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IBM PS/1 2155-G54

Submitted by iamdigitalman on December 6, 2005 - 12:56pm. Other Computers

Ok, I have this old computer that my dad's friend gave me. it is a (mostly) complete system, including the matching PS/1 branded VGA monitor, and I beleve most of the manuals. no disks, and the PS/1 printer isnt there, but instead it's and Epson Action Printer 2000.

now, the thing booted when I got it, but like the jackass I am, I had to open it up and tinker with it. I cant help myself.

the thing hasnt booted in 2 years, and I decided to get it working again, and sell it for no less than $100. I need some help.

well, what I think is wrong, is when I was changing the PRAM battery, a standard CR2032, as I thought that was the problem. while I was removing the old battery, I snapped the arm (positive terminal) of the battery clip off the assembly. Note that the clip is soldered to the motherboard.

I have 2 options:

-Solder a small wire to the base where the arm was, and then place a new battery in, and solder the other end of the wire to the top of the battery, or

- desolder the old clip, and buy a new one. the problem is: I dont know where to get CR2032 battery clips. Radio Shack doesnt even sell them.

btw, I know the hard drive, which is an old 160 or so mb maxtor does boot to a highly customized version of Windows 95, with an IBM PS/1 splash screen, and all the PS/1 software on it.

here are the specs:

IBM PS/1 2155-G54
Intel i486SX @20mhz soldered to the mobo.
no math co processor
20 mb ram in 8 ram slots (4x 3mb 30 pin simms, 4x 2mb 30 pin simms)
160mb ide HDD
5.25 1.2mb floppy drive
3.5 1.44mb floppy drive
Creative Labs 4x (quad speed) CD-ROM
5x ISA slots
Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 ISA sound card
SMC ISA ethernet card
US-Robotics 9600bps ISA modem
onboard VGA port
onboard parallel port
2x onboard DB-9 serial ports
2x onboard PS/2 ports (one of the oldest computers I have seen with them).

thanks so much for your help.

I plan on either selling this, or perhaps donating it to a museum.

-digital Eye-wink

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Oelmuvun's picture

You should be able to find a

Submitted by Oelmuvun on December 6, 2005 - 1:22pm.

You should be able to find a battery clip at a decent electronics store (not radio shaft).

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iamdigitalman's picture

wait a tick

Submitted by iamdigitalman on December 6, 2005 - 1:48pm.

hold on, I took a closer look at the mobo, and right next to the battery clip, there is a jumper, with easy to read markings:

1-2 int batt
2-3 ext batt

and right above that is a 4 pin port for an external battery pack.

now I can go buy a new external battery pack. hopefully then she will boot.

cross your fingers...

-digital Eye-wink

» iamdigitalman's Cleaning House Sale

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The battery only Keeps the Bi

Submitted by technerd on December 7, 2005 - 1:26am.

The battery only Keeps the Bios settings when you turn the computer off A computer will boot without a battery. It is most likely another problem.

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coius's picture

I agree

Submitted by coius on December 7, 2005 - 2:03am.

most likely, the battery is there to prevent the date and time from resetting. I have not seen on PC (x86 Platform) that does not boot without a battery. Most of the BIOS Settings are stored in a Chip that is non-volitile. So, it won't lose boot settings and should function without a Battery. But go ahead and try anything.
What are the symptoms of the machine at boot or turned on? does the screen come on? does any lights come on?

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Eudimorphodon's picture

Re: IBM PS/1 2155-G54

Submitted by Eudimorphodon on December 7, 2005 - 4:19am.
iamdigitalman wrote:
the thing hasnt booted in 2 years, and I decided to get it working again, and sell it for no less than $100. I need some help.

Just as an aside, $100 is *really* optimistic unless you plan on, well, screwing someone who doesn't know better. ;^> The only PS/1s I can imagine being worth anything as collector's item might be some of the stranger all-in-ones and Eduquest systems. They're just knock-off PC's built for IBM under contract. Not cool old hardware like PS/2s.

--Peace

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Oelmuvun's picture

I have a 386 with a dead batt

Submitted by Oelmuvun on December 7, 2005 - 5:39am.

I have a 386 with a dead battery that won't boot because the BIOS won't detect the HD.
The HD works fine in other peecees, and the 386 can boot off floppies.
I can manually enter the HD info in the BIOS but after restarting the BIOS forgets it.

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iamdigitalman's picture

Re: I agree

Submitted by iamdigitalman on December 7, 2005 - 5:53am.
coius wrote:
most likely, the battery is there to prevent the date and time from resetting. I have not seen on PC (x86 Platform) that does not boot without a battery. Most of the BIOS Settings are stored in a Chip that is non-volitile. So, it won't lose boot settings and should function without a Battery. But go ahead and try anything.
What are the symptoms of the machine at boot or turned on? does the screen come on? does any lights come on?

the lights WERNT lighting up, but it turns out I had the plugs on the mobo switched, so I flipped them back, adn now I get a nice bright green LED light up.

however, nothing comes up on the screen, even though the hard drive powers up. if I have the CD-ROM's data cable plugged in on the sound card (only one ide cannel on the main board), the CD-ROM ejects on boot, and if I close it, it reads the drive, then ejects it again. this happens if I have the data cable plugged in on both orientations, on both the drive's end and the sound card end.

If I remember, last time I got the thing to boot, I got that big floppy drive diagram on the screen, the one that all IBM computers are famous for (It happened to me on a scool computer, which was a Personal Computer 300L).

oh, and how do I identify 30 pin simms? I have a bag of 8 that I think may be higher, so I can max it out. I can identify the 2mb simms from the 3mb simms that are already on the mobo, because the 2mb simms are 1mm or so shorter in height. The rest of the simms cant be identified, because they are all the same size physically!

-digital Eye-wink

» iamdigitalman's Cleaning House Sale

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Jon's picture

My main machines for a while

Submitted by Jon on December 8, 2005 - 3:38am.

My main machines for a while were an LC 580 and an Eduquest 55. That was a fun period, lemmie tell ya. A pair of AIO machines running over a LAN to a NetBSD Q700 that routed dialup. I was glad that I could remotely power off the Q700 from a telnet session.

I even added an Adaptec SCSI card and a SCSI CD-ROM to the Eduquest. And I think it's still got my ISA PCMCIA card in it too... Man I kinda miss the thing. I've even got the matching headphones they used to use in libararies for "interactive software"...

FWIW, I wouldn't pay $100 for a PS/1 my self, but somebody might pay $100 for something odd like a good condition, complete PCjr. A local PC shop has a PS/2 L40 SX for $65 without a power supply, and untested. Of course they've also got a Thinkpad 360CS for $45 with a bad RAM card... Oh well.

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OK, 3 Years Later...

Submitted by britsoft on February 27, 2008 - 5:28pm.

I just unpacked a brand new IBM PS1 2011-C34 which has been in storage for almost 20 years now and I need to find the CMOS battery. I been in this business since 1970 and thought I had experienced about everything possible, but this little sucker has me in the corner. Where is the battery located? I have removed the modem, harddisk/floppy carriage and looked all over, there is no battery. Maybe in the monitor base? Haven't looked there yet but doesn't make sense that it would be there. It thinks it is 1980, need to see if it can recognize 2008 but it does need the memory backup refreshed. Appreciate any ideas...and I hope this forum is still functional. Thanks...Bob

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pmjett's picture

try this

Submitted by pmjett on February 28, 2008 - 1:05am.

woo. zombie thread. albeit on topic. Smiling
try this thread: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=7048&highlight=Ds1287

I'll bet this'll get it. Sneaky Big Blue!

mike

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