IBM XT

[Philippine Mango]

Does the IBM XT machine have a configurable bios? I tried hitting all the keys I know to access it but it appears that it DOES NOT have one.

 

[Arcanedeath]

An orginal IBM XT does have a use accesable bios but if I recall correctly you had to hit F2 or F10 to get into it and it depended on what bios version the system had, it's been truely an Age since I've dealth w/ these, their was also some knock off models that you could only enter the bios w/ a specific boot floppy and utility but it's been to long for me to remember which ones.

 

[sandorski]

Whoah, I just had a flashback. Ya, I think F2 was it, I think it displays the key at bootup.

 

[ZL1]

if memory serves you had to hit F2, Im quite sure it had bios


D

 

[Philippine Mango]

Of course it had a bios but was it configurable? Remember this is an 8088 machine circa 1984... I tried delete and stuff but nothing..

 

[sandorski]

What are you trying to configure? Most hardware of that era was configured using Dipswitches either on the mobo or on the ISA cards/contollers.

 

[Philippine Mango]

Just wanted to see what WAS accessible. How would I access the HDD controller for example? Since it's on the motherboard, not sure what you would do to change things.

Question, what was the biggest HDD possible to run in an 8088?

 

[DaveSimmons]

I don't think any 8088 had an onboard HDD controller, it would be an 8-bit ISA card with dip switches.

It's not an IDE controller either unless it's been upgraded, a stock controller would be MFM and support 5 - 40 MB (megabytes!).

 

[ZL1]

How to config XT


max capactity ? well enhanced model came with 20m so prolly 20m
however AT came with 30m so you might give 30 a try, you might need to flash the bios


D

 

[sandorski]

Yup, previous 2 posts sounds about right. IIRC, there were no BIOS settings for drives at all, in fact the more I think about it the more it seems the only thing in BIOS was the actual clock settings(probably wrong about this) along with just a list of basic hardware stats, not even sure thre was any kind of settings that could be changed.

 

[wisdomtooth]

Yeah there isn't much in BIOS back then..

That's because back then the only things on the motherboard are the CPU/FPU and RAM sockets, keyboard connector, and if you have a REALLY early-model IBM PC, a tape drive connector (!), nothing else.

Everything else is connected to the motherboard via ISA expansion cards, and this includes floppy drives, hard disks, printer ports, serial ports, etc. None of that are built onto the motherboard.

If you can score an ISA-slot hard disk controller, then it should work on the XT.

I still have my original IBM PC case and M-series keyboard. One of these days I would love to mod it to take an ATX PSU and ATX board-- Lots of good memories from those retro looks of my high school days.

 

[Philippine Mango]

Yea I know it has a controller card because when I opened it, I noticed two cables going from the HDD to a controller type card in 1 of the ISA slots. I'm just wondering if there were any higher capacity cards/w HDDs that could be put in there.

 

[nortexoid]

Originally posted by: sandorski
What are you trying to configure? Most hardware of that era was configured using Dipswitches either on the mobo or on the ISA cards/contollers.

dipswitches if you were lucky...usually just regular ol' jumpers that would often get lost.

 

[Thegonagle]

OMG! Yuck! Barf! Puke! Throw it away!

Actually, I have a full size AT 386 (16 MHz plus 387 co-processor, 12 MB RAM) sitting in my closet. Last time I checked, it still boots to Windows 3.11. There are some wave files of my friend's daughter sitting on the double-height 5.25 inch 320 MB SCSI hard drive that I'd like to recover for him some day. (It used to be a really nice computer--probably $5000 or so new.)

 

[wisdomtooth]

LOL... Shortly after that IBM AT hit the market, some idiot decided to put that IBM AT on its left side-- And the tower case is born.

I'm glad to see that desktop cases hasn't completely died out, what with them making a comeback with HTPC cases..

 

[ZL1]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
Yea I know it has a controller card because when I opened it, I noticed two cables going from the HDD to a controller type card in 1 of the ISA slots. I'm just wondering if there were any higher capacity cards/w HDDs that could be put in there.

ok you're taking me down the memory lane here and things keep coming back
from what I remember isa ide controllers went all the way to 486s with some decent hdd support
so here is what I propose, find a newer isa controller, 486 generation and a 400-500mb drive and give it a try, you dont have anything to loose

I dont guarantee any of this, it might not work at all, but IMO what are you loosing <$10 ?


D

P.S. if you dont want to do the trial and error thing do some research find detailed specs on the XT and the "newer" isa controllers and make sure they match up, believe me there is alot on the web, just gotta use the search function

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: ZL1

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
Yea I know it has a controller card because when I opened it, I noticed two cables going from the HDD to a controller type card in 1 of the ISA slots. I'm just wondering if there were any higher capacity cards/w HDDs that could be put in there.

ok you're taking me down the memory lane here and things keep coming back
from what I remember isa ide controllers went all the way to 486s with some decent hdd support
so here is what I propose, find a newer isa controller, 486 generation and a 400-500mb drive and give it a try, you dont have anything to loose

I dont guarantee any of this, it might not work at all, but IMO what are you loosing <$10 ?


