losses of settings.
I don't completely understand why the battery in this machine could be dead and the machine not lose the settings, but then lose the settings when I replace the battery with a fresh one. It seems backwards, almost like it's intentional on IBM's part.
I think it probably wasn't completely dead -- just degraded enough to throw a low battery warning on the motherboard during startup, but with enough juice to still preserve the existing settings in place.
Different retention voltage and operational voltage - you can achieve retention well below 2V on a 3V battery, but this is no longer reliable.
Crazy, that has one 1/2 and one full length Microchannel slot. Microchannel was actually a very advanced bus and an unbelievable improvement over ISA, in particular, it had bus mastering and was 32 bits wide long before anyone was using 32 bit operating systems. It was also auto-configuring up to a point. Much of what went into the design eventually ended up in the PCI architecture. For this machine, what you REALLY want is an ethernet card in the 1/2-slot and an 8514/A graphics adapter and original monitor for the full length slot, and to run OS/2 on it!
Hi! I've found your video just because I have a P70 that I worked with in the 80's. It has been resting for decades on a garage and it has all kinds of dirt and DNA, but I think I will try to clean and see if it still works. If I remember correctly it has OS/2 installed, and if it runs I of course can't remember the password I was using at that time.
I've loved to see yours!
I have a non-reading floppy disk drive on my Model 30/286. It is a 1.44MB unit. Expensive as crazy to buy separate. Now you got one more option you could try. Buy a broken P70 that comes with the floppy disk drive and hope the floppy works on it. I've been thinking of buying a neglected Model 30 and use it for parts. Especially the floppy drive in it will definitely come in handy.
Edit: read your update. Good to hear it was so obvious. Good luck with the repair!
Thanks! I'm definitely still up for buying a parts unit, though, and on the lookout for one. But I'm "in the weeds", as they say, on fixing this at the moment, so kind of enjoying that too. Can't wait to get the new caps.
_Gas Plasma._
What a display type.
One of those got me through university (93-96). 20mhz 386, 8meg ram, 120meg hard drive, MCA SoundBlaster. Used the computer lab on the library for print outs. but had dos 5, windows 3.1 and word installed (and floppies). Also lots and lots of Doom! Which on the gas screen was a challenge! That start up sound is still golden to my ears.
Yes, I had the Cmos battery issue as well, where I bought it from fixed it.
Other than being heavy, it was perfect for university then, certanly better than laptop options of the time. I would have senisbly been looking at an Amstrad NC200 at the price it cost me.
Sold it to a freind when I finished uni as I could use a better desktop PC at home.
That hard disk format is the one reason I have not obtained one since. After using compact flash/SD Card storage on my Amiga's I feel that is the way forward with older machines, but there is no easy way to make that happen, even SCSI has an adaptor these days. But not ESDI.
Those memory modules would be SIMMs (single in-line memory modules)
Argh, oops. You are correct.
I own a Compaq Portable III, so I totally understand your pain. The gas plasma displays are pretty nice to work with though.
The PS/2 line requires Resource Disks to configure the hardware. Run those and it should be fine! :) Great machine!!
Edit: aaaannnddd you just mentioned it haha sorry!!
Edit 2: yes replace the caps on the floppy drive. Timing is key!
"Extremely powerful machine" indeed, for it's time! Very interesting computer.
Hopefully you can get it working, looks like a really cool piece of tech!
I won't rest until it's working one way or another. Who knows how long it'll take, but I've got some things I'm going to try.
Looking forward to it!
The keyboard switches are ALPS Plate Spring switches. They're still very good in their own right, and are actually more similar to IBM's old beam spring switches than they are to the buckling springs. Of course, they're much smaller. It's a nice find you've got there, even if it isn't working right.
I can totally imagine LGR trying to get a hold of one of these and then attempting to run Doom on it
Those memory sticks were probably SIMMs (the first DIMMs came out in the mid-late 1990s and for a while there were motherboards that supported both). They came in 30 and 72 pin versions and sometimes took a bit of work to install or remove - after inserting them, they had to be "tilted" into place
I do know they're SIMMs, I just had a double brain fart. I've installed dozens of SIMMs over the years, I just haven't actually used the term in many years so my brain's stuck on "DIMM".
Running Doom on this thing was one of the first things I was going to try. It would run slowly but it should run. I first played it on a 486SX/25 and it was about as good as it ever got on that, and a 486SX/25 isn't *that* much faster than a 386DX/20. Maybe about 60% faster.
I had an Toshiba T5200 with plasma display over 20 years ago. 386DX/20, 4Mb RAM and two ISA-slots: 8bit and 16bit. Replaced processor with 486DLC/20 and put GUS Classic inside. It was great for playing .MOD music :)
Disassemble, clean and oil (machine oil)?
That was a beautifully engineered portable for its day.
Great video, thanks. I too have an IBM P70 and its in great working order; also with all the manuals and start-up disks, the bag, PS2 mouse the maths co-processor and an IBM desk monitor of the time. For insurance purposes, can you advise on the value of this setup?
I am crying, about 5-7 years ago I threw away a fully functional M70 modified with a standard I/O RS232 chip. I loved that amber screen. And it had a 387 math co-processor. I used it only with IBM-DOS and the database development tool Clarion. All original disks also went in the trash. I don't remember the keyboard beeing that flimsy, perhaps Europe/Swedish version was different.
Great computer. Good luck on the fix seriously. Cleaning the drive should fix it.
I have the same problem with the hinges. Any ideas beside total disassembly and looking for spare part? I was thinking of building something like a new hinge in the middle.
When do you think we’ll see part two? Great video.
