New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

So you may have noticed I've been asking for a Model 30 286 PS/2 (very specific) and a 5170 case - been looking for around a year now.

Just went to see a friend I met at work who wanted to clear his garage and came home with:

Generic XT clone
IBM 5170 with tape drive
IBM Model 30/286 PS/2 with original books, disks, and monitor
and three Pentium 3's (ok I have no idea what to do with these, but the others, oh my god).
2x3COM 24 port 10/100 switches

The rules are:
- format all machines
- any money I want to pay, should be forwarded to the Child Cancer Society

Will post more when I'm allowed to play with them, have to go run an errand now.
One of these machines was the server for the "SpidersWeb BBS" back in the day, just for extra coincidence!

Nice. "SpidersWeb" BBS does ring a (distant) bell.

Ok so I've done some fiddling with each of the vintage boxes:

Generic XT: inside was a very bad battery spill that'd cause a lot of corrosion, and yes the battery was a good indicator it wasn't an XT. I tested the power supply was good, but the motherboard wouldn't boot up and there was a smell - this is when I opened it up to find the extent of the battery spill. It turned out to be a "NEAT" motherboard with a 386DX-40. I beleive the hard drive has a seized head too.

IBM 5170 - upgraded to a 386SX-16 this also had battery damage - and this one has gone right through the laquer in places. Unfortunately the PSU was upgraded, so the notch required for a 5170 motherboard is no longer there (bugger). Inside was a Toshiba IDE drive (3.5 inch full height) with Xenix on a stick-on label.

Both the machines above have had their boards washed and are currently drying.The DX40 came up ok with no trace damage but some solder links I wonder about - the SX 16 however is pretty bad, lots of exposed copper, will just depend on if any of the copper traces have broken. No components fell off (like my Commodore 386SX).

The IBM Model 30 286 wont power up. Inside it looked clean, and the board is mostly capacitor free with only a couple of electrolytics in places (none of which were bulging or leaking). I couldn't see any visual signs for a no-start. So I removed the power supply and it was covered in security screws (yet to remove) but looking through the vents internally was a very clean power supply - not even dusty. When the power is connected you hear the normal (short) sparky noise - so I know the fuse and line filters are good at least. It's hard to diagnose a PSU on these because they only have two output leads and both go to the motherboard - so no way to tell if its the PSU or motherboard which is frustrating.

I guess I'll need to whip out the ohm meter to look for shorts.

The upside is this model 30 has all it's expansion RAM SIMM slots filled - so when/if I get it running it wont be the standard 640 + 384.

Yet to test the display or the piles of cards I've been removing.

At least you'll have plenty of spares for future projects if the mobos are complete are unrepairable. The Xenix hdd could be interesting if it's still installed.

Good luck.

Cheers.

So the 386DX40 (my mistake, it was a Forex chipset, not Neat), no response after cleaning. It powers up but just nothing happens. I'd expect resoldering + testing the traces would lead to a success.

The 386SX/16 (this one was the NEAT SX) is suffering from Tantium Tantrum Syndrome. They're causing shorts, and one blew up while I was leaning over the machine (the ONE time the board did let the PSU power up) - glowing projectiles everywhere (half of them hitting my shirt). So for the most part it is looking like a 'parts haul'. I'm not really too keen on spending an afternoon removing caps for a generic 386SX/16 that has suffered battery damage.

A 5170 case was nice though, I can get a power supply shipped here for under $US100 - as opposed to a case+psu at around 300. The 200W Seasonic that is installed works fine, but doesn't have that notch in the base to make room for the oversized IBM AT motherboard.

Still to test is the PS/2 display, hard drives, floppy drives, and those Pentium III's (although not really fussy about them).
Lots of cards, including 8 bit COM cards with 16550's installed - one has 4 ports and 4 UARTs. Video card with 64KB VRAM - EGA? Plus the usual suspects - mono and IO cards etc.

I promised I'd format the drives, so if Xenix is still on there, it'd have to be wiped unfortunately.

Somebody up there is taunting me.

The 5170 case is actually a clone case with a 5170 lid!
The original PSU can't be installed because the fan cut out is wrong.
The current PSU is good but even the type 2 motherboard needs about 1 inch more space than it gives
Also the full length card supports in this case hit the motherboard.

So a 5170 motherboard is not getting in there without an angle grinder.

I did get a delivery today though, AST SixPakPlus that looks llike it was unboxed yesterday - so shiny!

I was also interested in that types of PC. But not able to know the full details. Thanks for sharing the details here