D

P.S. if you dont want to do the trial and error thing do some research find detailed specs on the XT and the "newer" isa controllers and make sure they match up, believe me there is alot on the web, just gotta use the search function

I don't think that'll work. XT's were 8bit and 286 on were 16bit.

 

[ZL1]

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: ZL1

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
Yea I know it has a controller card because when I opened it, I noticed two cables going from the HDD to a controller type card in 1 of the ISA slots. I'm just wondering if there were any higher capacity cards/w HDDs that could be put in there.

ok you're taking me down the memory lane here and things keep coming back
from what I remember isa ide controllers went all the way to 486s with some decent hdd support
so here is what I propose, find a newer isa controller, 486 generation and a 400-500mb drive and give it a try, you dont have anything to loose

I dont guarantee any of this, it might not work at all, but IMO what are you loosing <$10 ?


D

P.S. if you dont want to do the trial and error thing do some research find detailed specs on the XT and the "newer" isa controllers and make sure they match up, believe me there is alot on the web, just gotta use the search function

I don't think that'll work. XT's were 8bit and 286 on were 16bit.

well its been a while
thats why the ps, if he does some research he sees its 8bit and tries to find 8bit isa controller


D

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: ZL1

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: ZL1

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
Yea I know it has a controller card because when I opened it, I noticed two cables going from the HDD to a controller type card in 1 of the ISA slots. I'm just wondering if there were any higher capacity cards/w HDDs that could be put in there.

ok you're taking me down the memory lane here and things keep coming back
from what I remember isa ide controllers went all the way to 486s with some decent hdd support
so here is what I propose, find a newer isa controller, 486 generation and a 400-500mb drive and give it a try, you dont have anything to loose

I dont guarantee any of this, it might not work at all, but IMO what are you loosing <$10 ?


D

P.S. if you dont want to do the trial and error thing do some research find detailed specs on the XT and the "newer" isa controllers and make sure they match up, believe me there is alot on the web, just gotta use the search function

I don't think that'll work. XT's were 8bit and 286 on were 16bit.

well its been a while
thats why the ps, if he does some research he sees its 8bit and tries to find 8bit isa controller


D

agian I already knew the XT's ISA slots were 8bit (only the first half of an ISA slot). It's actually my mother's computer with some very important files to her which I would like to backup. Why is it that just because it's slow it equals garbage? You could do quite a bit on an 8088 so I wouldn't consider it useless compared say to an apple II.

 

[ZL1]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango

Originally posted by: ZL1

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: ZL1

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
Yea I know it has a controller card because when I opened it, I noticed two cables going from the HDD to a controller type card in 1 of the ISA slots. I'm just wondering if there were any higher capacity cards/w HDDs that could be put in there.

ok you're taking me down the memory lane here and things keep coming back
from what I remember isa ide controllers went all the way to 486s with some decent hdd support
so here is what I propose, find a newer isa controller, 486 generation and a 400-500mb drive and give it a try, you dont have anything to loose

I dont guarantee any of this, it might not work at all, but IMO what are you loosing <$10 ?


D

P.S. if you dont want to do the trial and error thing do some research find detailed specs on the XT and the "newer" isa controllers and make sure they match up, believe me there is alot on the web, just gotta use the search function

I don't think that'll work. XT's were 8bit and 286 on were 16bit.

well its been a while
thats why the ps, if he does some research he sees its 8bit and tries to find 8bit isa controller


D

agian I already knew the XT's ISA slots were 8bit (only the first half of an ISA slot). It's actually my mother's computer with some very important files to her which I would like to backup. Why is it that just because it's slow it equals garbage? You could do quite a bit on an 8088 so I wouldn't consider it useless compared say to an apple II.

come again
when did I say its garbage ??
as I recal I tried to help with any info/ideas that came to mind


D

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: Thegonagle
OMG! Yuck! Barf! Puke! Throw it away!

Actually, I have a full size AT 386 (16 MHz plus 387 co-processor, 12 MB RAM) sitting in my closet. Last time I checked, it still boots to Windows 3.11. There are some wave files of my friend's daughter sitting on the double-height 5.25 inch 320 MB SCSI hard drive that I'd like to recover for him some day. (It used to be a really nice computer--probably $5000 or so new.)

I was speaking in generally anyways......

 

[ISAslot]

I feel quite at home in this thread.

Recalling my XT, I never remember any onscreen bios. Not even my 286 AT had one like the computers today. There was, however, a special command.com you could run to get to the settings.