Soon! It turned out the floppy drive was too far gone for me to fix and I had to source another one, which took quite a while. But it's in there now. I'm currently having some intermittent issues with the display card that I'm in the process of deciding whether I should do anything about (if I do, I'll film it; probably just needs a contact cleaning), but about 70% of the part 2 video is already filmed. I just need some shots showing off some of the games I've installed, the Windows 3.0 install and apps that the previous owner had (the hard drive is 100% full, including compression), and the external VGA support and it'll be done. Probably the video after next.
I have one. The caps in the flippy drive was leaking. I removed them, cleaned the board and repaired some tracks that was corroded to hell. Soldered in some new leaded caps (SMD caps are not easy to put back on a damaged board) and it's been working perfect ever since.
Mine seems to be resisting my recap attempts; I'm going to give it one more try and then cut my losses and buy another drive. The circuit board is just in really rough shape; could be beyond my skills in saving. But everything else on this machine is now working, so once that's sorted I plan a more structured part 2 of this video, in which I actually get it going. (Right now I have a floppy emulator working with it, so it's fully functional as far as I'm concerned, but I want it to be working as originally designed before filming the second part of this video.)
now that's a beauty
I absolutely love mine!
That is one sweet pickup! Is there any way to get to the floppy cable/controller through the back panel? Maybe you can plug in a different floppy to boot from (hanging outside the case) to fix this one issue until you can fix/replace the vertical floppy drive?
I've more or less decided I'm going to try to hack a cable to use my floppy emulator with it for now. But I've already hacked up my one spare floppy cable so I just need to order another one from somewhere. I'll be ordering new caps for the drive at the same time, which I definitely know now is at least one of its problems (hopefully the only one) - see my pinned comment.
Yes computer chronicles!
Used to watch it when it was actually on :)
Yes, I'm wondering if you can drop the RAM low enough to clear the error codes.
I miss my P70... Got it used in high school, but eventually the motherboard gave out. I still have all the removable components from it, including my rare Microchannel sound card I saved to buy for it, but I recycled it long ago - way before it would have been considered "a collectable vintage computer."
You monster!
Adrian Galbraith I hang my head in shame.
The Toshiba T3200 is another, similar computer with a orange plasma display... it also looks way better.
Funnily enough, the T3200 is being introduced on that Computer Chronicles episode I embedded at the same time as the P70! I just like the P70 because it has a more interesting form factor; the T3200 looks like a big, old, chunky laptop.
@@ModernClassic Having actually had both of these back in the day, I too like the P70 more. I'd love to have both back as examples of my past, sure, but _at the time_ the P70 was the one I favoured. It was a lot faster, more upgradable, had a proper VGA output and all that, but was still easily transportable for the time. Sure, the T3200 still packed everything you tended to need on the go, was a fair bit smaller, a lot lighter and most essentially, needed a lot less table area to use. It actually even functioned as a laptop, albeit a plugged in one. So, both had their pros, but the P70 saw much more use as it was truly a portable workstation.
3:40 the switch is alps plate spring, which is actually similar to the beamspring switch but shrunk down.
Love it !!!!!.
I would check for Capacitor leakage on the driver boards of the floppy drive if cleaning it is not successful. I dealt with a very similar issue with a PS1 model 2011 floppy drive not too long ago and replacing the tiny surface mount capacitors did the trick beautifully. It is, however, not an easy task to replace them and requires quite a lot of soldering knowledge. Check the boards for an oily or sticky residue. This is a sure fire sign that leakage has occurred.
There definitely has been leakage, and worse - check my pinned comment for a pic. I have new caps on the way now...
What a beauty! The aesthetic is strong on this one.
Just FYI guys, I pulled the floppy out of this machine tonight and almost immediately had a "well, *there's* yer problem!" moment. One of the caps on the board that are known for going bad literally fell off. So I know I've got to replace the caps. It's possible there's more than one problem going on, but I'll tackle this one as soon as I get new caps and see where things stand then. Photo here: imgur.com/a/7gtistT
Also, I do know those are SIMMs :) It was a double brain fart. I've installed plenty of SIMMs in my time; I'm just stuck in 2018 I guess.
good luck . really hope you get this working. i had a Toshiba t3100 i salvaged from work about 15 years ago in perfect condition but it went missing in a move . fond memories of the orange plasma!
Today there are alternatives to that electrolytic capacitors with much longer lifetime and better electrical specifications (ESR). Perhaps Aluminium-Polymer Capacitors are the way you should take. I'm recaping sometimes, and my goal is, that the repaired machines still work when i'm retired (and retarded?). Good luck
Modern Classic I own a P70 as well. All I had to do to get mine running was fully recap the floppy drive and install a new CMOS battery. After loading the reference disk and getting the BIOS straightened out it fired right up off of the hard drive. If you are comfortable recapping the floppy with SMD parts I bet your machine would likely work fine as well...
The original drive in my PS/1 was dead because of that too. A cap fell off when I removed it to check it. If that drive your working on has any other problems besides that I could ship you my dead one for parts.
aphexteknol - I did order both SMD and radial caps. I've never attempted SMD caps before so I got dupes in radial just in case. The only examples I've seen of people doing this online all used radial, so I won't feel too bad if I have to resort to that. Hopefully mine works as well as yours when I'm done.
Hi All , Nice find, once you get the floppy working, use laplink 5 via the serial or parallel port into another XT-AT-386-486 running up to Dos 6.22, trasfer will be slow but that is what overnight is for.
Other than the physical floppy, is the a ribbon header on the mother board that you can connect another similar PS2 style floppy, ie open the case and run a ribbon outside to another floppy.
Most dos software including windows 3 - 3.11 can be just file copied and replaced on another drive, some tweaking is needed for paths etc and other missing files, but if you clone / or do a complete file & folder copy it should work out OK
I dont know if finding the floppy part number and then searching the part number to see if it was used on any other IBM machines of the time gives you a larger choice of substitute models to sue as donor parts, failing that any change of using the pinout diagram to work out the data cables and how similar it is to regular floppy controller and which ones have power, then split the power cable and use a molex or external transformer to provide power
The boot disks you made should be workable in anther machine as they contain dos or IBM dos to boot then the actual setup / restore programs for the PS2 hardware , i hate to think the floppy diskettes themselves are faulty, try a stock 720 or 1.44 known working dos 3.3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 6.22 boot disk, test on another machine then if proven it boots then place into the PS2 and you have eliminated 1 error the diskette so now it is the drive or the hardware letting you down
Regards
George
Thanks - I forgot all about Laplink. Will definitely look into that to back this thing up. As for the floppy, I did know in advance all the different models I could use, but none of them are particularly common or cheap. Someone in another comment found one that I'd missed and if my repairs don't go well then I hope it'll still be available (it's a store so they might have more than one), but I would prefer to keep this machine original to the original part numbers so I'm now trying to repair the drive.
I do wish I had another PS/2 or even another IBM compatible of this era that I could test them in, but I don't. But I'm 100% confident that the drive is faulty; the disks may or may not be too but the caps on the drive are visibly and obviously dead, so I'll replace those and if I still get no result, I'll think about testing the disks some other way. But I know I need to replace those caps regardless.
Thanks for your help!
Here's the latest update: first, when I pulled the drive out, one of the caps literally fell off due to leaking electrolyte that had weakened the solder. So I cleaned the board up as best I could and recapped it. Here's a photo from when I first pulled the drive: imgur.com/a/7gtistT
After the recap, I fired the drive up with the reference disk in and... nothing. BUT, I then changed disks, fired the drive up and... BOOM! DOS 6.2! It didn't quite get all the way through loading, though, so I reset, booted again and BOOM! A: prompt! Thinking the drive was fixed, I set up filming and put in the reference disk back in... nothing. Now thinking it was a problem with my reference disk, I put the DOS disk back in and... nothing. I haven't been able to get it to work again.
So... I'm guessing it's either my soldering (or the pads, which were almost toast) or some other intermittent problem, like a bad cable. I'm going to clean up my soldering as much as possible, maybe try using radial caps instead of SMD (I thought I did a decent job, though...) and try to rule out it being the caps at this point. If that still doesn't fix it, I'll move on to trying a different cable and/or drive.
At least I know the drive *can* work now.
Fingers crossed that's all it is. Even if you haven't gotten your cleaner disk in you can clean heads with Q-Tips and 99% alcohol. It's basically the same. My friend and I were working on a PS/2 all-in-one desktop model that was working perfectly, but had a hard drive with a damaged ribbon cable (which is not by any means easily replaceable/repairable). Sounds like PS/2 floppy drives have easier retrofits than hard drives do.
I did get the cleaner disk and I've also at this point cleaned the heads manually with alcohol. I don't think that was the issue, but I did it anyway. The drive still isn't really working, although it did those couple of times.
It looks like you may have some trace damage in the area where those caps leaked. It is also possible that fluid leaked underneath that screw to the other side of the PCB, but hopefully it didn't. Did everything look OK after you cleaned it up? Did you replace the non-polarized caps as well? I assume so since you said you recapped it, but I figured I would just ask! Best of luck!
I did replace all five caps (actually 2 1/2 times) and I checked continuity with all the traces. The only damage to the actual board was one of the pads; the third time I recapped the two polarized caps, I had to solder directly to the pin on the controller chip that the pad traced to. Unfortunately the computer still won't boot, but I now no longer think the problem is the drive. (See the new pinned comment I'm about to write.)
COMPAQ also had a similar machine.
What was then considered somewhat of a laptop. it was more like placing a sewing machine on one's lap.
They were not particularly lightweight either.
there used to be a guy named Peter Wendt who had the MCA page, and ran the MCA mafia in the mid 90s. Search google there were a bunch of guys including myself that contributed. I still have a old PS/2 Model 70 with a Kingston McMaster that allowed me to run a couple extra 8 meg dimms, and a cyrix 100 mmx processor in the P70. cool stuff.
I probably have stumbled across some of those pages and I'm sure they helped me. Part 2 of this is coming very soon; it's 100% filmed, and the computer's now working. I've heard of those Kingston cards (maybe I even saw you talking about it somewhere) and they seem really interesting. Would love to have one but they usually seem insanely expensive these days.
Recap the floppy drive and give its board a good cleaning while you're at it. Most everything from that time period with surface mount electrolytics has trouble with them leaking. The system board (planar) may also need some attention.
Last time I checked, my P70 had developed the same problem, so I have the same operation ahead of me. Thankfully I had already replaced the CMOS battery beforehand, and these should last a good while.
Hi. I'm proud owner of P70 and P75 (486 version), as well as few desktop PS2 models. All initially had bad battery and floppy drive. Main problem on all floppy drives were capacitors, especially head preamp filter caps. My suggestion is replace all floppy drive caps and do usual cleaning and relubrication.
My P75 had one display hinge broken. It breaks because of tension and stress caused by spring. Forget about glue, it's ABS plastic and tension is too strong for any kind of glue fix. I revise engineered the hinge and 3D printed it. I also made it harder to break by strengthening the weak spot. Bad news I did 3D files only for one side (other side is inversed), but even bigger bad news is I lost 3D files :-( Some people asked me for these files, I really searched everything, but can't find it.
So, my suggestion is - replace all floppy caps, clean and relubricate, find someone skilled in 3D prototyping to make you replica for the hinge, make both hinges and 3D print :-) Wish you luck.
Thanks - I'm actually planning all that now. The drive definitely has bad caps; I found leaked electrolyte and one of the caps just popped off the board on its own when I took the drive out. So I've got new caps on the way now, and I'll clean and lube the drive at the same time. I might have someone who can help with the 3D modeling for the hinges; I'm talking to him now. Hopefully I can get everything sorted out.
Yes, recapping the floppy will solve the problem. Then, after you boot reference diskette you will solve RAM configuration error as well. My P75 has also leaked caps on mainboard and especially on VGA card almost destroying it! These around 90ties surface mount alu caps are disaster. Here is full picture album of my IBM P75 restoration including details on floppy, hinge, mainboard and casing restoration: www.indigo-audio.com/audio/Retro/IBM_PS2_P75_Restoration.zip
Nice work on your restoration as well, and sad to hear that the 3d design assets were lost. What about the gcode that was sent to the printer? If you can dig those up, the stl files can be retrieved via a utility.
@@ModernClassic How're the glued hinges holding up?
Great video! What I gorgeous thing... I really hope you can get it working
It really blows about the floppy not being standard ... I have no knowledge about those machines, how hard would it be to make an "adapter cable" to plug a standard floppy drive in temporarily? In the end, if you get it booted off the floppy once, you can get it booting off the hard drive afterwards and deal with the OEM drive from hell later ;)
But I'm guessing you would have done it already if it was easy hehehe
Best of luck, I'll keep my eyes out in case I see one :)
Somebody else suggested that, and it's possible but just not my first choice. It's basically my option #3 at the end of the video. I don't particularly like making cables or hacking things together that aren't meant to go together, but as a temporary thing it could turn out to be my only real option until I find a working P70 (or other compatible PS/2 drive) for a reasonable price.
Bit of a long shot but try a 720k double density floppy
Back when I worked for IBM as an intern, I would set these up for demos with potential clients. However, I believe this model came out in 1990, although announced in 1989.
have you tried holding down a key (any key) when turning on the computer? This might generate a keyboard error and force you to go into setup.
Unfortunately there is no built-in setup. The setup is on the reference disk, which the computer needs to actually read before it can load it...
Great video! I have one myself that a friend gave to me but it doesn’t really work. It turns on but it gives me the error codes 161 and 163. It doesn’t do anything more than that unless I press f1
The orange screen on this is so cool. reminds me of fallout. and i don't even play fallout lol
30 pin simms bring back memories. damn 78mb and a co proc..that thing was expensive
List price was $8,295! And that's without the modem, the 387 or the 8MB upgrade. This was either a rich person's or a rich company's computer.
You could remove all DIMMS and put in a single 512KB chip, see if it gets past the error.
Well I can conclusively say there's nothing wrong with the RAM... I tried each chip individually in two different slots (that's all it'll let you do, you can't use the last two slots by themselves), and got the same amount back on all of them, in both slots. And 7808KB is conveniently exactly 384KB lower than the actual total amount (8192KB), which is the same amount between 640KB and 1MB. So it definitely isn't the RAM; it's the RAM settings.
You know, I think I understand what you're saying now, to get under the 640KB barrier so the upper memory doesn't need to be allocated. Maybe I'll try it if I can find a 512K SIMM that's cheap enough. (Btw, the SIMMs are proprietary too! These 2MB SIMMs are about $75 or more each on Ebay. For 2MB!)
I know how you feel.... I've an IBM PS/1 model 2011 and it also use a lot of proprietary stuff like ram expansion module, floppy and hdd (which I am still puzzled if they are XT-IDE or ESDI with built in power in the same cable but it should be the same as the IBM Teradrive). Also my machine is nightmarish because the PSU is into the monitor and it has no isa slots (if you wanted a couple of them you had to buy an external add-on).. Fun fact: if the RTC battery is dead the floppy drive doesn't work!
Have you tried himem.sys.or emm386.sys?
I use himem on my ps/1 2011
My dad worked for IBM and brought one of these home because the office was just gonna throw it out. I thought it was pretty cool, but it did later on develop an issue with the floppy drive (never got around to figuring out if it was the belt or dirty heads or what). I meant to grab it and ship it to my home when I visited my parents last Xmas, but apparently my mom made my dad throw it out since it was just sitting in a closet for several years. :-(
That's sad... I did already figure out that one of my problems is definitely bad caps (electrolyte all leaked out of two of them, and one of those two popped right off the board on its own). Hopefully that's the only problem. But it seems to be very common so could have been your problem too.
Hi there! I have one of these computers and I am trying to boot it. I am receiving a 165 error, do you know what that means? Thank you!!!
The floppy drives were always an issue with these things, mostly attributed to the fact that dust just falls down in there. I remember loading Windows 95 off of 20 something disks on my P70. Had a TI 486 upgrade CPU & a RAM board to get to 20mb RAM. Ok... I can't help it. Now I'm off to ebay. haha
I had one of those!
Man, I'd love to see how OS/2 Warp runs on that machine! It was sluggish on my 486DX-33 back in the day, but I don't remember if I was running it with 4 megs or 8 megs of RAM. I wish I still had my original copies and boxes of all those old OSes that I had!
I had it too and also remember it being slow as dirt. I was really looking forward to checking it out here also. Well, I will get this machine running at some point and will do a second video to show what I had to repair and all the software on the hard drive. I'm pretty sure I have a plan.
Looking forward to it!
Hello, I just came across one of these machines. Everything is intact I tried to power it on nothing comes on the screen. The light comes on the drive and that's about it. The hinge on the keyboard is a little worn out but that's about it. How much are they going for as parts? I know it would be pretty expensive to ship based on the weight. I'm in Pennsylvania.
Just out of curiosity, does it make any beeps when you turn it on? I have a feeling it might be as simple as the cable for the screen needing to be reseated. (Mine needed that too.) I'd love to have your machine but I'd rather you get it working for yourself if it's something easy. If it's not beeping, though, then it would be something else and I'm not sure how to solve that in that case. Then maybe we could come to some kind of arrangement if you did want to sell it.
It doesn't make any beeps. Just a light on they keyboard if you plug it in and unplug it. I'm not very savvy when it comes to old computers. I'm more into older gaming systems. It was given to me by a family member it was sitting in storage for years and they gave it to me. I was excited to turn it on get it going but I'm not really into fixing things.
Ok, it's probably something a little more involved then. Well, I'd be interested in taking it off your hands, but since I can't tell how many problems it has or what they are, my offer might be kinda low... I'd offer $50 plus shipping. It's just without knowing if any of the components I might want are likely to work, it's taking a chance on it even as a parts machine. Let me know if you're interested in doing that, though. You can contact me through the email at my about page if you want to set up a PayPal thing: ua-cam.com/users/modernclassicabout
I have the same unit with 120mb drive and 8 megs but no math coprocessor. I have to power cycle it ten times to get it running but it's sweet! ...guessing that'd be power caps. I have a stripped 95 on it now but want to get the original aix working on it. And yep, just trying it now and it seems that floppy is done. Guess it was 10 or 15 years ago I installed 95 via 21 floppies...
Do you know the default memory size? If so, try adjusting the current amount of populated. Perhaps you get lucky and the CMOS utility is on disk, so that you can change the value?
Default is 4MB... did try and it didn't work. It's still seeing the memory hole, which it will for any amount over 640KB. There's not really a default set of settings for these from what I understand; they *must* be configured before they can be used, and that's my problem right now. But I do think I have a plan right now that will eventually work, so hopefully you'll see this thing running at some point.
My suggestion would be to pull the current floppy drive out, and use any drive that's compatible from another system to load the disk. So long as the cable fits, you can use it as a temporary measure to load the software with the drive just sitting externally, and put the original drive back in once you've finished. Perhaps try contacting Clint from LGR, he has loads of old PS2 stuff and may be able to help borrow or buy a drive that will get the job done, even if it's not a direct replacement.
Also, if you have both pieces of the hinge, you may be able to fuse the plastic back together using acetone.
The problem is that it's not just a physical difference, it's a different cable too. So then I'm up to option #3 at the end of the video, which is hacking together a cable so I can use a standard drive. I may end up having to do that, it's just not my first choice. If I have to make a cable anyway, or modify an existing one, I may as well just try repairing the drive first.
This is why I suggested contacting Clint over on LGR. He has an extensive range of PS2 gear, and may have a drive, which even if the form factor won't fit, the cable might. It may even simply be the same drive in a different casing, that you could then swap over. What you need is the hardware first, and the form factor second. Get the machine booting first, then worry about the aesthetics.
I will try contacting him to see if he's got a drive that I can borrow or buy.
I meant to reply about the hinge too - one of these days I will take the assembly fully apart (I got it apart enough to see what was going on, but haven't gone further yet) and then I will see if the pieces I have are enough to reconstruct it. I don't think so, though, and the pieces I do have are very small. I did wonder about epoxying them or something. But what I have are three pieces that make up the top "loop" of the hinge that the pin slides up against, each only a little more than 1mm long, making a piece that put together is about 4mm x 4mm. *Very* small to do anything with. And I think there's probably supposed to be the same thing on the other "arm" of the hinge that's just totally gone. So I think I'd probably need a new one one way or another.
Yeah, that hinge sounds like a bit of a mess. If you do have all the bits though, a gentle clamp to hold them together, and then injecting acetone into the crack with an insulin needle can do wonders, but if the bits are really tiny and fiddly, it may be too much of a jigsaw to get back together.
Ya, the ESDI HD interface never really went beyond the PS2 line very much. Nobody wanted to license it. SCSI was already a much more open standard, so no need.
Fun trivia! Look up the documentary on Compaq titled "Sillicon Cowboys" - it talks about where luggable PCs stem from!
Being an ex-IBM employee pointing to things that paint IBM black feels kinda weird.
we have one of these a my school! its sitting in a display case in one of the computer labs
Steal it for me :)
Dude that's so cool, one of my teachers has a zenith portable in his closet, it's a z80 machine and if it worked would boot to LDOS. It also has top loading dippy dre witch is unusual but still cool
Some years ago I saw a Commodore PET in a school.
infinitecanadian oh wow
Modern Classic inwish i could, its in bad shape though and the mouse is actually a trackball in the shape of a turned around mouse
There are luggable desktop pcs today,i have seen them be used in tv industry. They have full spec desktop i7 with 20inch monitor inside of suitcase.
Someone else mentioned that too - I will definitely look into them, would love to have one.
Happy that the boards and hard drive are OK!
Wonder what the architecture of the floppy drive is, maybe there are more components besides the capacitors that you can get off the shelf and replace, basically rebuild it as much as possible.
As to hinge piece, if you can make good measurements and maybe some photographs against mm paper i can do the STL and can print a sample, but i'm on the other end of the world, so i'm probably not going to mail the printed piece to you.
Really *any* help with the 3D printing would be awesome, because that's one thing I just have no experience in whatsoever. I've been thinking to learn, and it may be an excuse to finally get a 3D printer, or maybe I'd send the resulting file off to be printed somewhere else that I know would do better quality. But I just have no idea how to even measure or make the 3D file. I could even pay you something for it; I have no idea how much time it takes to do this sort of thing.
Or if you even wanted to just recommend me some tools so I could try to do it myself, maybe it's not that hard and I could take a stab at it. I just have no idea what I really need to get started making the file for this type of part that's also broken on one end. Thanks for any help or advice!
I'm not going to charge you anything for my mediocre modelling.
I personally mostly use FreeCAD for various reasons, but i can't outright recommend it, it can be pretty shaky, it's a very powerful toolset but it has a lot of issues and it often seems like it's trying to be as confusing as possible as it grew in layers over the years rather than being designed up front, and many things don't work like you would expect them to, even if you had used professional CAD software before, but it is in similar vein. When you go back and try to change prior steps, FreeCAD ends up pretty fragile and often requires you to rebuild a lot of your model, but this always takes a lot less time once you figure out how to represent the object the first time over. Like most CAD programs its primary workflow is based on drawing objects on 2D planes, either the primary world planes or the planes that form an existing object face, and then extruding these drawings into protrusions and pockets. The sketches themselves are not free-form, you enter the lengths and angles and other relationships that you know of, and when the entered relationships are sufficient to derive all sizes, the sketch is called fully constrained and will actually work, else bad things can happen. Probably the best and most popular program in this vein for hobbyist CNC and 3D printing is Autodesk Fusion360, it's free for home use but won't run on Linux and is bound to a license server out on the Internet, it's fairly clear and clean and very powerful and more robust and forgiving. These kinds of programs can take a considerable learning effort. There are two more i haven't tried yet, OnShape and DesignSpark Mechanical.
A popular starter solution is OpenSCAD, which is a text-based scripting environment which spits out 3D objects. For the most part, if you can imagine the part composed out of intersection and subtraction of boxes and cylinders, you can do it fairly easily in SCAD. It doesn't have any of the actual CAD features and approach, you just punch in or compute numeric coordinates for your primitives. Whether you want to use it depends on how comfortable you are with programming/scripting, but for me personally it usually ends up not being powerful enough, in particular many parts need fillets to be as strong as possible, but it can't easily do those.
Another popular beginner option is TinkerCAD, a web browser based programme, again similar principle (and similar limitations) based on composition of primitive shapes, but this time over you get an interface and feature set that is very reminiscent of vector drawing programs that you are likely to already be familiar with, you just move the primitives wherever you like by hand or use alignment helper tools.
Finally many people use Blender, Wings3D, or anything else that can be used to model 3D objects if they were familiar with those before, but these can be very unhelpful when you're trying to match the dimensions of real world objects.
As to how to measure... depends if the complete part is present but broken. in which case i'd probably just investigate which material it's made from, and if it's Styrene based, just glue it with Acetone, ABS Slurry (ABS fragments dissolved in minimal amount of acetone with some acetone aired off), or acetone/MEK based plastic pipe cement, it will be as strong as new; or take 2-component kneading silicone to create a mould and make a copy out of epoxy - that is, if i wasn't so much into 3D printing, but i still sometimes make part copies that way for very small intricate parts, such as scissor switches of laptop keyboards, but i'll try to print one of those soon too, i have 0.2mm nozzles too, standard is 0.4mm, but that will need a bit of extra setup. Epoxy parts can be extremely strong if you use slow-setting high quality type and bake it at a low temperature, much stronger than anything that could be made in injection moulding process. Or if a mirror part is present, that you can directly measure but only need to reconstruct it in reverse. Or if the part is completely missing then you actually need to guess how a unique part originally looked like, which is then a lot of trouble, in which case mockups that you can make out of whatever - cardboard, superglue, cocktail sticks, tape, etc, may need to be done. If a fraction of a part is still present, that can take a lot of guesswork out of it. Then again, if you had a good mockup that works but just isn't strong enough, then you can just as well epoxy-copy that, right?
After the object is modelled, you export it as STL or OBJ and put into a slicer program that is set up for the specific printer to generate the tool paths that the printer can execute. The popular options are Repetier Host, Slic3r Prusa Edition and Ultimaker Cura, you do placement of the object on the build plate there, select and fine tune your material-related settings, and support and attachment options, so that the print doesn't topple over or droop, and also choose how hollow or solid your model will be. A popular attachment is a brim, a big flat piece at the bottom that easily clips off but prevents the print from getting unstuck while printing, and then support is a scaffolding under the parts that would otherwise print in air which a printer can't do, which is also clipped off later. For simple prints and low quality expectations, printing is generally pretty easy, but it can get pretty involved and one is expected to get a good feel for mechanics and material properties to achieve good results, especially for sub $200 kit printers. I personally have a sub-$150 Geeetech kit which is about what i could afford, and it has very extensible and modifiable electronics and i gave it a custom firmware that i configured personally and it has severe mechanical deficiencies, many of which i have resolved and some i am yet to resolve, i basically bought it as an engineering exercise, and it also lacks the cooler for deposited material, which i added but had to try multiple. Of these cheap kits, Anet A8 and Tronxy P802 series are popular options because if you're lucky, they can produce decent prints without mechanical changes, but wiring, electrics and electronics leave a lot to be desired, and these and Geeetech may take up to 12 hours to assemble. If not too strapped for cash, Creality Ender 3 might be a very good choice, as it's mostly pre-assembled and it takes just an hour to put it together, and has excellent mechanical construction - electronics is again simplified, but it's not too much of a concern for most people. Of these, Creality is the only one that has Bowden fed construction, i.e. the extruder, the part that pushes the filament, sits externally, and supplies the tool head via a long tube, and the tool head is just the hot-end, i.e. it only melts and deposits then cools the material - this is good for mechanical precision, but comes with some material limitations and difficulties, but luckily Ultimaker Cura is set up for this construction out of the box. It's also mostly metal so in the somewhat uncommon but possible event that it catches fire, the likelihood of it setting everything else on fire is lower, and the wiring should at least not be the worst, unlike the Anet. The rest are direct extruders, i.e. the part that pushes the material, and the part that melts it, sit directly on the tool head. I don't know if i can recommend people running their own printer, depending on inclination and prior experience it tends to be a full-time hobby pretty much, which may detract from your other hobbies and obligations as much as it can enhance them. I'm afraid it might not be something you get for occasional use.
I hear in the States it's common that a local library may have an Ultimaker or something similarly expensive and robust on a service contract so they don't have to deal with its failures, and they will also have the corresponding slicer package that shipped with the printer on a computer there, and they will have the recommended filament also loaded in there and set up in the slicer, and probably someone with basic knowledge to help you through the steps.
Shoot me some measurements / pictures and I'll hook you up.
Thanks for all that info - that was really helpful, and I'll look into some of those things to see if it's something I really want to get into. It sounds like it may be a process that may need to much of a time investment for me to get good at at the moment, but I'm still interested in trying it. I have thought about buying one of those $200 printers but I am never sure what I'd really do with one... but then stuff like this keeps coming up.
Now I've got two offers for help here :) Thanks to both you guys! If Adrian can do both the modeling and printing/shipping then it may be easier to send the info to him for now, but if that doesn't work out then I will contact you about it again. Thanks again!
Adrian - can you do both the modeling and the printing? Like I said to Siana, I'd pay whatever's reasonable especially if you're doing the printing too. If so, can you contact me at the email link through my About page? ua-cam.com/users/modernclassicabout
Thanks!
Compaq's Portable III & Portable 386 had a similar screen.
As for luggables - there are still a few companies that make them as "portable full-power workstations." I worked at a place that had one with three displays. Same basic form factor as the P70, when you folded down the keyboard, you then "unfolded" the screens, one to the left, one to the right, then revealing the center display behind it all. Had a dual Xeon motherboard hiding behind, with PCI Express slot port covers accessible from the side, similar to the P70's access to Microchannel slots.
I wish I could remember the company name that makes them.
Interesting - I will try to look that up. Would love to have a newer one to compare. I'll bet one that's 5-6 years old probably wouldn't be that much more expensive than this thing was!
Found one! www.acmeportable.com/products/milpac-iii I don't think this is the exact one I worked with, but it's very similar in design. The one I used wasn't "rugged," and the compute-section was thinner, only slightly thicker than a P70.
Here we go, I think this was the company: solutions.nextcomputing.com/products/portable-workstations/ Might have been one of their 3-display models (which it isn't clear they offer any more) with their optional detachable fold-up keyboard (which it also isn't clear they offer any more.)
Wow, that first one has got to be a $20,000 machine. I think any of these are probably out of my price range even for an older, used one, but I'm still curious to check. I've never seen these before.
Modern Classic Yeah, we bought a couple as “demo units” back in 2008-2009, with single first generation Core i7 and their Xeon equivalent dual CPUs, and appropriately high-end GPUs.
$20,000 seems about right.
If you can get the measurements i have a 3d printer for the hinge
1:56 - "Extremely power machine!" You bet!
It seems to me that the computer would be prone to falling over because it is basically just balancing there. They should have put a brace on the back - it would not be a good thing for it to fall over since it has a gas plasma display.
You _might_ be able to find a CompactFlash solution for the floppy drive; they might make them for this model.
It's actually super stable. It's very bottom heavy when it's stood up like that. A couple of times in this video I end up inadvertently pushing it, and you can see that it just slides back a little rather than tipping. All the heavy components are on the bottom.
As for the CF solution - I actually have the one that would work (Lotharek HxC - you can see it in the background of most of the video), but it's the same issue as using a regular standard floppy drive, which is that there's no cable for it. Still, if I decided I just wanted to get it booting and figure out some permanent solution later, it probably is preferable to trying to jam a standard floppy drive in there.
I have IBM p70 and I was also forced to use the standard floppy drive. I'm using also MCA-IDE adapter card and CF-card. The original floppy drive gets power through the same cable so you need to modify the cable or make a new cable.
I'm starting to think that making a cable is going to be my best option, then using that with my Lotharek HxC for now. Where did you get your MCA-IDE card? I did a Google search and most of the pages I found were just talking about it, but I couldn't find anywhere to actually buy one. (Ebay turned up 0 results too.)
I have this computer :D
I have it too😉🤩
It seems strange that a system would be trying to boot the reference diskette without having to do anything special, and then failing due to disk drive problems without giving another error about that. However that seems to be consistent with the maintenance manual (p. 146, www.almeida.de/download/tpvol1.pdf#page=158 )
Ah, MCA, I've missed you so...
Better than a VFD
Wow. Like one year ago I scrapped one of these machines. The hinge of the Display was broken. But otherwise it was working.
Gah, it's totally gone?
Sadly yes. I kept it for like 2 years but I had no use for it.
Have you tried adapting the floppy to an usb emulator?
That's one of my next steps. I need to make a cable, since the PS/2 uses non-standard floppy cables with power included.
I believe it’s the motor in the drive standing still, I don’t hear the “klick” when it hooks in
to the disk and start spinning it. I was as an technician at IBM, mending this type of computers in the past.
The motor definitely spins, or do you mean something else? I have a cleaning disk now and that thing sounds like a frisbee when spinning, so it's easy to tell. Of course it hasn't fixed the problem so I don't think it's dirt either. I will have to look at the caps next I guess...
OK, have you heard the klick?, 8 out of 10 times should you hear the klick when it hooks up right.
After that it tries to read the start section on the disk, it tries 256 times/cycles (20-30 seconds total). If it cant find it, then it stops spinning (heads dirty or bad). If it continues spinning and don’t stop the drive is faulty, maybe caps.
I've never thought of it as a kick, but you mean that slapping sound it sometimes makes when it starts up? It does do that. It sounds to me like a normal drive, like all my other 3.5" floppy drives, but then it just stops as if it's not a bootable floppy. It doesn't keep running - does that suggest to you that it's *not* the caps, but more likely the head? Not sure what I can really do if it's got a bad head.
I think the click he's talking about the metal door opening on the diskette usually followed by the hum of the drive trying to find a track
Sorry, I remember wrong, the click should com direct when the disk start spinning. I just listened to one of mine( I have 3). You should get a “not ok sign”, pointing to a book. You don’t get that. Try to remove some of memory modules, swap around and use only position 1 and 2.
IBM made as much of their added hardware proprietary and would sue anyone who stole that technology. The only thing which was used by other companies was the PS/2 keyboard, and plug which ended up becoming the industry standard.
Just out of curiosity, did you happen to post a picture of this on Reddit recently?
Nope. I don't even have a Reddit account.
Oh. Well, someone on there posted a P70 recently and did a floppy replacement. I just thought it was kind of funny how I saw one of these computers on there earlier today and then saw this video.
I will look that up. I did look up and find a couple of other people who replaced the floppy as well, which is how I know that only certain models work but that you can hack up a cable and the eject button to use a standard one. But I'm always interested to read from more people. It's not like a huge number of people have written about it, so there could always be easier ways of doing things.
I have a IBM PS/1 2011 and it is very similar with the proprietary floppy and hard drive. They are a pain in the butt. Mine also came with a dead floppy drive and I had to buy one on eBay. I know a good seller on eBay who might have the drive you need. However, my point is that you might be able to adapt a PS/2 drive to that machine, due to both using the same parts and cables. They run about $50 bucks or more, depending on the seller. Best luck on it though. I know your pain. lol.
I know there are a couple of other PS/2's that use the same drive, and then there's the 2.88MB drive that supposedly also works, just as a 1.44MB drive (as long as it's one without an asterisk on the eject button). I've been trying to look up the actual FRU as well as just generically for PS/2 drives, but they are not cheap! The ideal solution would probably be to find a standard drive with an eject button that lines up (if one even exists) and then hack the cable. If I could find a way to permanently solve this problem for everyone forever, that would be fantastic. I might try doing that at some point. But for now I'd settle for just getting it working.
If you find a method to jury-rig a standard floppy drive to the proprietary floppy format that would be amazing!!! They are getting more and more expensive as the drives die, so if that method works, then that would allow people to use the PS/1 and PS/2 machines much further into the future for cheaper. Also, I did some research on the EDSI hard drives a while back. The PS/2 and PS/1 hard drives use a special type of EDSI format. You cannot just put any EDSI drive into a PS/1 or PS/2. I haven't tested it myself, so if you ever get the chance to test if they do work that would be great!!!
Well I'm hacking a cable together for my floppy emulator anyway; that's the first step in just getting this thing to boot. But the good news is that that cable will then work with any standard drive. So then the question is just finding a drive that'll physically fit and allow you to use the original blue eject button (so it looks like an unmodified system). Old standard floppy drives are cheap, so I probably will look around and try a few that seem close. Hopefully can make a future video out of it.
That will be a great video for sure!!! I want to know how to do that in case my drive dies.
Link to the promotional video?
ua-cam.com/video/zBCV4PME7UM/v-deo.html - will add it to the description, along with the Computer Chronicles link.
Thanks a lot! :D
TO understand storage needs from 30 years ago we just need to replace megabytes for gigabytes
I hope you fix that computer!
I used to have one of these. Mine had its power supply go up in magic blue smoke
I think you have another PS/2 machine like Mod. 60/80. Take the Floppy drive out and connect it to your Mod. 70 from the back side (should be possible).
I actually don't... this is my only PS/2. But I have some other ideas at this point, so hopefully I can get it going pretty soon.
I believe you can replace the floppy drive with a more modern SD card reader and emulator.
Technically yes, and you can see that I have one in the background in a lot of the shots here. But I need to make a cable for it just like a standard floppy drive. I'm leaning towards that now being the best option, though, at least temporarily.
I have this same problem with my regular Model 70. Floppy drive's dead so I can't boot the computer at all...
Check the caps! When I pulled my drive out, the caps were very obviously in need of replacement, just visually.
Its like something from an episode of The X-Files
Hah.. P70... that reminds me of the new Thinkpad P70. I wonder if that was intentional...
You should team up with AkBKukU on youtube on repairing this... he's done some old restoration stuff that has included 3d printing, drive repair, etc.
I don't think the numbering was intentional... they just happened to come up with the same number using a different system. I will check out AkBKukU, thanks!
I own one of these. you need to recap the drive. they leak and cause the drive to act up and eventually die. Also hinges, I never came up with a solution. they are under high tension and break, its a known design flaw. There was a guy that made a CAD setup of one, but NEVER shared the info so its lost in time. Sadly. However, I just removed the whole setup, lined my screen up the best I could, and bolted it to the rear metal. using a little thing called a rivnut. Also good luck on a parts machine. The reasons yours is dead are the reasons why the rest of them are and were put away for "parts" Mine was the same exact way.
Just out of curiosity, do you know if it's normally the left hinge that breaks, or could it be either one? I believe they are different from what I remember (and the left one has a weird metal tab pushing on the plastic that I believe is what broke mine), so just wondering how likely I am to get unlucky if I end up buying a parts machine.
Both of mine were broke. So broke that they cant be fixed based on how they severed themselves.
The machine uses SIMMs(Single In-line memory module, not DIMM.
I know, added to the description. Had a double brain fart.
Yours is strange. It looks like yours has dual 16bit mca slots instead of the standard 16/32 combo.
It will need a Microchannel SCSI controller if the internal hard disk doesn't work. Good luck finding another floppy disk drive!
I about fell out when they're said it's an extremely powerful machine . Lol 20mhz